The Ethics of Care Under the Strain of Spatial Saturation: A Dialectic of Pedagogical Survival in Brazzaville High Schools

Education in the Republic of the Congo, much like in many sub-Saharan African nations, is currently ensnared in the “paradox of democratization”: while access to schooling has become widespread, this openness has devolved into a dehumanizing form of massification. This research examines the feasibility of the ethics of care—defined as the practical expression of pedagogical concern and solicitude—within high schools in Brazzaville, where spatial saturation has reached critical thresholds. Adopting a rigorous qualitative approach that combines in situ observations with in-depth interviews of 24 teachers, the study analyzes the deleterious impact of this infrastructural overcrowding. It specifically explores the erosion of Self-Efficacy (SE) among educators who must confront the daily challenge of bloated class sizes. The findings reveal a paradoxical “dialectic of survival”: beyond a physical “frontier of recognition” imposed by overcrowding, teachers deploy strategies of distributed care as an ultimate lever for preserving human dignity. Ultimately, this investigation demonstrates that benevolence—the pivot of current educational reforms—will remain a mythical horizon as long as spatial dignity is not restored as a sine qua non condition for an authentic and inclusive pedagogical relationship.