Developing Interiority in Children and Teenagers: Difficulties Perceived by Workers and Strategies to Address Them
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Congratulations on an extremely important and significant study which is relevant to both social work and education. In a time when standardised testing in schools is gaining far too much prominence, this article and research places a much needed focus not only on children's and teenagers' inner and spiritual lives and self-awareness, but also, and more importantly, on workers' (and potentially teachers') difficulties in enacting and facilitating such interiority.
Review of the literature was critical and provided a succinct overview of the current context. The methodology is clear and well suited to the study and both the analysis and discussions logically developed.
I was thoroughly engrossed in this paper and can see the many imperative links to the field of education. Teachers' voices are also silent.Thank you for your research and the clear article communicating its findings and implications.
Author Response
Thank you for allowing us to improve our manuscript. We appreciate the time and effort that you and the reviewers dedicated to providing feedback on our manuscript and are grateful for the insightful comments on and valuable improvements to our paper.
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments
Line 30: The Gilligan and Furness 2006 source mentioned here is not included in the reference list at the end.
Lines 30-34: It is not clear what the authors mean when they write: "Spirituality is..." Do they mean something such as: Spiritual development involves becoming less self-focused and learning to transcend individual interests. --Similarly, the following sentences are not quite clear. Do the authors mean something such as: A spiritual person is reflective about their own interests and motives, is curious about the world, and looks at life as a whole in making decisions. To provide a holistic approach to children’s services, spirituality must be taken into account.
Line 37: I suggest “make” instead of “take” at the end of the sentence.
Line 41: I suggest “are part of” instead of “related to”
Line 48: “western” should be “Western”
Line 56-57: I suggest “solidarity, and kindness” instead of “solidarity, kindness”
Line 58: I suggest “express” instead of “regain”
Line 62: I suggest changing “The research highlights” to “The research also highlights” and I suggest moving this paragraph (lines 62-66) and making it part of the paragraph that ends on line 53. This move would put all of the authors’ comments on research on spirituality and social work in one paragraph and place them before the author moves on to discussing a holistic approach.
Line 70: I suggest the final word in the line be “in” rather than “into”
Lines 71-72: I suggest “and has sometimes been regarded as being of lesser or minor importance” rather than “or may have been relegated to second place about other needs”
Line 74: for nuance I recommend “they often admit” rather than “they admit”
Line 75: I recommend “was not explored adequately” rather than “has not been given relevance”
Lines 76-77: for greater clarity I recommend “We observed in this study that social workers do not feel comfortable incorporating” instead of “We observed that they do not feel comfortable to incorporate”
Lines 87-89: Does the sentence that begins “A traditional idea…” draw too sharp a distinction between spirituality and religion? It is true that thinking that a religion, any religion, can encompass all forms of spirituality can lead to narrow-mindedness. Yet, it is also true that many if not most people develop their spirituality by learning religious beliefs and practices within some specific religious community. Those involved in helping children develop a sense of religious/spiritual interiority must guide the children to recognize how a sense of religious identity and spirituality are grounded in the beliefs and practices of their specific religious community, while also enabling them to appreciate how a sense of spirituality can be nurtured within differing religions, and how spiritual issues and concerns are also raised in the broader social world.
Lines 90-97. The authors’ analysis is not fully clear. What are the difficulties related to multiculturality? Can the authors provide an example? Additionally, do the authors’ have too static a view of religion and religious identity? Religious identity is not something that is maintained as a static given that resists multicultural and social influences. Religious identity is something that is developed as religious traditions are refashioned and reimagined within societies and cultures. This refashioning enables people to embrace a religious tradition as a life-giving way of perceiving and responding to life and the world within a particular life context.
Lines 116-117: I suggest “… interiority. The questionnaire was completed by professionals” instead of “interiority and completed by professionals”
Line 128: “catholic” should be “Catholic” (Note that if Catholicism as a religion is presented in a Catholic institution as something static or rigid that fosters close-mindedness, a social worker or educator will not be able to guide students to appreciate the many vibrant forms of spirituality that have arisen within Catholicism. Nor will she be able to present adequately how the Catholic intellectual tradition can be a resource for the development of a vibrant spiritual life.)
Line 131: Should the author explain what law they refer to here?
Line 175-176: I do nt know what the authors mean when they write: “This implied obtaining the emergent categories from the division of the replies in the analysis unit.” Could the authors explain what they mean more clearly?
Line 212: “25,2%” should be “25.2%”
Lines 287-288: It is not clear to me what the authors mean by “to incorporate dynamics into teaching values and attitudes”
Line 291: I suggest: “were regarded as obstacles. In connection” instead of “also suppose obstacles, and in connection”
Lines 298-300: I suggest “In our study we found that difficulties related to freedom of conscience, respect for religious diversity, and lack of interreligious dialogue were regarded as being less important” in place of “Based on our sample… dialogue in the group”
Lines 300-303: Could the authors explain more fully and clearly what they mean here? Do the situations of conflict mentioned derive from religion or are they linked to religion? These two are not necessarily the same. Additionally, it is not fully clear to me how conflicts that arise because of gender differences are linked to religion.
Lines 307-308: It is not fully clear to me what the authors are trying to say in the sentence that begins “Other reactions” What are abandoning activities? Additionally, I do not see the connection between this sentence and the quotes that follows it.
Line 321: I recommend “these difficulties” in place of “the shape of these changes”
Line 355: I recommend that the authors explain more fully what they mean by “committed and achieved critically”
Line 359: I recommend “requires” in place of “supposes”
Line 386: a comma is needed after the word “emotions”
Line 399: I recommend “strategies” in place of “responses”
Author Response
Thank you for allowing us to improve our manuscript. We appreciate the time and effort that you and the reviewers dedicated to providing feedback on our manuscript and are grateful for the insightful comments on and valuable improvements to our paper.
We have incorporated most of the suggestions made. Those changes are highlighted within the manuscript. Please see attached a point-by-point response.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Congratulations to the authors. They have made an interesting effort for making visible a one core dimension in children's formation and socialization.
Despite this, the work is really descriptive, it would be necessary to adopt a more argumentative discourse. I suggest two ways:
- Despite the authors explain clearly their concept of spirituality, it would be interesting located in a context of invisible religion, as pointed by Thomas Luckmann and secular religiosity.
- I suggest the authors for establishing a dialogue with the data, adopting an interpretative way.
Author Response
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to improve our manuscript. We appreciate the time and effort that you and the reviewers dedicated to providing feedback on our manuscript and are grateful for the insightful comments on and valuable improvements to our paper.
We have incorporated most of the suggestions made. Those changes are highlighted within the manuscript. Please see below, in red, for a point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments and concerns.
We have incorporated Luckmann’s concept of invisible religion:
In this sense, the sociology of religion (Casanova, 2019) shows that Europe is progressing towards the deinstitutionalization of religion that makes private and subjective forms of religiosity emerge, which is what Luckmann qualifies as invisible religion (Knoblauch, 2003). Society does not recognize these new forms of religiosity as religion, but rather as spirituality.
