Introduction

Abstract

This chapter introduces the reader to Pedagogies and Curriculums to (Re)imagine Public Education: Transnational Tales of Hope and Resistance by outlining the reasons that led to the writing of this book. The chapter starts by providing a personal account of the importance of public education and by raising the question of whether the term public still applies to educational systems in which management and pedagogical visions are increasingly privatized. The chapter offers three international scenarios experienced by the author as an illustration of how private visions of education are silently but effectively replacing our public and democratic imagination in schools. Inspired by Paulo Freire’s mandate to hope as a democratic responsibility, the chapter extends an invitation to find new public ground for our public imagination by embarking on a pedagogical trip through eleven schools around the world (U.S., Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, UK, Spain, Italy, Turkey and Hong Kong) and by reflecting on the theoretical propositions they offer us to rethink public education today. The chapter concludes with a detailed description of each of the schools as well as the first chapter that maps the book’s theoretical framework and the concluding chapter reflecting upon the journey.