Abstract
<jats:p>The book examines the daily journey between home and the municipal schools of Loja as a simultaneous arena of parental care, urban mobility and risk, closely linked to academic achievement and student well-being. Drawing on a qualitative, complexity-informed research design, the study worked with 56 mothers and fathers from the eight municipal schools through focus groups, field observation and document analysis, processed with Atlas.ti and semantic networks to construct categories and a robust theoretical model. The study identifies four main dimensions of parental care practices along the home–school route—instructions, supervision, dialogue and road safety—and shows positive descriptive associations with average grades A and B, without claiming linear causality. Building on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and Morin’s complex thinking, it proposes an ecological model of care that articulates micro-, meso-, exo-, macro- and chronosystems, integrating family, school, city and public policy. The final chapters outline guidelines for local policies on school mobility and safety, teacher education and family engagement, as well as a future research agenda that conceives Loja as an educating city, where care is recognized as the core of the educational experience inside and outside the classroom.</jats:p>