Care in the relationship between teacher and students: Education in prison from a phenomenological perspective

Abstract

In this paper, we report the pathway taken in the Master Degree in Education research at the Federal University of São João del-Rei (UFSJ), Brazil, presented in 2016. With this study, we seek to understand, from a phenomenological perspective, the relationship between teacher and students in a school in the prison system in the city of São João del- Rei – MG. The institution is the State School Detective Marco Antônio de Souza, in the female unit of Association of Protection and Assistance to the Convict – APAC. Such relationship is interpreted using the concept of Care (Sorge), presented in the book Being and Time (1927), the main work by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). To achieve our goal, we introduce the concept of Care; we show the pathway and methodological resources used in the research; we then describe the ambiance in which it took place. Lastly, in light of the exposed concept, we focus on the teacher’s relationship with her students, on the student’s relationship with each other, and on the relationship of all of them with the environment in which they are. In this sense, we conclude, in this investigative trajectory, that education within the dimension of Care is one of the ways to humanize life behind bars.