The CIES Annual Conference is an academic conference attended by researchers, students, practitioners and policy makers interested in comparative and international education. Each CIES conference has a theme that is intended to serve as a broad umbrella under which a wide range of work can be presented, while still yielding the consolidation and advancement of knowledge. As Academic Chair of the 2018 CIES conference, President-Elect Professor Regina Cortina (Teachers College, Columbia University), has set the 2018 conference theme as “Re-Mapping Global Education: South-North Dialogue.”

The 62nd CIES Annual Conference will take place in Mexico City, Mexico from March 25-29, 2018.

Most theories of education in development are based on Eurocentric epistemologies and modernization discourses that suppress the diversity and intellectual heterogeneity of the world’s subaltern and non-dominant peoples and regions. However, theories developed by scholars of the global South can help us in CIE to critically examine the narrow conceptions of knowledge typically produced by international institutions and academia. In this session Enrique Dussel, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, and Gyanendra Pandey, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at Emory University and a founding member of the Subaltern Studies project, will share their insights and engage in dialogue, comparing perspectives from different continents, about the potential contributions of Southern theories to the field of education. The session will be chaired by CIES President-Elect Regina Cortina and moderated by Ana Cecilia Galindo Diego, Co-Director of the Latin American Philosophy of Education Society at Columbia University.

Through film, we educate, inspire and make change

The CIES 2018 Education Film Festivalette, funded by the Open Society Foundations Education Support Program, focuses on socio-political factors that influence schooling in Latin American contemporary film. The selected films portray the complex inter-relationships between school and family life, between schooling and social and political realities, and the potential of education to transform individuals, communities and society. The program blurs the distinction between documentary and fiction: it includes two documentaries, one of which uses narrative storytelling techniques and four narrative films that incorporate real-life elements.

Claudia Huaiquimilla’s Mala Junta (Bad Influence) (2016) explores ways in which the wider context of wider discrimination in Chile is reflected in schooling. The film focuses on an uncommon friendship between two troubled teens, one White and one Mapuche Indian. Celina Murga’s documentary Escuela Normal (Normal School) (2012), takes us into the day-to- day life of her own former school in Argentina as teenagers experience a political awakening as they experience student government elections.

Two films provide hope through education amidst broken homes and communities. In Mateo (2014) Maria Gamboa, basing her narrative on real stories, illustrating the potential power of non- formal education, in this case the performing arts, to inspire social change. It tells the story of an adolescent boy’s journey out of violence in Colombia. Ernesto Daranas weaves a fictional tale also inspired by true experiences in Cuba for Conducta (Behavior) (2014), to portray a devoted teacher fighting for her troubled primary students in an inspirational and honestly conveyed story. How do we dream of a better life in a highly impoverished community that lacks educational opportunities? In the documentary Jeffrey (2016), Yanillys Pérez tells the story of a twelve-year old’s dream to become a reggaetón singer as he strives to help his mom financially. Diego Quemada-Díez interviewed hundreds of migrants to make La Jaula de Oro (The Golden Dream (2013) in which two fifteen-year olds from poor areas in Guatemala and a kind-hearted, wise, Tzotzil Indian from Mexico risk their lives to reach the United States.