Spirituality as an articulating axis of religious education and the teaching of philosophy in Chilean public schools

The General Education Law in Chile states in its second article the encouragement of spiritual development in schooled population. However, it does not state what encompasses this kind of development, nor its content or strategies. It is known that the concept of spirituality has been tackled in philosophy and theology traditions, several of which nurture various aspects of the national curriculum. This study examines critically how this mandate of the Law is tackled by the subjects of Catholic Religion and Philosophy during the last 2 years of secondary education. For this purpose, a documentary review of the Curricular Bases is carried out, the ones responsible for the programs of those subjects. In addition, the narratives of teachers, collected through interviews, are examined. The analysis of data offers different and similar outlooks on what spiritual development is and entails for the schooled population and expresses how the concept of spirituality constitutes a reality that favours and, potentially, supports the teaching of religion and philosophy in Chilean public schools, suggesting a greater interrelation between these two educational disciplines.