Educating in Fragility. Vulnerability, Care and Identity Construction in Contemporary Societies

Abstract

This contribution investigates the complex convergences between subjective vulnerability, the disintegration of social bonds, and educational practices. Starting from an analysis of the transformations traversing contemporary societies, it proposes a rethinking of traditional pedagogical categories in light of a care paradigm that integrates the affective, relational, and community dimensions of learning. The contribution puts forward a reconsideration of the educational paradigm grounded in the recognition of vulnerability as a constitutive condition of human existence. Pedagogy, in this context, should move beyond the compensatory deficit model to embrace an ethics of care that places relationship, mutual recognition, and the affective dimension of learning at its centre. Through a dialogue between pedagogical theories, neuroscientific findings, and concrete pedagogical practices, an inclusive educational model is proposed that integrates autobiographical narrative, learning communities, and embodied practices as tools for emotional regulation and identity construction. The teacher is redefined as an external regulator and secure base — a neurobiological and relational precondition indispensable to any authentic learning. Inclusive education requires not only methodological adaptations, but a reformulation of the educational relationship itself, oriented toward the recognition of vulnerability as a generative resource rather than a deficit to be remedied.