Strategies, problems, and facilitators in the spiritual development of children and adolescents: a description based on the accounts of schools’ directors from Valparaíso, Chile

Abstract

During the last decade, research concerning director’s leadership has increased in Chile. However, there is no gathered information about what they do or do not do in regards to their students’ spiritual development, an aspect regulated by Chile’s General Law of Education. This article approaches different aspects concerning the strategies used by directors from secular and religious schools from the province of Valparaíso, based on their accounts, in order to create conditions that promote their students’ spiritual development, as well as the problems, and facilitators involved therein. The directors reflect how they approach this subject based on ethics and/or values as the way of complying with the law and they describe the stress caused by the importance ascribe to their students’ spiritual development and the actual feasibility of them managing strategies that promote this type of development.