Stories of teachers during the Colombian armed conflict: from memory to hope

Relatos de maestros en medio del conflicto armado colombiano: de la memoria a la esperanza

The act of storytelling goes far beyond the simple linking of words, phonemes, and graphemes in the narrative itself. Each story invites and encourages us to reflect on the interpretation of the world offered by the person telling the story. The aim of this article is therefore to understand the meaning and significance that teachers working in the midst of armed conflict give to their own stories. To achieve this objective, a qualitative research study was designed from a historical- hermeneutic perspective. In order to access the information and voices of the teachers participating in the research, a semi-structured interview was conducted and a workshop on story construction was held. In analyzing the information collected, categorical matrices were used, and the teachers’ voices were triangulated with various sources of specialized literature. The findings highlight three important issues, namely the relevance of understanding the nature of the Colombian armed conflict, the existence of a close relationship between the act of storytelling, typical of teachers, and the contingencies surrounding their work, as well as the links between memory and forgetting. Finally, the research allows us to conclude that, in the teachers’ discourses, there is no single narrative regarding the Colombian armed conflict. Instead, they urge us, through their own narratives, to think of the conflict as an opportunity and a source of hope.