Del conflicto a la conciencia: Una pedagogía para la autorregulación emocional en la educación secundaria

Introduction. In the classroom, it is recognized that not everything can be explained by rules. This paper addresses emotional self-regulation with a forceful statement: without emotional self-regulation, the school becomes underperforming. It is demonstrated by everyday experience that when there is no space to express what you feel, everything becomes more tense and colder and learning doesn’t occur in the same manner. Purpose. The purpose of this essay is to argue, based on a review of literature on metacognition, self-regulation, and emotional education, why emotional self-regulation should be understood as a baseline condition for school coexistence and learning, rather than a secondary matter relative to the academic curriculum. To this end, the essay collects multiple voices, ideas, and experiences that overlap in the same call: another manner of being at school is needed. The one that does not overlook anger, sadness, or rage, but embraces and comprehends them, because the starting point resides in the emotional issue, which is not an ornament. Discussion. Strategies that are already being explored are mentioned: play, dialogue, writing, art... and, above all, the bond, which is strengthened when the teacher ceases to be only the one who evaluates and also becomes the one who listens to. There is no magic solution, but a clear direction. Conclusions. The experience has left a profound lesson: educating is not only about transmitting ideas but also about accompanying what hurts, what costs. What if we begin to look at conflict not as a failure, but as a possibility?