This article explores the forms of agency that emerge through the practices of professionals participating in a school reintegration programme in Santiago, Chile, implemented within the framework of rights-restorative educational policies. It starts from the observation that agency is commonly conceived as an individual capacity, while vulnerability is treated as a passive condition, a distinction that has constrained more integrated approaches in educational research. Drawing on feminist scholarship, the article instead conceptualises agency and vulnerability as relational, ambivalent, and situated dimensions that become intertwined in the formation of subjectivities and pedagogical practices. The research adopts a collaborative ethnographic design centred on a case study and employs cartographies as its theoretical and methodological tool. Developed with four professionals from the programme, the cartographies were produced through a series of collective and individual sessions in which participants created visual and verbal narratives about their personal and professional trajectories. The analysis brought together thematic, narrative, and metaphorical approaches, alongside processes of participant feedback and collaborative analysis that foregrounded participants' voices. The findings show how the professionals' previous experiences of grief, migration, downward social mobility, and resilience become interwoven with their pedagogical practices, shaping forms of agency that emerge through vulnerability. These narratives suggest that, rather than functioning as an obstacle, wounding can become a productive force by fostering ethical and affective relationships with students. The originality of the study lies in rebalancing existing approaches to vulnerability and agency, moving the discussion away from abstract frameworks and towards situated empirical realities, while also proposing cartographies as an innovative means of making embodied forms of agency visible. The article concludes that recognising vulnerability as a form of openness to the world enables us to imagine more inclusive and transformative educational practices.
This article explores the moral dilemmas faced by state agents-primarily Chilean police officers and military personnel-responsible for migration control along the Chile-Bolivia border during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis focuses on the period between 2020 and early 2021, when irregular crossings through unauthorized border points reached their highest levels amid an unprecedented increase in the arrival of migrants, particularly Venezuelans, to the Tarapac & aacute; region. Based on quali-tative research combining in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, the study examines how these agents navigated the tension between their institutional mandate to enforce migration controls and the ethical imperative to assist people experiencing extreme vulnerability. One of the central findings is the emergence of grassroots human-itarianism: spontaneous, ethically motivated responses by police officers and military personnel that arose in the absence of coordinated state action. Rather than acting as mere executors of policy, these agents reflected on the circumstances they encountered and made context-dependent decisions, drawing on both personal and professional values when confronted with extreme situations. The findings show that border control functioned as a contested arena in which the logics of surveillance, enforcement, and protection coexisted and, at times, came into conflict.
Psychosocial adjustment is a key indicator of developmental outcomes among children and adolescents receiving child protection services. This study describes the psychosocial profile of participants and compares subjective well-being, self-esteem, and emotional and behavioral symptoms across two programs within the Spanish child protection system: day care centers for children and adolescents (preventive family preservation programs) and residential care homes (for cases involving abandonment or neglect). A total of 194 participants aged 11-18 years were assessed using three standardized self-report instruments: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI-7), and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). Comparative analyses were conducted across the two programs, and associations with gender and age were also examined. Participants attending day care centers showed a more favorable psychosocial profile, reporting significantly higher subjective well-being and a tendency toward fewer emotional and behavioral difficulties. In contrast, adolescents in residential care experienced greater difficulties in peer relationships and held less positive perceptions of their environment, although no significant differences in self-esteem were observed. Correlation analyses indicated that greater difficulties were associated with lower levels of well-being and self-esteem, while the latter two variables were positively associated with one another. Girls showed greater emotional vulnerability and lower life satisfaction, whereas age had only a weak moderating effect. These findings underscore the value of preventive programs that preserve family relationships and foster positive experiences, while also highlighting the need to improve the quality of care through interventions focused on safety, stable relationships, and trauma-informed care. The study also emphasizes the importance of incorporating a gender perspective to strengthen resilience and emotional well-being and provides novel comparative evidence on psychosocial adjustment across two types of child protection services in Spain.
This study examines the emotional dynamics that emerge during childhood through children's interactions with the environments they inhabit, taking gender and exposure time as its analytical framework. It is based on the premise that nature and technology are not neutral settings but rather generate distinct affective imprints that significantly shape the development of children's identities. Today, boys and girls engage simultaneously with both environments, highlighting the need to understand the emotional relationships they establish with each and the ways in which these experiences contribute to their socio-emotional development. Adopting a quantitative approach, the research drew on a representative sample of 10-to 12-year-old students from Spanish schools. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire with response scales adapted for children, allowing information to be gathered on the intensity of emotions experienced in natural and digital environments, as well as the amount of time spent in each. Statistical analyses revealed significant differences according to gender, environment, and exposure time. The findings show that the natural environment provides a more emotionally balanced and restorative setting, whereas the digital environment, although likewise emotionally engaging, reproduces gender stereotypes more strongly. The relationship between exposure time and emotions is more consistent in the natural environment, particularly in the increase in positive emotions and the reduction of negative ones. By simultaneously incorporating analyses of gender, comparisons between environments, and exposure time, this study advances research on children's emotional connections with their environments and helps enrich pedagogical strategies aimed at fostering more equitable, balanced, and context-sensitive emotional development.
Homelessness is an extreme form of social exclusion that has often been addressed through standardized intervention strategies with limited capacity to respond to the diverse trajectories and needs of those affected. This limitation is particularly evident among groups with specific characteristics, such as young people experiencing homelessness and housing exclusion. Against this background, this article explores the perceptions of young people affected by this phenomenon in Spain in order to identify elements that can inform the design of social intervention programmes. The study adopts a qualitative approach based on three focus groups involving 21 young people experiencing homelessness and housing exclusion. Analysis of the resulting discussions examines participants' initial expectations of intervention programmes, the limitations they identified in their implementation, and the proposals they considered most important. The findings identify the key dimensions that should be incorporated into programmes addressing youth homelessness. These include social benefits and financial assistance; support in the social, emotional, educational, and employment spheres; and specialized administrative and legal guidance. Access to leisure and recreational opportunities, the availability of digital technologies, mental health and addiction services, and the strengthening of social relationships through enhanced social and community support also emerged as important priorities. The study also underscores the importance of involving young people experiencing homelessness and housing exclusion in the development of more inclusive public policies that are responsive to the complexity of their life trajectories.
