Abstract

In recent decades, Latin American countries have experienced increased enrollment, yet many children and youth remain outside the education system, questioning its relevance. In this context, teachers are called to be aware of and value children and youth’s cultural diversity to harness it as the basis for relevant and transformative education. In this article, we analyse the teachers’ and teacher educators’ reflections about their practices sparked by collaborative ethnography experiences with children and youth in Chilean reinsertion and re-entry programs. In the results, teachers and teacher educators reflect on the value of collaborative ethnographies in mobilising transformative reflections about children and youth as active makers of the social world. We also discuss the openings of this methodological approach to reduce asymmetries between adults, children, and youth and the latter’s role as co-producers of teacher professional development programmes. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.