Pedagogical relationships in times of sexual violence: constituting intimacy and corporality at the limits

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe article takes its starting point from the current debate on sexual violence in educational institutions. It follows an ethnographic perspective without observing sexual violence directly, arguing that doing so is ethically impossible. Instead it suggests deducing risks for sexual violence through the limits of pedagogical practices. Discussing two case studies (an all-day-school and a residential child care home) and relating their discursive concepts of caring and educating to their practices shows how these institutions address the topic of sexual violence. Reconstructing the practices that constitute a difference between exclusive, one-on-one caring situations and open, publicly accessible educational situations show how transgressions of the limits of corporality to intimacy become institutionalised. We conclude that an ethnography of transgression points to practice arrangements that pose a risk for sexual violence in educational institutions.