In the rural provinces of southern Santander (Colombia) a social movement has been developed; it is comprised of cooperatives, associations, social corporations and social foundations. The movement originated from various pastoral actions led by Ramon Gonzalez, a Catholic priest. Various other priests and lay people were also involved in the movement and, over the course of five decades, they created a network of diverse social organizations. Cooperative education was conceived as the mobilizing strategy of the changes proposed by the movement. This article has three parts: the first one presents the background of cooperatives in the territory, secondly, it presents the principles and criteria that inspire the educational action and finally some results of the experience are presented.