Educating with Purpose: Towards a Hermeneutic Approach to the Socio-Emotional Skills of Students in Initial Training in the Pedagogy Career in Practice in the 21st Century

Abstract

This study analyzes the way pre-service teachers draw on their social-emotional skills (SEL) in the classroom and the effect these skills have on learning, coexistence, and school well-being. The rationale for this topic lies in the need to recognize that SEL—self-regulation, empathy, conflict resolution, and effective communication—are not optional additions to teaching but rather essential components of contemporary teaching practice. The central objective is to understand how pre-service teachers activate these competencies in their classroom experiences and what tensions or limitations they encounter in their initial training. A qualitative methodology with a hermeneutic-comparative approach was adopted, using a sample of 21 pre-service teachers from the Maule Region. Their conversations were interpreted and compared with recent specialized literature. The results show that pre-service teachers significantly value SEL for fostering a positive climate, teacher self-care, and holistic learning, but their training also reveals significant gaps, as it is limited to isolated modules and lacks clear protocols for addressing emotional crises. Consequently, students turned to intuitive strategies such as active breaks, mediation, and emotional support. It is concluded that teacher training institutions must embrace socio-emotional development as a cross-cutting theme in the curriculum, provide teacher training in self-care, and implement crisis protocols in order to overcome a structural gap that affects both teachers and students.