Desde el aula hacia la paz: subjetividades, convivencia escolar y transformación educativa en voces de las educadoras

Abstract

This study analyzes how the subjectivities and educational experiences of preschool and primary school teachers at the Tocancipá Technical and Commercial Departmental Educational Institution shape their practices of school coexistence and peacebuilding within a context marked by territorial transformations, structural violence, and increasing regulatory demands regarding peace and human rights. The central thesis posits a disconnect between the role that public policy assigns to schools as spaces for peace and the actual conditions—emotional, professional, and institutional—under which educators carry out this task. This disconnect places a burden of care and mediation on them that is often unrecognized and poorly supported. The research adopts a qualitative approach with a critical hermeneutic perspective, developed as a case study. Data was collected through documentary analysis of regulatory frameworks and the Institutional Educational Project, in-depth narrative interviews, and a focus group with preschool and primary school teachers, selected through purposive sampling. The findings reveal that, although the institution has coexistence manuals, protocols, and support pathways, the daily management of coexistence falls disproportionately on the teachers, who see themselves as “mother, psychologist, and teacher” in overcrowded classrooms with little administrative support. These teachers redefine peace beyond mere regulatory compliance, understanding it as tranquility, dignity, and the right of children in contexts marked by domestic violence, precariousness, and territorial conflicts. They employ practices of dialogue, care, and recognition of others that are strained by institutional rigidity and the normalization of their emotional labor as a purely female responsibility. Based on this evidence, the research proposes situated pedagogical guidelines to strengthen coexistence and peacebuilding, centered on recognizing the teachers' experiential knowledge, creating spaces for teacher self-care, and critically articulating the relationship between regulations, the local context, and teachers' subjectivities.