Buen Vivir: Toward a Normative Framework for Education Reform Emerging From the Global South

• In Event: 41.084 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 41.084-4 - Missed Opportunities: How Epistemologies Foster Inequalities Through Educational Reform

Abstract

A long-standing challenge for multi-ethnic societies is to identify compelling concepts that support the structure and delivery of high-quality education for all, while serving as captivating social justice ideals around which diverse peoples may unite. One potentially powerful construct is Buen Vivir (Good Living), an ancient idea reflecting the worldviews of indigenous peoples of the Andes. Recently, policy makers have advanced Buen Vivir as an alternative model of development and societal organization; however, at least two issues diminish these discourses vis-à-vis education. First, the term is polysemic and thereby conflicting in meaning; second, its implications for education have been under-theorized. In this paper we examine multiple meanings of Buen Vivir and present it as a normative framework for education reform.

Authors

• Pablo Cevallos Estarellas, UNESCO IIEP

• Patricia L. Marshall, North Carolina State University