Soon, teachers and educators across Latin America and Spain will be attending the Fifth Ibero-American Conference of Teachers, Educators and Researchers (Quinto Encuentro IberoAmericano de Colectivas y Redes de Maestros que Hacen Investigacion e Innovacion Desde Su Escuela y Comunidad). One of their objectives is to make teachers and educators authors of and protagonists for the emancipation of the educational process. The hope is that teachers can expand their influence beyond the limits of their school rooms; that they can mobilize and organize to the extent that a pedagogy of emancipation can spread beyond school walls and influence the socio-educational and political realms.

Participating in this year's event will be representatives from Argentina, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Brasil. Representatives and teachers from Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua are also expected to attend and participate. The Venezuelan chapter will host the event this year. Its National Coordinator is Professor Mirna Sojo Sojo. She will be assisted by Maritza Lopez, Arturo Perez and a host of other dedicated and forward thinking educators.

While discussing the conference with Professor Sojo and when perusing the informational materials that have been distributed, the theme of emancipating the educational process is a recurring one. But emancipating it from what, some might ask? Could the answer be status quo governments? Many in the United States are convinced that the educational process is not geared toward developing people but controlling them and preparing them to perform tasks that serve the interests of government and big business. Apparently this train of thought is prevalent in other countries as well. Could it be that progressive educators in the United States can look to educators in South America for a measure of guidance?

The aims of the conference include deepening the interchange of experiences among teachers from the participating countries, strengthening the learning experience and teaching techniques, recognizing the teaching experiences that promote forms of organization, articulating proposals that perpetuate the production and sharing of knowledge between teachers and communities, recognizing the educational experiences that spring from the communities and empowering the conference's mobilization movement within the participating countries.

The central themes that will be covered during the conference are various but interrelated. They include:

(1)Exploration of what goes into making a teacher or educator. Taken into consideration are the teacher's personal, practical and preparatory experiences, and how they influence his or her ability to relate to and interact with those who are being taught;

(2)Exploration of practical and innovative teaching methods. The construction and development of curricula take front stage during this segment;

(3)Exploration of political projects that focus on what actions teachers can take to emancipate the formal educational process. How can teachers harness their power so that formal education is made more responsive to the needs of individuals within a community as opposed to the needs of governments and corporations? What can teachers do to facilitate the incorporation of multiculturalism, ethnic experiences, multiple languages and other such factors that tend to be neglected or trivialized by status quo educators and administrators;

(4)Exploration of emerging educational techniques and experiences; and

(5)Exploration of scientific and occupational initiatives.

The conference, which is held every two years, will begin on July 13, 2008 and continue until July 20. The organizers have separated Venezuela into fifty expeditionary school district routes. For the first four days, each participant will stay in one of these districts. Each district will accommodate between 15 and 25 participants, who will be able to meet with teachers and members of the community, interchange ideas and objectives and discover how to make community objectives a more integral part of the education process. Participants from other countries will thereby have the opportunity to actually experience what teachers and community members experience and emancipate the educational process by augmenting the role and relevance of community priorities. Attendees will spend the final three days in or near Caracas, attending workshops and meetings that bring most of the participants together.

In the words of Professor Sojo, “As a consequence of this conference, we want to produce a document that makes a strong case for an educational alternative free of neoliberal and capitalist influences. A high quality, free education that is beneficial to our communities can be provided.”

The Fifth Ibero-American Conference of Teachers and Researchers is open to participation by non Spanish speaking educators, and translators are in place to accommodate them. For more information google “redcires.”

Mba Mbulu is an independent educator specializing in the politics of history, particularly as it relates to people of African descent throughout the world. He is the founder of Aset University, author of several books and creator of an alternative education curriculum. He can be contacted at mmbulu@asetbooks.com www.asetbooks.com AsetUniversity

Graduate Schools Guide

Picking out grad schools can be pretty tough. When I went to undergrad, everything was easy. I just found a local state school that had a good program. My grades were good, my SAT scores were excellent, so I had no trouble getting in. Finding a grad school, however, can be much more trying.

When you are selecting graduate schools, you do not look at the school's overall quality. Instead, you have to look at the quality of the graduate program. This can be pretty trying. The thing is, there is so much to consider. When I went to grad school, I chose it because of one professor. There were lots of good anthropology grad schools, but I wanted to study with a certain professor whose works I had read. I had admired him for a long time, and really wanted to pick his brain.

When I got to my grad school program, however, he was gone. In general, grad schools are pretty good at retaining faculty, but apparently there had been a big shakeup at the one I was going to. It really broke my heart. The rest of the program seemed to have nothing for me for a while. Then, finally, I found another professor to mentor me.

Of course, there are other programs called grad schools where it makes a lot less difference who is on the faculty. For example, online graduate degrees are not really grad schools in the traditional sense. They are not high-level academic institutions where you study under a small group of teachers in the hopes of mastering your craft or your knowledge. Instead, they are a way to get job training and job placement. Don't think that I'm knocking this ? I'm not. These grad schools serve a purpose. It always makes sense to get more training to get a better career!

When you are looking at grad schools, you should be aware of what kind of school you are looking at. There are many kinds of graduate programs, from two-year degrees to five year Ph.D. programs. Grad schools online typically are of the two-year variety. Nonetheless, there are some exceptions to this rule. Personally, I love grad school. For me, it is quite a thrill to be able to be subsidized to study. I love intellectual inquiry, and being paid money to do it is my dream come true. I hope to have a career as a professor one day.