Letters to those who intend to teach

CLACSO and the Directorate of Teacher Training and Pedagogical Innovations of the Mayor's Office of Bogotá, Colombia, organized the reading of a selection of letters for teachers, "Letters to those who intend to teach," on Wednesday, November 24, within the framework of the activity "Great world thinkers will talk about Paulo Freire's legacy to pedagogy."

On this occasion, Karina Batthyány, Executive Secretary of CLACSO, Nancy Martínez Álvarez, Director of Teachers and Pedagogical Innovations of Colombia, and Nicolás Arata, Director of Training of CLACSO, presented the book “100 voices and a letter for Paulo Freire”, a joint publication between the Secretariat of Education of Bogotá and the Latin American Council of Social Sciences.

The pedagogical conference “Teacher Training for Hope: A Legacy from Freire’s Thought” took place from November 22nd to 24th, bringing together renowned thinkers such as Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Maria de Fátima Costa Freire, and Adriana Puiggrós, among others, to reflect on the legacy of the Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire and his contributions to education. The conference was aimed at teachers, school administrators, and the general public. It was broadcast on EducacionBogota – YouTube.

These three days will address Freire's ideas and thinking from different perspectives, with the participation of national and international guests who, through shared words and lived experience, will contribute their visions to the educational community of the Capital District.

The first meeting was on Monday, November 22nd at the Paulo Freire IED School, where members of this educational institution examined the milestones and traces that Freire's pedagogy has left on its development as a school.

On Tuesday the 23rd, the day will feature two discussions with invited guests, thinkers, and researchers from both international and national spheres, who will exchange ideas on education, pedagogy, and the contemporary challenges facing schools and teachers in the Latin American context. This event will be broadcast from Bogotá, linked to Portugal, Argentina, and Brazil, with the participation of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Adriana Puiggrós, Walter Kohan, Nicolás Arata, and Maria de Fátima Costa Freire, a Brazilian educator and daughter of Paulo Freire.

The closing event will be held on Wednesday, November 24th at the María Montessori Higher Normal School, in a blended learning format. There, attendees will have the opportunity to celebrate the school's 70th anniversary with a performance inspired by the text 'Letters to Those Who Dare to Teach' by Freire, also known as the educator of the Americas.

At the end of the event, the digital book “100 Voices and a Letter to Paulo Freire” will be presented. This book, a collaborative project between the Ministry of Education and CLACSO, is organized around short texts that explore different facets and highlight dimensions of the great Brazilian educator's legacy to Latin American popular education. Thus, 100 voices of educators from across Latin America converge in this text, which serves as a meeting point to bear witness to the enduring relevance and circulation of Freire's thought and ideas, 100 years after his birth.