Contributions from the
Popular Education in
Latin America to the
education and formation for
lifelong learning in times of
change
Pedro Pontual
This presentation is a
contribution from the practices
of popular education in Latin
America today to the reflection
about tendencies and
perspectives of the education
and formation over life in
scenarios of strong and
complex changes all over the
world.
From this point of view, we
think it´s important to strength
the following points in an
agenda of actions:
ACTIVE CITZENSHIP AND SOCIAL EQUALITY
Building an active and
transforming citizenship
which has social equality
(understood as the right to
equal opportunities to
resources for the integral
and sustainable
development) as its central
axis.
The equality implies equity
and also the redistributive
justice based on the
collective solidarity.
ACTIVE CITZENSHIP AND SOCIAL EQUALITY
The people are incorporated
as active subjects (in their
individual and social
dimensions) in the
construction of social policies
oriented by many principles
among which we highlight the
universality, the diversity and
the solidarity.
In deep unequal and nonequitative societies in which
we live this means to strength
the necessary inclusive
dimension in educational
practices, formal or informal.
THE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Empowering for incidence in educational policies:
The social movements are strategic collective actors for
the distinct incidence practices in educational policies in
both the dimension of equitative access and the dimension
of quality and democratic management.
For that, it´s necessary the expansion of formation
programs for the several collective actors based in a
participative and dialogical conception.
DECENTE WORK
Facing the complexity of the
decent work issue in the 21st
century and what kind of
education and formation are
necessary as responses to
the new challenges.
The educational experiences
from the solidarity economy
and family agriculture are
some of the alternatives that
have been developed in
Latin America.
INTERCULTURALITY
Developing an intercultural pedagogy that gains growing
importance in our context since the democratic
processes made the emergence of a diversity of
identities that constitute our societies possible.
These identities were
systematically excluded
and discriminated by the
dominating colonialism and
authoritarism in the history
of our continent.
INTERCULTURALITY
The recent debates in the
constitutional processes in Bolivia
and Ecuador about the rights of
the original peoples or the debate
in Brazil about the afro-Brazilians
quotas for joining college
challenges us about the necessity
of a pedagogy of interculturality
that makes possible a
transforming sense to these
actions.
Also the intensity and complexity
of the migration situations point to
the same direction – of
guaranteeing educational rights to
these peoples from the
perspective of the interculturality.
ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Emphasizing the expansion of educational programs about
the theme of the environment and sustainable
development. The global climatic changes, the crisis of
food and energy production are some of the facts that
challenge us in the present moment.
Also the theme of a revision of our patterns of individual
and collective consumption demand strong and fast
initiatives from the popular education in order to cause real
changes in the perception and acts around these
challenges by the social movements and citizens in daily
life.
THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Make advances in the
subject of communication
and new technologies
from the perspective of
their strategic dimension
for democratization of our
societies and for the
social inclusion.
THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES
The digital inclusion programs,
the production of educational
materials using multimedia
resources, the alternative
communication networks
(educational and/or
communitarian radios and TVs),
the distance learning programs
and the virtual learning
communities are practices that
should challenge us with their
methodological, pedagogical and
epistemological advances to
make their use as human
emancipation instruments and
liberation action possible.
Finalizing, this year we celebrate the 60 years of
the Universal Human Rights Declaration, and it´s
important to reaffirm education and formation for
lifelong learning as part of the human
economical, social, cultural and environmental
rights that should be articulated with practices of
Peace Culture that demand educational actions
founded on the principles of human coexistence
based on plurality with wide respect to the
differences and following permanently the
peaceful and democratic resolution of conflicts.