The pedagogical presence in the construction of the educational relationship. The case of a Primary School teacher

It is not possible to fully define the relationship experience -in a positivist way- because its nature is ineffable, so it is risky to think about the educational relationship only from an analytical point of view. Although this descriptive and conceptualization work is essential, it is also necessary a comprehensive look at the relationship experience and the qualities that make it educational. That is the purpose of this text: to think holistically about the symbolic and physical place of the teacher in the educational relationship. This task is carried out through the notion of presence and thinking with the experience of two primary education students whom we have accompanied during two school years. Following the proposals of hermeneutic phenomenology, the research processes have been dose-observation and hermeneutic conversations. Based on this fieldwork, we began a dialogue with studies on presence, the pedagogy of presence and the narration of concrete experiences that we have lived with the students. We pretend that this dialogue allows us to glimpse some structural aspects of the educational relationship. Specifically, in the experiences we have studied we have identified three gestures that we name as: invite, be and leave. These gestures help us think about the qualities of the teaching profession and the educational relationship, anchored in the characteristics of this particular event and aware of its uniqueness, avoiding the temptation to try to generalize or extrapolate them to other educational relationships.