2024 World Conference on Transformative Education in Puerto Rico

CLACS was thrilled to support the third World Conference on Transformative Education (WCTE) last month in San Juan, Puerto Rico! This conference, organized by the Global Institute for Transformative Education (GITE) in conjunction with Nuestra Escuela in Puerto Rico, welcomed participants from all over the world to discuss various ways of transforming educational practices to better reflect the needs of students in unique classroom settings.

Set on the beautiful campus of the University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras and following the theme “Educación Transformadora en las Americas,” the 2024 World Conference on Transformative Education featured 3 days of presentations, plenaries, workshops, keynotes, and performances. Topics presented focused on themes surrounding educational practices and experiences, allowing educators to learn about up-and-coming transformative methodologies and to share their own experiences from their classrooms with one another. This led to exciting discussions and collaborations between educators from around the globe, each sharing their own distinct perspectives and hopes for the future.

In attendance at this year’s conference were CLACS Director Dr. Serafín Coronel-Molina and Program Manager Emma Bonham, supporting the event and promoting the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at IU Bloomington. In fact, Dr. Coronel-Molina, one of the conference organizers and founding members of GITE, delivered the event’s closing Keynote speech, highlighting modern Indigeneity and transformational practices to bring Indigenous education back into the limelight.

While this year’s WCTE meeting was held in Puerto Rico under the theme of Transformative Education in the Americas, the previous year’s conferences were held in other parts of the world. The first World Conference on Transformative Education was held in Kakamega, Kenya in 2018; the second conference was held in Cape Coast, Ghana in 2023; and the fourth conference will be held in Cape Town, South Africa on July 3-5, 2025. While the theme for next year’s conference has yet to be announced, you may follow the conference webpage here for future updates.

Following this year’s conference, the Global Institute for Transformative Education will release a highly anticipated special edition of their Global Journal for Transformative Education (GJTE), highlighting papers and research which were presented in Puerto Rico during the meeting. That said, the journal already has 3 volumes and counting, sharing publications focused entirely on transformative educational practices and their implementations. According to the Global Institute for Transformative Education, “GJTE is an open-source, peer reviewed journal created to share research and practical applications related to transformative education in the entire spectrum of educational settings around the world. Authors are invited to submit manuscripts describing scholarly research, teaching strategies, curriculum frameworks. and reviews of educational resources that support transformative teaching and learning in PK-20 schools and adult education programs,” (GJTE). To learn more about the institute, or to submit a proposal for publication in GITE’s journal, please visit https://gite.education.