In bodily terms, pedagogical relationships and professionality, first of all, follow the signature of care. In this paper, educational care will be explained by relating to John Dewey, thus, through a historical approach. The US-American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer is a foothold in the common roots of the European continental and Anglo-American educational discourse (Kraus & Ylimaki in print), integrating continental philosophy with pragmatism, as well as with an enthusiasm for the actual challenges of a society. Dewey ([1916] 1966) models the ‘stimulation of the child’s powers’ in terms of a circuit of inquiry, i.e., as a directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into successful human action: “I believe that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child’s powers by the demands of the social situations in which [s]he finds [her]himself” (ibid., 54). The pedagogue mediates between a child and his/her impulses of cultural self-reflection, facilitating learning experiences and social self-reflection. The circuit of inquiry involves care in terms of the ‘important role of the bond’ between pedagogue and student (Dewey 1897, 3). With the focus on experience, self-activity and inquiry, Dewey’s idea of the ‘growth’ of a child or young person indicates the impact of bodily dispositions and activities, physical well-being, and environment on the learning of an individual. In this paper, the referential frame of Dewey’s concept of care will be identified in more details and connections will be drawn on an actual Continental debate on educational care (Dietrich et al. 2020).

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