The emergence of Alterity: at school, for a new ethic of liberation

Abstract

The emergency period that we are globally experiencing has centralized some reflections concerning broad aspects of social and cultural life; in particular, it questioned the educational and pedagogical aims of a complex system such as the school. We reflect on the urgency of some re-meanings: a repositioning of what is recognized as "other", as a point of view necessary to create perspective; and of what is considered “distance” as a fundamental factor for respecting the human condition. The urgency has repositioned the emergence of otherness (as needed for recognition, thanks to a virtuous and perspective distance). School is an educational place that – in a ceremonial dialogic exchange – must make this call its own, in its existence as real and concrete space, in its promotion of a new ethic of liberation.