Spiritual competence, contemplative education and mindfulness in schools

Abstract

Identification of the basic competencies needed to address the challenges that today’s society presents has always been central to educational research. Contemplative education is a recent field of research that is based on the development of spiritual competence in educational contexts. Its purpose is to promote useful social and personal skills to foster a more aware, harmonious and sustainable future society. This article outlines a conceptual approach to spirituality and spiritual competence based on the field of educational psychology, and describes their main components and their definition. Contemplative education is associated with a particular way of understanding the relationship between subject and object of knowledge. The scientific evidence available on the effectiveness of training programmes based on one of its most widespread secular manifestations (mindfulness) is critically reviewed, and the relationship between contemplative education and spiritual tradition is briefly addressed. Finally, the authors comment on some interesting aspects to consider for the design of future research.