Mendive. Journal on Education, July-September 2025; 23(3), e4339
Translated from the original in Spanish

 

Relevant pedagogues

Juan Alberto Mena Lorenzo (1962-2025). Forger of the future, sower of knowledge

 

Juan Alberto Mena Lorenzo (1962-2025). Forjador del porvenir, sembrador de saberes

 

Juan Alberto Mena Lorenzo (1962-2025). Forjador do futuro, semeador do conhecimento

 

Tania Yakelyn Cala Peguero1 0000-0003-1172-9182 taniac@upr.edu.cu

1 University of Pinar del Río "Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca". Center of Studies of Educational Sciences. Pinar del Río, Cuba.

 

There are human beings who are beacons. Not because they seek to illuminate themselves, but because their essence is to guide others. Such was the life of PhD. Juan Alberto Mena Lorenzo, who lived to teach, and taught to transform. He was born on October 5, 1962, in Pinar del Río, his first vocation was honest and useful work, and education soon embraced him as its most faithful son. From his beginnings at the "Primero de Mayo" Institute to his consolidation as an academic pillar at the Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca University of Pinar del Río, Professor Mena Lorenzo constantly dedicated himself to the education of generations of students, teachers, and researchers.

From his first steps in the academic world, Juan Alberto Mena Lorenzo embraced education as a life project. He began his higher education in a field that combined science, technology, and pedagogy: a Bachelor of Education with a focus on Machinery Construction, a degree he earned in 1984 from the then Héctor Alfredo Pineda Zaldívar University of Pedagogical Sciences for Technical and Professional Education.

A decade later, as a demonstration of his constant desire for improvement, he completed a degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pinar del Río. The fusion of applied engineering and pedagogy began to take shape, forming a comprehensive perspective that would inform all his future work.

In 2003, she completed her Master's degree in Pedagogical Sciences, where he delved into the theoretical foundations of technical and vocational training, laying the groundwork for what would later become his particular methodological and didactic approach: a pedagogy focused on the productive context, school-business integration, and the professionalization of content.

The pinnacle of his academic training came in 2008, when he successfully defended his PhD in Pedagogical Sciences at the Central Institute of Pedagogical Sciences in Cuba. Finally, in 2016, he completed postdoctoral studies in Developmental Didactics and Competency Development at the Universidad Santander in Mexico, which reinforced his internationalist vision and updated his teaching and professional training methods.

His entire educational career reflects an unwavering desire to excel. His learning wasn't cumulative; it was transformative. Each qualification earned became a living tool for the training of others.

PhD. Mena Lorenzo's professional career is a symphony of perseverance, service, and impact. He began his teaching career in 1984 as a professor of technical subjects at the "Primero de Mayo" Polytechnic Institute, where he taught for over a decade. He was also the assistant director of technical and vocational training subjects.

Between 1997 and 2007, he served as Provincial Deputy Director of Technical Education and Vocational Training in Pinar del Río and participated in important international programs, with academic stays in Guatemala, Venezuela, and Spain. As director of the Robinsonian Technical Schools Reactivation Project in Venezuela, between 2004 and 2007, he demonstrated that cooperation can be an educational and human bridge.

Since 2007, he joined the Rafael María de Mendive University of Pedagogical Sciences as a professor and university researcher and, later, at the Center for Educational Sciences Studies at the University of Pinar del Río (CECEPRI). There, he taught highly complex subjects at both undergraduate and graduate levels: Educational Research Methodology, Vocational Training Didactics, Pedagogical Ethics, School Organization, Curriculum Design, Psychopedagogical Diagnosis, among many others.

He was head of R&D&I research projects, coordinator of master's and doctoral programs, national advisor to the Ministry of Education for Technical and Vocational Education, head of a scientific group, external evaluator of formative impact, and tutor of more than 60 master's and doctoral theses. Over more than four decades, Juan Alberto Mena Lorenzo was more than an educator: he was an architect of formative paths, builder of methodological alternatives and tireless defender of quality in Cuban technical education.

He was the author and co-author of more than a hundred scientific articles, books, chapters and essays published in high-impact national and international journals (Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, Latindex). His signature is found in journals such as: Spanish Journal of Comparative Education, REDIE, Roca, Conrado, Mendive, Professional Pedagogy, Portuguese Journal of Pedagogy, among others.

Among his most studied topics are:

He participated in more than 50 national and international scientific events, where he served as a speaker, presenter, and workshop leader. His work transcended Cuba's borders, being recognized in Mexico, Sweden, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Chile, and other countries.

PhD. Mena Lorenzo has received numerous awards for his educational and scientific work. Among them are:

Each award he received was the result of a career guided by perseverance, integrity, and the social utility of education.

Beyond the researcher, professor, or manager, those who knew him remember him as a good man. With a calm speech, a kind demeanor, and an attentive listener, he knew how to exercise his authority wisely, without impositions. As a teacher, he was a model of humility and passion. He never denied time to anyone who needed guidance, a reading, or an opinion. He didn't teach from a pedestal, but from closeness, from pedagogical dialogue as an act of mutual trust. His students and colleagues remember him as a tireless educator, generous with knowledge, demanding yet humane. As one of his students famously said: " With PhD. Mena Lorenzo, one learned without fear, but with respect, because one knew one was in the presence of someone who was also learning from one of them."

Paulo Freire said that "education doesn't change the world: it changes the people who will change it." Juan Alberto Mena Lorenzo was one of those people. He educated to transform. He researched to build. He trained to serve.

And although he is no longer with us, his mark lives on: in every teacher who teaches with passion, in every student who excels, in every classroom where science and ethics walk hand in hand.

Thank you, teacher. Your work doesn't end here. It begins every day with those who continue to believe that teaching is also an act of love.

The complete lists of scientific events, publications and results of the academic production of PhD. Juan Alberto Mena Lorenzo are attached to this review, as documentary evidence of his vast and transcendent scientific work.

Participation in scientific events

Publications

Participation in research projects

Project title: Sustainable Intermediate Vocational Training. Contribution to its Improvement. Institutional. UPR. Project Manager

Participating entities: University of Pinar del Río, Ministry of Education.

Duration: 2021-2026

Project manager

Project title: Management of the training process of competent professionals for sustainable development.

Sectorial. Main entity UPR

Participating entities: University of Matanzas and University of Havana.

Duration: 2022-2025

Task Manager: University-Employment Liaison

Project title: Middle-level vocational training in the conditions of Pinar del Río

Associated with the National Program. Main entity of the UPR

Duration: 2016-2020

Project manager

Project title: Training a Skilled Workforce: Pathways to its Development

Associated with the National Program. Main entity of the UPR

Duration: 2012-2015

Head of the Pinar del Río Research Group

Project title: Shared vocational training between universities and production and service entities

Institutional. Rafael María de Mendive University of Pedagogical Sciences.

Duration: 2012-2015

Project manager

Project title: Diagnostic study of the curriculum in vocational training

Associated with the National Program. Principal Entity. Central Institute of Pedagogical Sciences (National Project)

Duration: 2012-2013

Head of the Pinar del Río Research Group

Project title: History of pedagogical vocational training in Pinar del Río

Rafael María de Mendive University of Pedagogical Sciences

Duration: 2007-2012

Project Manager

Project title: Reactivation of the Robinsonian Technical Schools.

Ministry of Education of Venezuela

Duration: 2003-2007

Project manager

Directed theses

Doctorate

Master degrees

Postgraduate specialty

Awards and recognitions (last five years)

Cuban Academy of Sciences (ACC) Award

Technological Innovation Awards (IT)

Others

 

Conflict of interest

The author declares that she has no conflicts of interest.

 

Authors' contribution

The author designed and wrote the section.

 


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