Returning to the Self: Spiritual and Humanistic Curricular Trends in 21st-Century Education.

Abstract

The curriculum study addresses the urgent need to reconfigure curricular approaches in 21st-century education, highlighting the importance of incorporating spiritual and humanistic dimensions into academic training. In a context characterized by challenges such as globalization, climate change, social crises, and technological acceleration, there is a need for education that goes beyond technical and utilitarian knowledge. The purpose is to explore how current curricular trends are responding to these challenges by integrating practices that favor the integral development of the human being, promoting cognitive, ethical, emotional, and spiritual competencies. Within this framework, from an interpretative paradigm, qualitative approach, and hermeneutic curricular methodology, the holistic and humanistic approach is analyzed, which proposes a vision of the human being as an interconnected system, addressing his mind, body, and spirit integrally. In conclusion, it is highlighted that returning to Self responds to contemporary demands, preparing students to build a more ethical, conscious, and sustainable future. Education, understood as a profoundly human act, must inspire wisdom, compassion, and a sense of collective responsibility in the face of global challenges.