How did processes of independence happen in American countries? What relations were established between national projects and projects for population development? How has the theme of emancipation marked (and still marks) the history of these countries and the peoples’ education? Based on these complex questions, this dossier analyzes the phenomenon of emancipation and its celebration in Chile, USA and Brazil; it is a condition to make the geopolitics of education and pedagogy on national and transnational scale thinkable.