Embracing childrens vulnerability: Ethical-pedagogical responsibility in the school

Abstract

This article is based on the concern to place the care and responsibility towards childrens life in the center of the educational work since this knowledge enhances the learning processes and the students personal growth. Taking up different pedagogical and philosophical studies, embracing the other is understood as the ethical foundation that underpins all educational relationships. From a focus inspired by the investigation of experience and hermeneutic phenomenology, reflective conversations are held with the principal and teacher of a school located in challenging contexts. The empirical materials or field texts, created together with the principal and teacher, have allowed to think over the experience and produce pedagogical meanings about the original purposes. Essentially, the issue addressed is how to respond to the vulnerability of children in school, and how to manage it in the middle of educational activities and social problems. Through the investigation, three threads of meaning or conceptual plots have been obtained as a result that shows and displays a series of understandings, dispositions, and orientations that can help us to exercise the gestures of embracing and caring in Education. Besides, the study delves into some of the multiple dimensions and qualities of pedagogical responsibility, revealing practical keys to establishing care relationships with our students to cause positive effects on their training processes.