O cuidado de si como ferramenta pedagógica para uma educação ativa

The care of the self as a pedagogical tool for active education

Abstract

The contemporary school still operates under the frameworks of modern pedagogy, guided by disciplinary norms that produce obedient, normalized, and politically alienated subjects. This logic, inherited from governmental practices established in modernity, turns the school environment into a space of control rather than ethical formation. In light of this context, this study proposes the concept of “care of the self” as a pedagogical tool capable of fostering an active, ethical, and transformative education. The general objective is to analyze how the care of the self can function as a pedagogical resource to break away from the normative devices of traditional schooling and enable the formation of ethical subjects. The specific objectives include: investigating the historical role of the school in producing normalized subjectivities; understanding the ethical foundations of the care of the self in Greek philosophy and in Michel Foucault's thought; and proposing ways to incorporate this concept into educational processes. The research question is: how can the care of the self contribute to a pedagogical practice that breaks with mechanisms of normalization and promotes the ethical formation of subjects in contemporary schools? The study adopts a qualitative methodology, based on bibliographic research and supported by authors who critically address education through the lenses of ethics, critique, and subjectivity. The conclusion is that the care of the self, as a practice of freedom and resistance, enables the creation of new forms of existence within the school environment, shifting education from its moralizing function to an ethical space of subjective and relational formation, grounded in responsibility, sensitivity, and critique of power systems.