Friendly kindness, compassion, and mindful awareness are among the factors that are found to foster friendly learning and working climates and reduce conflicts and anxiety in both preschool and school settings (Roeser et al, 2012; Langer, Cohen & Djikic, 2012; Jennings, 2014; Herskind & Nielsen, 2011) Everyday work conditions in both preschool and school are often characterized by demands for high efficiency, standards for ´best practice´ and goal orientation, and at the same time by consecutive encounters between professional adults and children. Concerning the latter Biesta (2012; Friesen, 2017) argues for the importance of the adult to relate to both the perspective of the child as well as her/his own experience of being addressed in the encounter, and therefore her/his own subjectivity and following Biesta (ibid.) such subjective experiences become articulated as affects, emotions, and doubts in moments of ‘hesitation’. Nevertheless, there is a risk that the high demands and everyday working conditions make teachers´ experiences of attentive presence and ´hesitation´ in the encounters between child and adult difficult, that instead of reflection and awareness they react automatically and thus risk acting unprofessionally. The aim in this presentation is to present and discuss how practices of Friendly Kindness, Compassion and Mindful Awareness intersect with uncertainties or risk in everyday life and what it means to teachers and children´s well-being and attitudes to themselves and others? Studying these complex issues, we draw on phenomenological concepts of lived experience and embodiment inspired by Merleau-Ponty (2014/1962) and the embodied unconscious inspired by Fuchs (2011). Presenting examples from two projects studying respectively ´Mindfulness practices´ experienced by adolescents in challenging school conditions and ´Self-compassion practices´ experienced by preschool teachers in challenging working conditions we argue that the professional agent or student - in challenging conditions – may become able to mediate and change some dynamics in riskful and uncertain situations. These practices potentially build resources for the professionals in the educational sector and the coming generation for more reflective actions and sustainable well-being.

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