Beyond Surface Diversity: Unmasking the Flaws of Multicultural Education in the Afro-Colombian Curriculum

• In Event: International and Comparative Education and Curriculum

Abstract

In this study, I critically examine the Afro-Colombian ethno-educational curriculum, exploring its conception of multiculturality, pedagogical practice, and knowledge production. Utilizing Iterative Critical Discourse Analysis, the study investigates the 2006 “Curriculum Guidelines for Afro-Colombian Studies” and reveals that despite its advances in addressing some of the issues of the multicultural question in Colombia, the curriculum is marred by essentialism, a celebratory approach, and Eurocentric biases that undermine the liberatory purpose of this multicultural approach to education in the country. These flaws reflect a superficial representation of multicultural education, perpetuating neoliberal mechanisms of domination and failing to challenge prevailing power structures adequately.

Author

• Yulian Segura, University of Minnesota