Table Of ContentEducation in Revolutionary
Struggles
Education in Revolutionary Struggles introduces us to the fascinating
world of Latin American educational thought in the third quarter of the
20th century. It discusses the contributions of three of the most distin-
guished intellectuals of the period – Iván Illich, Paulo Freire and Ernesto
Guevara – and more specifically their answers to the eternal challenge:
What is – or should be – the role of education in the profound, structural
and/or revolutionary transformation of our societies? The first part of
the book identifies the cultural, economic and political context of the
revolutionary years in Latin America. This historical framework is of
particular interest because it is the setting for the intellectual and ed-
ucational debates in which these three thinkers took part. The second
part, the heart of the book, expounds in depth how Iván Illich, Paulo
Freire and Ernesto Guevara contributed to understanding of how ed-
ucation is linked to the transformation of society. The third and final
part highlights the most fertile dimensions of the educational thought of
Iván Illich, Paulo Freire and Ernesto Guevara – deschooling, liberation
education and revolutionary education, respectively – and analyses the
points where their conceptions of “education in revolutionary struggles”
converged, complemented one another or diverged.
Andrés Donoso Romo is Researcher in the Centre for Advanced Re-
search in Education, Institute of Education, University of Chile, and in
the Centre of Advanced Studies, Playa Ancha University (Chile).
Routledge Studies in the History of the Americas
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Federica Morelli
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African and Indian Slave Testimony in British and
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Edited by Sophie White and Trevor Burnard
15 Kinship and Incestuous Crime in Colonial Guatemala
Sarah N. Saffa
16 Education in Revolutionary Struggles
Iván Illich, Paulo Freire, Ernesto Guevara and
Latin American Thought
Andrés Donoso Romo
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.
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book-series/RSHAM
Education in Revolutionary
Struggles
Iván Illich, Paulo Freire, Ernesto
Guevara and Latin American Thought
Andrés Donoso Romo
TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM BARNE
First published in English 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
The right of Andrés Donoso Romo to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
A educação emancipatória: Iván Illich, Paulo Freire, Ernesto Guevara
e o pensamento latino-americano. Copyright © 2020 by Andrés
Donoso Romo. Published in Portuguese by University of São Paulo
Press, Brazil.
La educación en las luchas revolucionarias: Iván Illich, Paulo
Freire, Ernesto Guevara y el pensamiento latinoamericano.
Copyright © 2018 by Andrés Donoso Romo. Published in Chile by
Quimantú Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Donoso Romo, Andrés, 1980– author.
Title: Education in revolutionary struggles : Iván Illich, Paulo Freire,
Ernesto Guevara and Latin American thought / Andrés Donoso Romo.
Other titles: Educación en las luchas revolucionarias. English
Description: New York, NY : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2020. |
Series: Routledge studies in the history of the americas; vol 16 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020026027 (print) | LCCN 2020026028 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367467784 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003030980 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781000173543 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781000173550 (mobi) |
ISBN 9781000173567 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Education—Social aspects—Latin America. |
Education—Political aspects—Latin America. | Education—Latin
America—Philosophy. | Illich, Ivan, 1926–2002. | Freire, Paulo,
1921–1997. | Guevara, Che, 1928–1967.
Classification: LCC LC92.A2 D6613 2020 (print) |
LCC LC92.A2 (ebook) | DDC 370.98—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020026027
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020026028
ISBN: 978-0-367-46778-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-03098-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
For
Mariana, Ana María, Silvio and all those who believe
that love alone makes a miracle out of clay
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
PART I
1 The Contemporary Tensions of Latin America from
a Historical Perspective 7
2 Development in Dispute among Latin American
Intellectuals 21
3 The Golden Years of Education in Latin America,
1950–1980 33
PART II
4 Iván Illich, Deschooling and the Cultural Revolution 49
5 Paulo Freire, Latin American Thought and the
Struggle for Liberation 65
6 Ernesto Guevara and the Role of Education in
Revolutionary Processes 81
PART III
7 Education and Social Transformation in Latin
American Thought 99
References 107
Index 113
Acknowledgements
This work has been possible through the contributions of many
institutions and individuals. I must thank the National Commission for
Scientific and Technological Research, Chile, for the full grant which
supported the investigation underlying these pages. I am also grateful to
the Postgraduate Programme in Latin American Integration of the Uni-
versity of São Paulo for the facilities which enabled me to carry out this
study. Likewise I thank the Centre of Investigation on Latin America
and the Caribbean of the National Autonomous University of Mexico
for welcoming me for a semester as a visiting researcher, and the Na-
tional Council of Culture and the Arts, Chile, for the resources which
allowed the results of the study to be turned into a manuscript which
would appeal to a broader readership.
My gratitude goes to all the specialists interviewed during my in-
vestigation, including Nicolás Arata, María del Carmen Ariet, Beatriz
Bissio, Miguel Ángel Contreras, Moacir Gadotti, Pablo Gentili, Claudia
Gilman, Sergio Guerra Vilaboy, Silene Freire, Alberto Martínez Boom,
Javier Ocampo, Esther Pérez, Adriana Puiggrós, Leonardo Sequera,
Carlos Alberto Torres and Lidia Turner Martí.
I must also thank the teaching communities of the National Auton-
omous University of Mexico, the National University of Córdoba, the
State University of Mato Grosso and the University of Valparaiso, whose
observations during my public presentations in their campuses enriched
the interpretations contained in this book enormously. The same recog-
nition is extended to the Popular Athenaeum of Caracas, where I carried
out the same exercise with equally satisfactory results.
It is only right to acknowledge all the journals which published pre-
liminary versions of the chapters of the book, and most especially their
reviewers. Thanks to their observations, the ideas expounded in these
pages have achieved greater depth and clearer expression. The journals
in which these first versions appeared were Cuadernos Americanos of
the National Autonomous University of Mexico; Revista Tensões Mun-
diais of the Observatory of Nationalities, Brazil; Revista Educación of
the University of Costa Rica; Revista Tareas of the Justo Arosemena
Latin American Studies Centre, Panama; Revista de Filosofía of the
