It is necessary to have hope, but to have hope of the verb to hope (“esperança and esperar” in Portuguese); because there are people who have hope of the verb to wait. And hope from the verb to wait is not hope, it is waiting. To hope is to get up, to hope is to go after, to hope is to build, to hope is not to give up! To hope is to carry on, to hope is to join with others to do it differently. (^{Freire, 1992}).

In the last presentations we have written, we moved between collective tensions that characterized the difficult years we are living through, and our personal distress about Education in a pandemic context. Starting from this, we can think that both situations are evident, beyond the disease, that is, by the crises convergences - economic, environmental, and climatic, food, political representations by the proto-fascist insinuations that insist on threatening our democracy, and mainly, by the constant need to (re) exist through alternative educational perspectives.

We understand that resisting and existing actions, in front of the attacks aimed at the disrupting Education field, this is what places us in a privileged situation of alliances, following the idea of ^{Butler (2018}), with other colleagues involved in the responsible and productive defense of practices and reflections, while helping to strengthen our work journeys and our hopes for the end of these “strange” times. We must highlight: Education has been threatened by arguments that, a few years ago, we imagined incapable of being taken seriously.

In this context, we highlight that some clues to understand how the attempt to depreciate the Education area operates, and that could be identified its implications, for example, in a recent conversation between Graduate Program in Education teachers, from the Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul, when discussing about the place of "Science in the post-truth", in the last Academic Day of the Master's and Doctorate programs of the institution, Betina ^{Hillesheim and Mozart Linhares da Silva (2020}) argued that we live in times marked by a neoliberal ethos, from which complex and relevant issues come to be thought about and explained through reasoning and simplistic and immediate arguments.

Certainly, as they mentioned, it is not a unilateral action, but mainly, collective practices, and emergent demands from subjects that every day become more fascinated by the "quick" and "accurate" answers for any of the problems, challenges, and even resolutions. Perhaps, it is the optimism and the dramatic way in which they present their ideas, sometimes absurd, that motivate thousands - or millions - of people who believe that meritocracy and individualism are the best options for a better future and the "end of the crises”. A big mistake.

With that in mind, recently we thought that the year 2021 would be challenging, but new, having into account that the prognosis for vaccines and the decline in the strength of the pandemic were approaching. However, with each organization movement of a new volume of the Reflexão e Ação Magazine, since the Moretti and Darsie association began, we perceive that our intentions related to the writing of a cheerful text, about the return of free circulation, feelings and affections, and hugs, the games in the schoolyards and the universities’ "cafes" remain as a topic that "we will be discussing the next edition."

However, as the title of this editorial suggests, 2021 is a celebration year, even among the challenges that surround us. We commemorate the centenary of the birth of Paulo Freire, and, therefore, the current edition is dedicated to education through a tribute to this important Brazilian educator. Thus, we have the Thematic Dossier: Paulo Freire and Popular Education: culture, methodologies, places, and subjects organized by Sandro de Castro Pitano, Universidade de Caxias do Sul - UCS and Maria Tereza Goudard Tavares, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - UERJ, colleagues from the Working Group in the National Association for Post-graduation and Research - ANPEd. And in which 09 articles are available that discuss educational issues through Freirean thought. This initiative arises from the IV National Seminar of Popular Education / ANPed Working Group: prospects in times of pandemic(s), held in September 2020. The texts selected for this dossier reflect the interests of debates on three axes that promoted the aforementioned seminar that has itinerant and collaborative characteristics, in the Freirean sense. For this reason, the commission was broad and diverse: Telmo Adams, Danilo R. Streck and Isabel Bilhão from Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos), Edla Eggert from Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Sandro de Castro Pitano and Nilda Stecanela from Universidade de Caxias do Sul (UCS), Cheron Zanini Moretti from Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul (UNISC), Thiago Ingrassia Pereira from Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul (UFFS / Erechim, RS) and Fernanda dos Santos Paulo from Universidade do Oeste de Santa Catarina (Unoesc).

So, we invite everyone to read the editorial written by the organizers, beyond the articles published in this very special issue. The reader will be able to appreciate the interview that both organizers conducted along with Danilo R. Streck, currently a researcher at the Universidade de Caxias do Sul (UCS) recognized for the open, curious, and generous dialogue with / about Paulo Freire’s work. Additionally, an “autobiographical review” is presented if that type of writing exists (!), About Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 1992) written from the memoirs and the meetings of the researcher Nize Maria Campos Pellanda from the Universidade Federal do Semi-Árido (UFERSA), with Paulo Freire in Rio Grande do Sul.

We also highlight the idealization and realization of the Dialogue Cycle: Paulo Freire Centennial, organized by the Postgraduate Program in Education - Master and Doctorate of Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul, by the Popular Education of Latin America and del Caribe Counsil - CEAAL and by the Revista Reflexão e Ação that, from June to September 2021, celebrates the birth of the education Brazilian patron with three large virtual dialogical circles, broadcast on the UNISC AO VIVO Channel, on YouTube. Hence, we seek to cover his career and his contributions in three meetings. In the first one, we have the participation of Carlos Rodrigues Brandão from Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) and Adriane R.S. de Lima from Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA) to discuss the topic: “Paulo Freire so many years later: Latin American memories and adventures ”; In the second cycle, we have Walter Omar Kohan reflections from Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and from Instituto McLaren de Pedagogía Crítica (Mexico) and Rosa “Rosy” Elva Zúñiga López from Instituto Mexicano para el Desarrollo Comunitario (Mexico) / CEAAL on “Paulo Freire: popular education, critical pedagogy and liberation”, closing our festivities and opening, even more, the possibilities for a better understanding of the legacy and the university of this incredible educator.

In this edition, Reflexão e Ação readers will know another 06 articles that stood out for their subject matter and excellence, such as: “Beyond the guides: reflections about teaching of development psychology in health sciences” by Fabio Scorsolini-Comin, researcher at Universidade de São Paulo (USP); followed by “The state of knowledge on the multifunctional resources rooms: the academic productions of the strictu sensu Graduate Programs in Brazil” by Jaqueline Santos Vargas Plaça and Shirley Takeco Gobara, both researchers at Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul ( UFMS); "The manuals and pedagogy of teaching in Early Childhood Education" by Marcelo Oliveira da Silva, Rodrigo Saballa de Carvalho and Amanda de Oliveira Lopes, all from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS); "The senses of the contemporary school: highlights from the narratives of young students" by Rita Cristine Basso Soares Severo and Franciele Thais Scheuer, researcher at the Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul (UERGS); "Public health policy and migrants: challenges for Health Education" by Daniela Da Rosa Molinari, Luciana Turatti, Ioná Carreno, researchers at the Universidade do Vale do Taquari (Univates); and, finally, the article entitled "Slave and noble teachings: philosophy and education" by Gilberto Silva dos Santos and Samuel Edmundo Lopez Bello, also researchers from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).

It is with great satisfaction, that we invite everyone to make good readings and to "hope" from the Freirean perspective. Well, 2021 is also a celebration year of the criticality, creativity, and ethics that is present in each one of us that Paulo Freire reinvents, in the promotion of credible and possible educational alternatives.