The Pedagogy of Care in Higher Education: A Phenomenological Study of Classroom Management and Student Health

Abstract

Contemporary approaches to classroom management in higher education are predominantly framed in terms of behavioral regulation, instructional efficiency, and measurable outcomes, often overlooking the relational and experiential dimensions that shape students’ well-being. This study addresses this limitation by examining the pedagogy of care as a lived phenomenon within classroom settings. The aim of the study is to explore how care is experienced by students and how it is constituted through classroom management practices in higher education. Grounded in a phenomenological framework, the study adopts an interpretive qualitative approach to investigate students’ lived experiences of care, with data generated through in-depth semi-structured interviews and reflective narratives. A thematic phenomenological analysis was employed to identify essential structures of meaning emerging from the data. The findings reveal that pedagogical care is experienced as a multidimensional phenomenon characterized by pedagogical presence, relational attunement, embodied comfort and anxiety, and the creation of safe yet vulnerable learning spaces. Care emerges not as a discrete instructional strategy but as an ontological and relational condition that shapes students’ sense of belonging, engagement, and well-being. This study contributes to phenomenological scholarship by reconceptualizing classroom management as a lived and relational practice grounded in care, offering a philosophical reorientation of educational practice that emphasizes how meaningful learning is constituted through embodied and intersubjective experiences within the lifeworld of the classroom.