Day 1
Title: Indigenous Peoples & Intercultural Education in Latin America
2:30pm-3:50pm
Panel Description
The development of comparative and international education as an academic field emerged from theoretical frameworks based on Eurocentric epistemologies and theories of modernization that suppress the diversity of the ethnic, racial, and intellectual heterogeneity of the world's Indigenous and non-dominant peoples and regions. Scholars from the global South have began to question the narrow conceptions of knowledge typically produced by international organizations and Northern and U.S. institutions of higher learning. The presenters in this panel will draw from recent developments in Latin American thought to examine the challenges that Indigenous peoples in the region continue to face in protecting their right to an education inclusive of their languages, cultures and epistemologies.
Historically, Latin American states have regarded cultural and linguistic diversity as an obstacle to the consolidation of national identity projects. Schools either denied access to Indigenous children or excluded Indigenous languages and cultures from education, with detrimental effects on the education of Indigenous peoples. In addition, the educational systems in the region have been organized in a way that only Western knowledge—both in the sciences and the humanities—has come to occupy the position of legitimate knowledge. Indigenous knowledges, on the other hand, have been relegated to the margins of academia and, consequently, rendered irrelevant in the region’s national education projects.
Only in recent decades have many states in the Latin America made a significant effort to increase the access of Indigenous peoples to education and to adopt intercultural and bilingual education (known in Spanish as EIB, Educación Intercultural Bilingue) as a policy and a pedagogical model. Educators across the region are beginning to develop school curricula that are rooted in Indigenous knowledges and epistemologies. The presenters in this panel critically assess this momentous policy shift through a series of case studies that highlight the importance of decolonizing the school curricula in an effort to achieve greater intercultural understanding and equity through education. Particular emphasis will be paid to questions of contemporary intercultural relations in the context of Mexico and the Andes, the regions where the largest number of Indigenous peoples live in Latin America. Taken together, the papers to be presented in this panel will make an important contribution to the theme of the CIES 2015 conference and to theories and methods in comparative and international education in general. As we stroke of the past six decades of our society’s existence, we can benefit from what epistemologies from the South can offer to our conceptions of education.
Panelists
Amanda Earl, Victor Llanque, Cristina González Fitch
Discussant
Regina Cortina
Amanda Earl
Biography
Amanda Earl is a graduate student in the International Educational Development Program of the International and Transcultural Studies Department at Teachers College. She has worked as an educator for over seven years, both as a teacher in Philadelphia and Argentina and in college access for recent immigrant high school students in New York City. She holds a B.A. in Classics from Brown University.
Panel Abstract
Inclusion vs. Interculturalidad: Attaining Equity in Higher Education for Indigenous Populations in Latin America
This paper discusses tertiary education programs in Mexico that aim to increase the access of Indigenous peoples to institutions of higher education. Through analysis of affirmative action programs such as the Ford Foundation’s International Fellowships Program as well as aspects of the state-run system of Intercultural Universities, the author compares programs that aim to increase representation of Indigenous students at mainstream universities, with the missions and aims of Intercultural Universities developed to provide a culturally relevant and identity-affirming higher education to Indigenous students. This paper also asks to what extent these access programs provide equitable and critically intercultural teaching and learning opportunities for Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. While these programs each aim for the creation of intercultural environments that recognize different ways of being, learning, and living, it is difficult for higher education institutions to escape completely the pressures of conforming to more traditional Western and exclusive educational models. The article concludes with recommendations for the refinement of intercultural models of higher education that will not only prepare Indigenous graduates to navigate both Western and non-traditional institutions and professional spheres, but also to overcome the colonial power dynamics by which they have traditionally been marginalized.
Victor Llanque
Biography
Victor Llanque Zonta is a doctoral student in International and Comparative Education, with a concentration in Economics and Education, at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research interests pertain to the intersections between intercultural relations, equity and education in urban spaces in Latin America. Victor is also the Director of the World Perspectives Program and the Global Studies Department Chair at Greens Farms Academy, a K-12 independent school in Westport, CT. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Anthropology from Macalester College and a M.A. in Social Studies Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Panel Abstract
The Darker Side of Bolivian Modernity: Online Racism in times of “Progress”
This paper explores how urban development shapes intercultural relations in the context of La Paz, Bolivia. The ongoing construction of a mass-cable car network as the city’s core public transit system has brought about greater contact between groups of people of different social, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds. This paper seeks to make sense of the online racism that emerged as more people from El Alto City, with its predominantly Indigenous population, used the new cable-cars to travel to parts of La Paz City that have traditionally been used by white middle and upper class residents. Taking a clue from Walter Mignolo’s thesis that modernity and coloniality are two sides of the same coin, this paper seeks to explain what the online racism, and the debates around them tell us about the underlying tensions that exist within the changing social order of Bolivia’s capital. The paper concludes with an analysis of various efforts by civil society organizations and the state to combat racism through formal and non-formal education programs.
Cristina González Fitch
Biography
Cristina González Fitch is a Masters candidate in the International Educational Development program in Teachers College. She has worked on informal educational programs in Miami, Fl and her native Mexico. She is currently researching migrant womens' (re)configuration of self in NYC and in Mexico City. She holds a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Miami.
Panel Abstract
Horizontal Intercultural Education: Peer-to-Peer Tutorial Relationships as a Tool for Interculturality in Chiapas
This paper analyzes peer-to-peer tutorial relationships to address challenges that may arise from Intercultural Bilingual Education programs in the context of Chiapas, Mexico. First, it explores the horizontal relationships created through peer-to-peer tutoring, in which students both learn and teach through individualized interactions. Defining intercultural education as the practice of recognizing and celebrating cultural differences, critically negotiating historical inequalities, and enabling the horizontal interaction between and within cultures, the author discusses the potential use of tutoring to improve intercultural education. Using the experiences of Redes de Tutoria, a civil society organization in Chiapas, Mexico working in public schools creating tutorial networks, the paper analyzes the implications of breaking the teacher-student hierarchy in a diverse indigenous context. It concludes that in the open and horizontal dialogue, the student and tutor have the autonomy to create a truly unique learning experience pulling from shared or isolated experiences, cultural practices, or languages that could aid them in a better understanding of both the lesson being learned/taught and each other.
Regina Cortina, Discussant
Title: Indigenous Peoples & Intercultural Education in Latin America
2:30pm-3:50pm
Panel Description
The development of comparative and international education as an academic field emerged from theoretical frameworks based on Eurocentric epistemologies and theories of modernization that suppress the diversity of the ethnic, racial, and intellectual heterogeneity of the world's Indigenous and non-dominant peoples and regions. Scholars from the global South have began to question the narrow conceptions of knowledge typically produced by international organizations and Northern and U.S. institutions of higher learning. The presenters in this panel will draw from recent developments in Latin American thought to examine the challenges that Indigenous peoples in the region continue to face in protecting their right to an education inclusive of their languages, cultures and epistemologies.
Historically, Latin American states have regarded cultural and linguistic diversity as an obstacle to the consolidation of national identity projects. Schools either denied access to Indigenous children or excluded Indigenous languages and cultures from education, with detrimental effects on the education of Indigenous peoples. In addition, the educational systems in the region have been organized in a way that only Western knowledge—both in the sciences and the humanities—has come to occupy the position of legitimate knowledge. Indigenous knowledges, on the other hand, have been relegated to the margins of academia and, consequently, rendered irrelevant in the region’s national education projects.
Only in recent decades have many states in the Latin America made a significant effort to increase the access of Indigenous peoples to education and to adopt intercultural and bilingual education (known in Spanish as EIB, Educación Intercultural Bilingue) as a policy and a pedagogical model. Educators across the region are beginning to develop school curricula that are rooted in Indigenous knowledges and epistemologies. The presenters in this panel critically assess this momentous policy shift through a series of case studies that highlight the importance of decolonizing the school curricula in an effort to achieve greater intercultural understanding and equity through education. Particular emphasis will be paid to questions of contemporary intercultural relations in the context of Mexico and the Andes, the regions where the largest number of Indigenous peoples live in Latin America. Taken together, the papers to be presented in this panel will make an important contribution to the theme of the CIES 2015 conference and to theories and methods in comparative and international education in general. As we stroke of the past six decades of our society’s existence, we can benefit from what epistemologies from the South can offer to our conceptions of education.
Panelists
Amanda Earl, Victor Llanque, Cristina González Fitch
Discussant
Regina Cortina
Amanda Earl
Biography
Amanda Earl is a graduate student in the International Educational Development Program of the International and Transcultural Studies Department at Teachers College. She has worked as an educator for over seven years, both as a teacher in Philadelphia and Argentina and in college access for recent immigrant high school students in New York City. She holds a B.A. in Classics from Brown University.
Panel Abstract
Inclusion vs. Interculturalidad: Attaining Equity in Higher Education for Indigenous Populations in Latin America
This paper discusses tertiary education programs in Mexico that aim to increase the access of Indigenous peoples to institutions of higher education. Through analysis of affirmative action programs such as the Ford Foundation’s International Fellowships Program as well as aspects of the state-run system of Intercultural Universities, the author compares programs that aim to increase representation of Indigenous students at mainstream universities, with the missions and aims of Intercultural Universities developed to provide a culturally relevant and identity-affirming higher education to Indigenous students. This paper also asks to what extent these access programs provide equitable and critically intercultural teaching and learning opportunities for Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. While these programs each aim for the creation of intercultural environments that recognize different ways of being, learning, and living, it is difficult for higher education institutions to escape completely the pressures of conforming to more traditional Western and exclusive educational models. The article concludes with recommendations for the refinement of intercultural models of higher education that will not only prepare Indigenous graduates to navigate both Western and non-traditional institutions and professional spheres, but also to overcome the colonial power dynamics by which they have traditionally been marginalized.
Victor Llanque
Biography
Victor Llanque Zonta is a doctoral student in International and Comparative Education, with a concentration in Economics and Education, at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research interests pertain to the intersections between intercultural relations, equity and education in urban spaces in Latin America. Victor is also the Director of the World Perspectives Program and the Global Studies Department Chair at Greens Farms Academy, a K-12 independent school in Westport, CT. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Anthropology from Macalester College and a M.A. in Social Studies Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Panel Abstract
The Darker Side of Bolivian Modernity: Online Racism in times of “Progress”
This paper explores how urban development shapes intercultural relations in the context of La Paz, Bolivia. The ongoing construction of a mass-cable car network as the city’s core public transit system has brought about greater contact between groups of people of different social, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds. This paper seeks to make sense of the online racism that emerged as more people from El Alto City, with its predominantly Indigenous population, used the new cable-cars to travel to parts of La Paz City that have traditionally been used by white middle and upper class residents. Taking a clue from Walter Mignolo’s thesis that modernity and coloniality are two sides of the same coin, this paper seeks to explain what the online racism, and the debates around them tell us about the underlying tensions that exist within the changing social order of Bolivia’s capital. The paper concludes with an analysis of various efforts by civil society organizations and the state to combat racism through formal and non-formal education programs.
Cristina González Fitch
Biography
Cristina González Fitch is a Masters candidate in the International Educational Development program in Teachers College. She has worked on informal educational programs in Miami, Fl and her native Mexico. She is currently researching migrant womens' (re)configuration of self in NYC and in Mexico City. She holds a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Miami.
Panel Abstract
Horizontal Intercultural Education: Peer-to-Peer Tutorial Relationships as a Tool for Interculturality in Chiapas
This paper analyzes peer-to-peer tutorial relationships to address challenges that may arise from Intercultural Bilingual Education programs in the context of Chiapas, Mexico. First, it explores the horizontal relationships created through peer-to-peer tutoring, in which students both learn and teach through individualized interactions. Defining intercultural education as the practice of recognizing and celebrating cultural differences, critically negotiating historical inequalities, and enabling the horizontal interaction between and within cultures, the author discusses the potential use of tutoring to improve intercultural education. Using the experiences of Redes de Tutoria, a civil society organization in Chiapas, Mexico working in public schools creating tutorial networks, the paper analyzes the implications of breaking the teacher-student hierarchy in a diverse indigenous context. It concludes that in the open and horizontal dialogue, the student and tutor have the autonomy to create a truly unique learning experience pulling from shared or isolated experiences, cultural practices, or languages that could aid them in a better understanding of both the lesson being learned/taught and each other.
Regina Cortina, Discussant