Born in Argentina in 1944, J. C. Tedesco studied educational sciences at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Buenos Aires where he graduated in 1968. He then taught the history of education in the Universities of La Plata, Comahue and La Pampa, where he also assumed the role of Academic Secretary.In 1976, he joined UNESCO as a specialist in the field of educational policies for the UNESCO/CEPAL/UNDP Project "Development and Education in Latin America and the Caribbean" where he was responsible for research on education and employment. Between 1982 and 1986 he was Director of CRESALC (UNESCO's Regional Centre for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, Caracas, Venezuela). In 1986 he was appointed Director of UNESCO's Regional Office for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC, Santiago, Chile), a position which he held until 1992. From that date until March 1998, he occupied the post of Director of the International Bureau of Education (IBE) in Geneva, Switzerland. From 1997 to 2005 he was Director of the Regional Office of the International Institute of Educational Planning, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was Secretary of Education of Argentina from April 2006 to December 2007, when he took over as Minister of Education of Argentina.He has conducted many missions of technical assistance and is the author of numerous articles and books on education and society, among which may be mentioned: Educación, sociedad en Argentina: 1800-1945 (Buenos Aires, 1972); El Proyecto Educativo Autoritario: Argentina 1976-82 (Buenos Aires, 1983); ‘The paradigms of socio-educational research in Latin America’; Comparative education review, 1987; "The role of the State in education" Prospects, 1989; La Juventud Universitaria en América Latina.(comp.). (Caracas,1986.); El Desafío Educativo: Calidad y Democracia (Buenos Aires. 1987). El rol de la educación en el desarrollo de América Latina (Santillana, 1995); Education, Competitiveness and Citizenship in Modern Society (Geneve, 1997). He has been member of the Conseil académique of the University of Geneva (Switzerland), and he is a member of the Consejo del Instituto Nacional de Calidad de la Educación (INCE), Madrid (Spain).
