Poetics and politics in the realm of early childhood and its teachers. A conversation with Yolanda Reyes

Abstract

This article presents some milestones in the biography and intellectual, political and academic career of the Colombian writer, columnist and educator Yolanda Reyes. Through an open conversation, this article presents concerns and actions that led her to be part of a mobilization that has contributed to trace the current meanings and forms of early education in the country. Her journey starts with the concern for the processes to begin training in reading and writing in school institutions. She discusses the practices about it and, through the discovery of the universe of children’s literature and its effects on children, she formalizes her commitment to understand the poetic stimulus in early childhood as a “nest” for the formal learning of reading and writing. It takes her to go deep in the reflection and the exercise of training teachers who work in early childhood education -considering especially their subjective world- and to enter the territory of public policies as a stage to interrupt and close the gap that social injustices produce in that founding moment of life and relationships with knowledge. Finally, she mentions the value of the guidelines that direct the actions of those who work directly with children, and she raises the need to focus future actions on training and “field” work.