Dr. Rosa-María Torres Del Castillo

Rosa María Torres del Castillo is an educationalist and linguist with long experience as a researcher and international adviser on topics related to education, educational change, learning communities, and lifelong learning. She has lived and worked for long periods in Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Argentina and the US, and has undertaken technical missions throughout the world, in Latin America, Africa and Asia. In her home country, Ecuador, she was Minister of Education and Cultures (2003) and Pedagogical Director of the National Literacy Campaign “Monsignor Leonidas Proaño” (1988-90). 

She has been involved with the Education for All (EFA) world initiative since its inception: at UNESCO’s invitation she attended both the Jomtien conference (1990) and the Dakar Forum (2000); she has worked for UNICEF’s HQ Education Cluster as a Senior Education Adviser and Editor of UNICEF’s Education News (1990-1996); she has written extensively on EFA developments both regionally and globally; and, since 2002, she has coordinated the Latin American Statement for Education for All and provided follow-up to EFA as well as to other regional and international education initiatives. She has also worked in and for UNESCO in different capacities: between 1998 and 2000 she worked at the IIEP UNESCO Regional office in Buenos Aires; in 2000 she was commissioned to draft the Base Document for the United Nations Literacy Decade; and in 2008 she was in charge of drafting the regional report to be presented at the VI International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) held in Brazil in December 2009. In 2013 she was invited by UNESCO to join the Senior Expert Group in charge of "Rethinking Education in a Changing World", based on revisiting the 1972 Faure and the 1966 Delors Reports.  

She has also worked for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation as Program Director, based in Buenos Aires (1996-98), where she developed the “Learning Community” regional initiative. In 2009 she created the Latin American Group of Specialists in Literacy and Written Culture (GLEACE). She is the author of numerous publications, manages several blogs and coordinates various virtual networks and fora. 

Personal blog: http://otra-educacion.blogspot.com/