Is there an upper teachers college in Latin America? the case of Brazil and Colombia

Abstract

This text has as its objective a discussion of ideas that have been consolidating for some time; and nothing is better than conversations between professors and doctoral students to expose new ideas and stir up debate.

Starting from the premise that the Upper Teachers College of Latin America, in smaller or greater degrees, was influenced by the French model, the author indicates some critical aspects of the model from the end of 19th to the beginning of the 20th century in order to provide a basis for his ideas. The author elaborates the context of Latin American teachers colleges at the end of the century, represented by Colombia and Brazil. The author presents the ideas behind the Upper Teachers College in both countries, and the desires that fed their initial proposal, their importance in the period of the belle époque of the teachers colleges in Brazil and Colombia, and their decadent aspects.

In summary, the author consolidates a hypothesis that the French model in Latin America was never able to generate a leading intelligentsia for the countries and, hence, none of the Teachers Colleges carried out their roles according to the imagined model. In other words, the model provided neither numerous cultured professors in the liberal arts nor superior teachers for the Republic.