Latin American Scholars of Comparative Education Examining the Work and Influence of Notable 19th and 20th Century Comparativists

1 – The development of comparative education in Latin America: biographies, histories and transnational forces

Jason Beech and Cristina Alarcón López

Part 1: Travellers and reformers

2 - Simón Rodríguez, Venezuela: 1771–1854

Nicolás Arata

3 - Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Argentina: 1811–1888

Marcelo Caruso and Florian Waldow

4 - José Pedro Varela, Uruguay: 1845–1879 

Pía Batista

5 - Valentín Letelier, Chile: 1852–1919

Cristina Alarcón López

Part 2: Progressive scholars and reformers who compare

6 - Amanda Labarca Huberston, Chile: 1887–1975

Camila Pérez Navarro and Pablo Toro Blanco

7 - Lourenço Filho, Brasíl: 1897–1970 

Rosa Fátima de Souza Chaloba

8 - Francisco Larroyo, México: 1912–1981

Carlos Escalante Fernández

9 - Anísio Teixeira, Brazil: 1900–1971

Manuel Marcos Maciel Formiga

Part 3: Expert Comparativists connected to International Organisations

10 - Gregorio Weinberg, Argentina: 1919–2006

Gabriela Ossenbach

11 - Ángel Diego Márquez, Argentina: 1923–2001

Erwin H. Epstein

12 - Cecilia Braslavsky, Argentina: 1952–2005

Inés Dussel

13 - Juan Carlos Tedesco, Argentina: 1944–2017

Felicitas Acosta

Biography

Jason Beech is an associate professor in Global Policies in Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne and a visiting professor at Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, where he holds a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Chair in Education for Sustainability and Global Citizenship.

Cristina Alarcón López is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Department of Education, University of Vienna, Austria.

"This book of essays on Latin American comparativists of education is quite simply a wonderful read from beginning to end. Refreshing in its focus on leading comparativists as scholars, public intellectuals and political activists, compelling in its framing of their engagement with, and advancement of, a revolutionary tradition in the region, and insightful in being able to point to comparison as method, mode of reflection, and act of contemplation. This book advances comparative education scholarship in new and significant ways."

Susan L. Robertson, 2024-2025 CIES President, University of Cambridge, UK

 

"Latin American Scholars of Comparative Education is a groundbreaking book reclaiming the overlooked contributions of 12 Latin American forceful intellectuals who framed educational perspectives, systems and policies in the region and beyond. Spanning two centuries and interweaving individual stories of influential thinkers and doers within the broader tapestry of Latin American educational histories, this book not only fills a critical gap in the historiography of comparative education but also overcomes significant shortcomings of the field's traditional Anglo-American centrism."

Gustavo E. Fischman, Professor & Director Scholarly Communications Group, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College/Arizona State University, US

"This volume, excellently edited by two outstanding representatives of comparative education, makes a significant contribution to a deeper understanding of this field of research. The twelve biographies of Latin American scholars of comparative education included in the volume, written by a clever selection of experts, show the wonderful complexity of this field of research, which becomes visible when the essence of comparative education itself is not dictated by a cultural area, but itself reconstructed historically and comparatively. This timely volume has achieved this in an impressive way."

Prof. Daniel Tröhler, University of Vienna, Austria