Defending life in post-conflict territories: Education for ecological justice in los Alpes, Medina, Cundinamarca
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34069/RA/2026.17.05Keywords:
ecological justice, socioecological mobilization, critical environmental education, territorial defense, socio-environmental conflict.Abstract
This article analyzes the pedagogical experience Senti-pensarnos con la Tierra, developed in Los Alpes, Medina
(Cundinamarca, Colombia), with the aim of understanding how educational and community-based practices focused on
territorial defense contribute to the formation of ecological subjectivities in contexts shaped by armed conflict and
extractive disputes. The research was conducted through a qualitative critical-social and biographical-narrative approach,
using in-depth interviews, observation, focus groups, and documentary analysis supported by the software ATLAS.ti. The
findings reveal that socioecological mobilization processes strengthen peasant resistance, community reconstruction, and
the defense of water resources against threats associated with oil expansion and ecological violence within the territory.
Likewise, the study identified a gradual transition from anthropocentric rationalities toward ecocentric perspectives
grounded in the care of life, the recovery of ancestral knowledge, and ecological justice. This article constitutes a partial
result of the doctoral research Toward an Education with Ecological Justice: Approaches from Pedagogical Experiences,
developed within the Interinstitutional Doctorate in Education at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Rubiela Rocío López Rodríguez
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