Being in tension: the dependent response in social education

ABSTRACT

Social Education implies a constant exposition to human experiences of vulnerability and suffering. In this paper, Levinas’s philosophy of alterity and, specifically, the notion of hospitality constitutes our ethical lens to explore educational encounters in non-formal contexts within the Spanish Social Sector. The study is developed from a hermeneutic phenomenological approach into the depth of lived experiences of eight social educators who currently work with different populations groups. The testimonies, explored through semi-structured interviews, are presented in a conversational, dialogic, poetic format. First, Levinas’ philosophy is presented as our ethical position, focusing on subjectivity as hospitality. Secondly, methodological aspects regarding hermeneutics are addressed. Finally, the testimonies of social educators are presented in an evocative way, exploring uncertainty and three different tensions regarding human relations in their practices: physical spaces, affection, and embodiment.

KEYWORDS:

• Social education
• hospitality
• hermeneutic phenomenology
• lived experience
• ethics

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Correction

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Professor Sharon Todd, Professor Eduardo Romero Sánchez and Professor Ramon Mínguez Vallejos for their helpful comments during the process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2024.2326758).

Notes

1. See, e.g. Mèlich (2009) on this subject.

Additional information

Funding

This article is part of a doctoral research project funded by the Fundación Séneca of Murcia (Spain) and approved by the Research Ethics Committee Of The University Of Murcia [ID: 4314/2023].