PEDAGOGY OF CARE: TEACHING WITH RIGOR WITHOUT ABANDONING HUMANITY

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the Pedagogy of Care as a theoretical and practical foundation for reconfiguring teaching practice in contemporary education. It starts from the problem of the increasing objectification of subjects in school contexts, marked by the predominance of a technical-instrumental rationality focused on performance measurement and control of educational processes. Based on Dalbosco’s (2006) contributions, in dialogue with Heidegger’s hermeneutic phenomenology, care is understood as an ontological-existential structure that underlies human formation. This perspective is articulated with the contributions of Freire (1996), Noddings (1984; 1992), and Boff (1999), highlighting care as an ethical, relational, and constitutive dimension of pedagogical practice. It is argued that care should not be reduced to an affective or assistential stance, but rather constitutes an intentional pedagogical action that integrates rigor, mediation, and responsibility. The chapter concludes that a pedagogy grounded in care contributes to the development of educational practices more consistent with the complexity of human formation, by recognizing students and teachers as historical, unfinished subjects embedded in meaningful relationships.