Paper Short Abstract:

This ethnographic work analyzes the alternative forms of security created and developed by The Caqueta Teachers’ Network who undertake pedagogical duties in the face of community experiences of death, abuse, and displacement during the armed conflict and so-called post-conflict era.

Paper Abstract:

Despite the official end of Colombia’s lengthy armed conflict, rural-based youth in Colombia face human rights violations such as: a) enforced recruitment; b). enforced displacement; c). homicide of their parents; d). enforced disappearance and kidnapping; e) armed group forced assumption of control and usage of their educational facilities; f). unsatisfied basic needs, among others (Rivera Burgos 2022; Comisión de la Verdad 2022b). In response, The Caqueta Teachers’ Network have developed alternative forms of pedagogy through educational tools that mobilize the encrypted memory of their students to preserve collective safety and local peacebuilding against the impacts of both armed conflict and post-conflict violence. Working respectfully in engagement with this communities, this ethnographic work analyzes the alternative forms of security created and developed by The Caqueta Teachers’ Network who undertake pedagogical duties in the face of community experiences of death, abuse, and displacement during the armed conflict and so-called post-conflict era. Drawing on scholarship on feminist geopolitics and research into grassroots practices of grounded protections (or alter geopolitics), We explore how The Caqueta Teachers’ Network meet, seek, generate, and implement collective resistance to address everyday violence while weaving cross-national solidarity with the Truth Commission in Colombia, Former FARC-EP militants, and non-partisan organizations such as Embrace Dialogue.