THE SCHOOL AS EDUCATIONAL THERAPY: BEYOND TEACHING-LEARNING AND THE RESIGNIFICATION OF SCHOOL PRAXIS IN CONTEMPORARY TIMES

Abstract

This article analyzes the profound functional and existential resignification that the school institution is undergoing in the contemporary scenario, problematizing the emergence of the phenomenon of the school as educational therapy. In the face of the erosion of social certainties, the breakdown of traditional family units, and state neglect in peripheral and vulnerable areas, schools have been compelled to transcend their historical instructional and integrative mission to operate as improvised intersectoral hubs. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Zygmunt Bauman, Miguel Arroyo, Bernard Charlot, Byung-Chul Han, Paulo Freire, Carl Rogers, and Philippe Meirieu, this study investigates the dynamics in which the academic environment acts as family mediation, a psychosocial listening post, and an emotional refuge for students affected by abandonment and trauma. It concludes that the reinvention of pedagogical praxis requires recognizing affection and welcoming care as legitimate epistemological dimensions, while warning of the risks of subjective over-indebtedness and emotional exhaustion among educators and institutions alike. Consequently, it calls for public networks of intersectoral support so that the therapeutic function of education does not devolve into solitary solidarity or institutional and teacher illness.