Imagine a teacher standing in front of her class, explaining the period of Argentina's last military dictatorship. She does so, she says, "in a neutral way." She wants to be objective, not to influence anyone, to let each person draw their own conclusions.
"There is a political stance hiding behind an ostensibly ideological neutrality."
Esteban Pintos
A sociologist who graduated from the UBA, specialist in Research Methodology and Doctor of Education, Esteban Pintos will open that scene — and many others like it — on Saturday, May 16, in a new edition of Enclave Libre, the Universidad Liberté lecture series. This time, with a detail that is far from minor: he joins via Zoom, while around 40 incarcerated people follow the session in person from the Unidad Penal N°15 in Batán, as part of the educational processes that Liberté has sustained there for years. At the same time, an open virtual audience can join from anywhere in the country.
The title of the session captures its spirit: "The politics you don't see: education and everyday life."
The everyday is also ideological
Esteban has a repertoire of examples that look like anecdotes and, on closer inspection, are anything but harmless.
"When a teacher tells a colleague, at the start of the school year, that she 'left the class nice and clean,' implying that the year before there were many students who shouldn't have been in the classroom."
A hallway remark, said without malice, that carries a very clear position about who deserves to be inside the education system and who does not. The same, he says, is true of the way a class is taught, of whether or not students are invited to participate, of how communication happens: "All of that reflects political and ideological positions that in most cases are not conscious ones."
"This isn't for me — I'm not a teacher"
That's the first thing many of us think when we hear "sociology of education." Esteban dismantles it like this:
"We all have opinions about almost everything. Those opinions respond to a particular theoretical and philosophical framework. What happens is that we don't know it. When someone says 'those people should all be killed,' well, that is tied to a specific theory. The way we name things is shaped by ideology, in everyday speech."
In other words: reflection on how the political seeps into what we say is not the exclusive domain of teachers or academics. It is the concern of anyone who, at some point, opens their mouth.
What difference does it make that it happens in Batán?
Esteban is clear: the core content does not change. What changes is the context.
"What changes are the specific authors covered in a course syllabus, or the intensification of a particular issue because it corresponds to a study plan. But what does not change is the reflection on how the political and the ideological run through our everyday lives without our being aware of it."
And yet, it is worth pausing for a moment on the where. Thinking about "the politics you don't see in the classroom" in front of 40 incarcerated people is not the same as thinking about it in a university lecture hall. Because among those present are people who, at some point, were part of those classes that some teacher left "nice and clean." There are people who know firsthand what happens when an institution decides who belongs and who does not. The conversation stops being theoretical.
That Enclave Libre takes place in this setting — as part of the daily work that Coop Liberté sustains in Batán alongside families affected by the penal system, teachers, and volunteers — gives the exercise a different weight. Talking about "what the classroom reproduces" in the abstract is not the same as doing so where that reproduction has a face, a name, and an address.
The organizer: Cecilia Pintos
This Enclave comes to the Coop through Cecilia Pintos, co-founder of Universidad Liberté, permanent collaborator with Liberté, and — on top of all that — Esteban's sister. Asked why she chose this topic, she responds:
"It is one of the research areas he develops, and I think the reflection on how the ideological and the political run through everyday life without our realizing it can be really interesting. When we speak, we are always also saying other things without knowing it. The classroom and education are no exception."
We also asked her for a more personal take on the speaker:
"As Esteban's sister, I would like people to take away his passion, a little of his working journey — which is very extensive and painstaking — his solidarity, and his constant effort to stay true to what he says and what he does."
How to participate
- When: Saturday, May 16, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. (Argentina time).
- Speaker: Esteban Pintos (via Zoom).
- In-person audience: around 40 incarcerated people at the Unidad Penal N°15 in Batán, as part of Liberté's educational work.
- Zoom (open virtual audience):
- YouTube Live: Canal Cooperativa Liberté.
- Cost: Free.
- Certificate: Digital participation certificate, endorsed by Universidad Liberté.
Registration open to the entire community. More than 148 people have already signed up. Register here: universidadliberte.org/enclavelibre/EL-160526.
