Parent and student views of intercultural higher education

• In Event: Persistent educational exclusion in Latin America: At the periphery of a ‘digital society’

Proposal

Intercultural education programs in Latin America are seen by some policymakers and advocates as potential vehicles for revaluing and promoting the cultural, linguistic, and epistemic diversity of the Americas. As far as they offer a more inclusive, critical, and even decolonial option for all, the question has become not if we need intercultural programs in our schools, but how to implement them well. However, many programs confront various obstacles, such as lack of human and economic resources, criticisms of their top-down creation and lack of local leadership/appropriation, and perhaps most concerningly, lack of enrollment. More needs to be understood at the level of pedagogical implementation (interactions between teachers and students) to analyze the true impacts and potential of this form of schooling. Thus, addresses the following research questions: why do young people choose to attend an intercultural university or not? What are the logics of schooling of aspiring university students, their families, and communities in rural Mexico? How might these logics clash with those of an intercultural university, its professors, and administrators? Through data gathered through nine months of interviews and classroom and community observations, I emphasize how the logic of social transformation of the intercultural program frequently conflicts with the colonial logics that circulate in dominant society, resulting in low enrollment and the reproduction of racist stereotypes toward intercultural students. Nevertheless, I also show how by recognizing students and their communities as holders of linguistic and agricultural knowledge that is important for the academic production of knowledge, some professors are carrying out a culturally sustaining pedagogy despite significant social, institutional, and political obstacles.

Author

• Amanda Earl, Teachers College, Columbia University