Popular Education in Nongovernmental Organizations: Education for Social Mobilization?

Salomon Magendzo contrasts the government-sponsored educational system in Chile with ''popular education, " a community-based education movement concerned with empowering poor people and involving them in the transformation of society. To this end, the Interdisciplinary Program for Research in Education, a nongovernmental organization affiliated with the Catholic Church in Chile, is committed to creating social change by conducting research on educational problems and by promoting educational change. In this article Magendzo describes some of the popular education projects developed by PIIE that address specific problems encountered by the communities and that assist the participants in carrying out comprehensive educational and social change.