Higher Education, Interculturality, and Indigenous Peoples in Peru: Paradoxes of Inclusion

• In Event: 64.022 - Education and Interculturality Across the Americas: Achievements and Challenges in an Ongoing Conversation

Abstract

Interculturality is a long-discussed concept in the Peruvian context, since the early 1980s. In the educational field it has had as a fundamental stage in general basic education. However, in the field of higher education, it has been scarcely studied. Nevertheless, the recent implementation of a massive scholarship program for higher education (Grant 18) that includes indigenous youth permits more open discussion.

The paper is based in an ethnographic study in two private universities. The findings allow us to discuss to what extent interculturality is present in the university space, what measures and devices have been taken to recognize the diversity of students entering this new scheme and how students feel about these devices. The idea that students should adapt to the university is reinforced, without considering the ways in which the university can or should adapt to the student. The contents transmitted by the university are not reviewed in the light of the concept of interculturality and there is a focus on the deficit that indigenous students drag because of their poor schooling. The intercultural practices identified frequently point to a folklorization of indigenous cultures, which is criticized by students who advocate a wider recognition of their identities.

Author

• Patricia Ames, Pontificia Universidad Catolica, Peru