Alumni Spotlight: Patricia Auerbach (Ed.M. '22)

Patricia, thank you for agreeing to participate in this interview. You are an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator, an activist, an entrepreneur, a teacher educator, a Harvard alumna, among other things. How do you summarize yourself and your journey?

I see myself primarily as a bridge-builder. My entire journey has been about connecting things: words and images, books and children, the theory of education with the reality of the classroom, and, most importantly, connecting isolated teachers with a supportive community.

It all stems from a core belief that learning happens in connection. Redelê was born from the idea that significant knowledge is built through experience, dialogue and interaction, and that for our kids to become passionate readers, our teachers need to be good readers first. It is the entrepreneurial expression of my life’s work: creating spaces where people can learn and grow together by sharing their own stories and exchanging practices to learn from and with each other.

How has your creative work influenced other aspects of your professional life?

My creative work as an author and illustrator is the bedrock of everything else I do. Writing for children teaches you the ultimate lesson in empathy and communication: you take a complex idea and distill it into its clearest, most engaging form, always respecting your audience’s intelligence and experience.

I apply that same principle to teacher education. For learning to be meaningful, it has to be a human, engaging, and shared experience. That was the starting point for Redelê, an online initiative where teachers find training on concrete, everyday challenges, experience the joy of reading groups, and, most of all, build a collaborative network of educators from different contexts but with similar challenges and beliefs.
 

We meet in group discussions where we share experiences, learn from and with each other, and build knowledge that has an impact in classrooms, libraries, and educators’ personal lives. At Redelê, teachers don’t just consume content; they co-construct knowledge. They share what works and what doesn’t, and they realize that many of their challenges are collective. By addressing teacher isolation, we help educators become more effective and confident practitioners—directly impacting student learning in literacy, numeracy, and beyond.

Brazil faces significant challenges in literacy and numeracy. What do you see as a few of the main challenges, and what are you and your colleagues doing to help address them?

The challenges are vast and systemic, but one of the most critical, and often overlooked, is how little teachers read in Brazil. Last year, the Retratos da Leitura survey showed that, for the first time, teachers’ reading habits did not differ from the rest of the population. When asked about their last book read, 53% of teachers responded that they had not read a book, in whole or in part, in the past three months. The Bible was identified as the most frequently read, followed by self-help titles.

If teachers don’t read literature, how will they build the repertoire needed to recommend high-quality readings for their students? How will they facilitate meaningful discussions in their classrooms?

This is a major gap Redelê aims to fill. We believe that the most powerful engine for improving education is raising the volume and quality of reading among educators. That’s why, instead of just offering courses on how to foster reading, we offer rich collective reading experiences. Through our weekly Book Clubs, we bring teachers from diverse contexts—rural, urban, public, private—together in a safe, synchronous environment.

To ensure everyone can participate, we begin each meeting by reading aloud the text that will be discussed. This way, teachers that come from diverse settings don’t need to have read the book beforehand or own a copy to engage fully.

Could you share a story or example of how Redelê has impacted teachers?

It’s difficult to single out just one story because the most profound impact we see is a recurring pattern of transformation that unfolds over time. Many educators join us carrying the weight of professional isolation and fragile training. They arrive quiet, often timid.

For example, in our Book Clubs, a new member’s initial contributions may simply connect the reading to a personal life experience. That is a valuable starting point, but we know they are truly evolving as readers and thinkers when their contributions deepen. They begin comparing the book we are reading with other works and authors, demonstrating a clear expansion of their professional and literary repertoire and more complex interdisciplinary thinking.
 

As they experience a consistent and safe environment, a visible shift occurs. They become more secure and start bringing specific challenges from their classrooms into the discussion, making the exchange of practices far more powerful and useful. Together, we analyze what went well, what didn’t, and why. This way, the whole group can learn from one another's real experiences.

That’s the turning point: they feel heard and supported. They are no longer just individuals reflecting alone; they are part of a professional collective.

So, the “story” of Redelê isn’t about one single event. It’s about watching teachers move from timid, personal reflection to becoming confident, analytical practitioners who are empowered by a community that stands with them. We still have a long way to go, but we know we can make a difference in their lives.

What is Redelê focusing on now? What is next?

Right now, our focus is on scaling our impact sustainably. We’ve proven our model and the value it brings to educators. Our immediate goal is to grow our community to 2,000–3,000 members, both by reaching individual teachers and by establishing more partnerships with schools, organizations, and school districts that can enroll their teams.
 

We have just replicated our original community, creating a “twin community” to maintain that crucial sense of belonging even as we grow. Our aim is to ensure that every educator in Brazil has a network to call their own.

This second community is supported by the Lei Rouanet cultural incentive program, and we expect to reach 900 members in the coming weeks. Still, the situation remains challenging. We are far from securing the necessary budget to sustain the clubs, and at this point any support in raising the Rouanet-sponsored funds would be greatly appreciated.

Our dream is simple yet ambitious: every teacher who feels more prepared to teach, supported by their peers, and who (re)discovers the joy of reading, brings us closer to transforming education. We welcome all who wish to walk this journey with us.

Patricia Auerbach was a 2021-22 Lemann Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

patricia@redele.com.br
@pati.auerbach

www.redele.com.br
@redele.br