OLIVEIRA, DALILA ANDRADE; FELDFEBER, MYRIAM . Unionists, teachers, and academics resisting neoliberal reforms: building a network as a third space. GLOBALISATION, SOCIETIES AND EDUCATION (PRINT), v. 1, p. 1-13, 2024.
The article investigates the Estrado Network, which has united academics, trade unionists, and teachers in resistance against neoliberal globalisation while fostering educational alternatives for over twenty years. We utilise Bhabha’s ‘third space’ concept to examine the network’s role in the ‘hybridization of various discourses and perspectives. The foundation of our analysis rests on secondary documents and materials from the Estrado Network, including meeting records, publications, and internal reports supplemented by interviews with fourteen network members. We organise the article into four sections: Initially, we outline the context of the network’s emergence, emphasising the ascent of neoliberal educational reforms and growing educational inequalities in Latin America. Next, we discuss the network’s expansion and its sustained autonomy, along with its contributions to knowledge production regarding teachers’ work in the region. We then detail the principal characteristics of the Estrado Network, as described by its participants, based on the fourteen interviews. Finally, the article discusses how the network represents a novel organisational form, disrupting traditional academic, union, and educational realms by fostering new hybrid knowledge and practices.