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 non- equitative 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 These identities were systematically excluded and discriminated by the dominating colonialism and authoritarism in the history of our continent. 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.

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.