Juan Carlos Tedesco (5 February 1944 – 8 May 2017) was an Argentine academic and policy maker who was the President's Education Minister, from December 2007 to July 2009.

Life and career

Tedesco was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

in 1944. Enrolling at the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most prestigi ...

, he graduated with a degree in Philosophy and Letters in 1968. He taught as Professor of Educational History in the Universities of La Plata, El Comahue and

La Pampa La Pampa () is a sparsely populated province of Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it ...

and authored his first book, ''Education and Society in Argentina, 1800-1945,'' in 1972. Tedesco was appointed as an education policy specialist in 1976 for

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

's Latin American Development and Education Project. He became Director of UNESCO's Regional Center for Latin American Higher Education in Caracas between 1982 and 1986 and of their Regional Education Center in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

between 1986 and 1992. Repression suffered by Argentine educators and students during its last dictatorship led Tedesco to co-author a criticism of the problem, ''The Authoritarian Educational Agenda'', with Cecilia Braslavsky in 1983. The experience earned him the post of Director of the IBE in

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, a position he held until 1997, and as head of the Buenos Aires UNESCO bureau, until 2004. Tedesco returned to Academia, dividing his time between the private Universidad de San Andrés and the public

National University of Tres de Febrero The National University of Tres de Febrero ( es, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero) is an Argentine national university. Graduate study programs *Bachelor's degree in business administration *Bachelor's degree in social politics administr ...

, both outside Buenos Aires. He was subsequently appointed to the Federal Teacher Training Commission by Education Minister

Daniel Filmus Daniel Fernando Filmus (; born June 3, 1955) is an Argentine politician and academic, currently serving as the country's Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, since 2021. Filmus formerly served as a National Senator for the City of Bu ...

, who replaced Vice Minister Alberto Sileoni with Tedesco in April 2006. The October 2007 election of Filmus as Senator for the city of Buenos Aires and of Senator

Cristina Kirchner Cristina is a female given name, and it is also a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Cristina (daughter of Edward the Exile), 11th-century English princess *Cristina (singer), Cristina Monet-Palaci (1956–2020), American s ...

as President of Argentina led to Tedesco's swearing-in as Education Minister on 10 December 2007. Following a defeat in the 28 June 2009, mid-term elections and a resulting cabinet shake-up, however, he was replaced on 20 July by Sileoni. Tedesco was made Executive Director of the Unit of Strategic Planning and Evaluation of the Argentine Educational System, an agency within the Office of the President. Tedesco died in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 8 May 2017 after a long illness. He was 73.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tedesco, Juan Carlos 1944 births 2017 deaths Argentine people of Italian descent People from Buenos Aires University of Buenos Aires alumni Argentine ministers of education Academic staff of the National University of La Plata UNESCO officials Argentine officials of the United Nations