Spiritual Emptiness in Educational Programmes Subjects

Abstract

In 1998 the World Conference “Worldwide Declaration of Higher Education in the XX Century – Vision and Action” was convened by the UNESCO in Paris. Since this conference, firm foundations were laid for the missions and purposes of higher education, which rule the educational models nowadays. In the case of Universidad Veracruzana, the Flexible Integral Educational Model is based on the UNESCO’s governing document, this is why the student of Universidad Veracruzana is considered integral, and this is to say, he is conceived in four main aspects: a) Intellectual, b) Human, c) Social and d) Professional training. Definition of aspect b) Human training is […] “an indispensable component of integral training related to the development of attitudes and the integration of values that influence in the personal and social growth of human being as individual. Human training should involve the emotional, spiritual and corporal dimensions” (UV, 1999:22)

         The interest for knowing the spiritual dimension led to a revision of curriculum of Pedagogy Faculty. As a result, it was detected that MEIF includes the four aspects for the integral training but spiritual competence is not specified in the degree profile. After the revision of the curricula, it was found that none of the subjects consider the spiritual dimension. This dimension was detected through in-depth interviews. Detected categories are: spiritual beliefs, religious practice, doctrinal knowledge, supernatural experience, beliefs evidence, religious influence in life. Conclusion, there is an emptiness in the promotion of spiritual aspect in subjects of curriculum, which leads to the non-achievement of integral training.