EDUC 105 - Conceptualizing Latin and Latinx America

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as LALS 105) Topic for 2025/26b: Popular Education and Social Struggle in Latin America. Popular education is grounded in solidarity, inclusion, and respect for human rights. Rooted in critical theory, it has historically empowered learners to envision and create anti-capitalist politics, social movements, and societal transformations that prioritize human dignity, particularly for marginalized communities. Across Latin America, popular education has been a vital tool for resisting and challenging the lasting effects of colonialism, neoliberalism, extractivism, structural racism, and armed violence. Also referred to as non-formal or community-based education, popular education has emerged from revolutionary movements, civil society organizations, and Indigenous struggles, offering counter-hegemonic ways of knowing and learning that inspire and sustain social movements throughout the region.

This course explores both the philosophical and theoretical foundations of popular education alongside its practical applications. It adopts a historical perspective, beginning with the Haitian independence movement and extending through the Mexican Revolution, the Central American conflicts of the 1980s and early 1990s, Indigenous rights and environmental movements, transitional justice and peacebuilding efforts in the 2000s, and contemporary women’s reproductive health and gender justice movements in the Southern Cone. A central theme of the course is the interplay between conflict, injustice, and education—how oppression gives rise to non-formal education movements, and in turn, how education can drive meaningful improvements in people’s lives.

A significant focus is on the work of popular educators, human rights activists, and community leaders, as well as the risks they face in their efforts to educate and empower others. Through an interdisciplinary lens, students critically examine how popular education continues to shape struggles for justice, equality, and social change in Latin America. Tracey Holland.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS