This research aims to analyze, from the perspective of teachers, the contradictions and tensions that arise in the encounter between vulnerable students and the school's official culture. The subjects of this qualitative research, of phenomenological inspiration, are eight primary school teachers from public and private subsidized schools of the Bio-Bio Region, Chile. The perception of the interviewed teachers give clear indications of a complex transition from the non-acceptance and rejection of students to their acceptance as legitimate others. The results obtained show that the co-construction of knowledge, desirable from the constructivist point of view of learning, is only achieved when teachers reach the stage of accepting their students as legitimate others.
Problematic student; The other; The legitimate other; Teacher; Recognition