A escola da vida

Abstract

This paper discusses the complex relations between education, identity and social change, focusing specifically on the life-histories of Simon Bolívar, Benito Juárez and Ernesto Guevara. The reconstitution of their biographical pathways, supported by recent sociological theories on the constitution of social actors, allows us to identify some of the key features of their identities and, simultaneously, to rethink how different socializing experiences are combined in the formation of individual identities and dispositions in creative and tension-provoking ways. The article's main thesis is that this combination of divergent social reference points is not only possible, but is promoted by (and represents) broad sociohistorical transformations.