Intercambio #16 - The Decolonization of Indigenous Education

ISSN 2368-7568

Year 11, No. 16, July 2021

Education Research Bulletin of the IDEA Network www.revistaintercambio.org

The Decolonization of Indigenous Education

Photo: "Transmitting our knowledge, chavira weaving". Pablo Soto 1

Contents Presentation Construction, curriculum change and decolonization: the Nasa Indigenous people in northern Cauca, Colombia.

Jeann Nilton Campo Ángel (Colombia)

Editorial Board

We need to walk a new path…

Totlahtol Yoltok Pedagogical Collective (Mexico)

Edgar Isch López (Ecuador),

Living languages weave interculturality from territorial spaces: the Ecuadorian context.

Bertha Emma Aguinda; Víctor Aurelio Llangarí Ashqui (Ecuador)

María Trejos (Costa Rica), mariatrejosmontero@gmail.com María de la Luz Arriaga (Mexico), mariluz@unam.mx edgarisch@yahoo.com Larry Kuehn (Canadá), lkuehn@bctf.ca Miguel Duhalde (Argentina), miguelduhalde@arnet.com.ar Director: Steve Stewart sstewart@red-sepa.net Managing Editor: María de Jesús Ramos

Rethinking the Model of the Intercultural Bilingual Education System where the Kichwa language is taught.

Luis Fernando Cevallos Landi (Ecuador)

inforedsepa@resist.ca

Open Forum

To learn more about the IDEA Network and to read

Deschooling our communities.

Sisa Pacari Bacacela; José María Vacacela Gualán (Ecuador)

www.revistaintercambio.org

Design: Tomás Licea English Copy Editor: Ruth Leckie Translation: Flor Montero, Erika Fuchs, Carl Rosenberg, Carlos Cario, Carmen Barrios. previous issues of Intercambio, visit: https://issuu.com/stevestewart3 Contact IDEA Network: www.idea-network.ca Facebook: Idea Network- Red SEPA

Peru: "For 28 years, Amazonian Indigenous people have been speaking without intermediaries”.

Manuel Ysuiza (Perú) Building language in community.

Fernando Ramírez (México) Review Public Education, Neoliberalism and Teachers: New York, Toronto and Mexico City Larry Kuehn (Canada) 2

• We thank the Continental Indigenous Educators’ Network for coordinating this issue • We wish to thank the British Columbia Teachers´ Federation (BCTF) for their support in the publication of issue 16 of Intercambio.

Intercambio is a publication of the Initiative for Democratic Education in the Americas (IDEA), a hemispheric alliance of social and labour organizations that work to defend and enhance public education.

Presentation The Decolonization of Indigenous Education Our peoples are living through complex times that have pushed our conditions of existence to the limit, deepening inequalities that already existed. In the field of public education, lockdown has forced most countries to resort to remote and/or online learning. This has resulted in the exclusion of many children and youth and has increased precarity for teachers.

Although educational content has long served as an instrument of control for the ruling classes -which, through online educational models backed by big capital have dictated the course of the peoples- the content and delivery of education is now completely in their hands. Today, not only do they decide what to teach, but also how the content is conveyed. Projects that were already damaging are now advancing at the speed of technology, standardizing learning and aiming to eliminate the ancestral knowledge and worldview of our peoples who have resisted for more than 500 years of colonization.

In the midst of the pandemic that is sweeping the world, finding a way out is much

more complex than the simple distribution of vaccines as the great powers speculate on them. Creating a solution requires putting our collective rights center stage; rethinking our relationship with the environment and recovering our sense of belonging to the earth. This is a moment that calls on us to question the meaning of education, health and life itself.

Do we continue on a path that ignores our peoples, violates us, strips us of our knowledge, distorts our culture and imposes patriarchal forms that denigrate the feminine and deny the complementarity that Indigenous peoples believe in? Or do we transform public education, change the interpretation of the world that has been imposed on us and create a new one that allows us to move towards a more just and egalitarian society?

The Indigenous peoples of the Americas have resisted and have tried to build alternative ways. However, we are still embedded in an educational model that was not created according to our own understanding of

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reality. It is a carbon copy of models that support the belief that scientific knowledge is the only valid and dominant one.

In this issue of Intercambio, the Network of Indigenous Educators of the IDEA Network has undertaken the task of reflecting on what is necessary to decolonize the education of our peoples. We will look at experiences and theoretical tools that allow us to strengthen our daily practice and innovate in the content

and Fernando Cevallos share their experience of teaching the Kichwa language, as well as of institutional projects that promote the learning of indigenous languages and their scope and limitations.

In this issue we inaugurate Foro Abierto (Open Forum), a section for discussions, debates and reflections on public education, its defense, the construction of alternatives, expressions of solidarity and collective actions.

that we work in every day, with our students and the community. We must establish education systems that decolonize and focus on an alternative curriculum that makes our native peoples flourish once again.

We begin with the article "Construction, curriculum change and decolonization: the Nasa indigenous people in northern Cauca, Colombia", by Jean Nilton. Their experience shows that decolonizing educational curriculum is possible and that it is the result of community processes and struggles.

Next, the Totlahtol Yoltok Collective describes how projects which emerged from the teachers' struggle in Veracruz, Mexico today seek to open paths to alternatives that offer a cultural sense of belonging. They place the participation of communities and indigenous peoples at the center of their design for the public education they need.

We also present an important topic in the context of decolonizing education: the rescue, strengthening and revitalization of our native languages. Emma Aguinda, Victor Llangari

Our idea is to maintain a space where diverse expressions converge, since we consider it is vital now to transcend the social distancing being imposed on us. We need to look at communities, to look beyond borders and to believe that other ways of life are possible.

The Forum starts with three interesting reflections. The first is presented by Sisa Pacari and José María Vacacela with their article "De-schooling our communities". Manuel Ysuiza continues, asserting the strength of collective action with "In Peru: the Amazonian indigenous people have been speaking without intermediaries for 28 years." Finally, "Building language in community", is a call to rescue living languages as a part of the community. We hope that this section will stimulate debate and open up more participation from throughout the continent.

We close with a review by Larry Kuehn of the recently published book Public Education, Neoliberalism and Teachers: New York, Toronto and Mexico City by Paul Bocking from Ontario, Canada.

Construction, curriculum change and decolonization:

the Nasa Indigenous people in northern Cauca, Colombia Jeann Nilton Campo Ángel* Translated by Carl Rosenberg

In this essay, we look at the process of developing curriculum by the Nasa and other Indigenous peoples in the area of Cauca, the southwest of Colombia, organized by the Regional Indigenous Board of Cauca (CRIC). We will examine how the bases have been laid from the sources which nourish them and the way in which their particular identity has been formed, in a dynamic of change and control of the curriculum as an instrument of regulation of the educational process and in permanent tension with the policies of the State.

* Anthropologist, Specialist in Educational Policies – FLACSO [Facultad Latinoamericana en Ciencias Sociales – Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences], Argentina. Master’s Candidate in Social Sciences with an emphasis in Education – FLACSO, Argentina.

Historical and social context At the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, a political pact emerged in Colombia between the dominant classes which have historically led the government and the various insurgent groups that resorted to armed struggle as an instrument to change the established social order.1 This pact resulted in the Political Constitution of 199, putting an end to the Constitution of 1886 which had imposed a monocultural conception of the nation, only recognizing Colombia as a unitary, Catholic and mestiza republic.

1. Peace agreements carried out at the end of the eighties and beginning of the nineties between the national government and insurgent groups, also known as the peace agreements, which produced the demobilization of the 19 of April Movement (M-19); the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT); the Indigenist guerrilla 5

PHOTO: DANIEL FELIPE CAMPO

The participation of the Indigenous movement in the Constitution of 1991 made it possible to recognize the ethno-plural and multicultural character of the Colombian nation and establish the rights to autonomy, territory, self-government and “an education that respects and develops cultural identity”3 of the Peoples,4 among other rights.

Recognition of the Indigenous person as a collective subject with rights distinct from those of other sectors of society broke with a social order marked by more than five hundred years of historic conflict in which the Indigenous person has been represented as “backward,” “savage,” and “uncivilized,” among other categories which place them in a position of social inferiority and political subordination, a position which has been justified by the tradition of enlightened, modern and scientific thought since the eighteenth century. This representation has been reproduced in the curriculum of the modern educational system, which has also disavowed and excluded the knowledge, language and cultural expressions of communities and peoples (Palamidessi, 2006).

Since the 1960s, the Indigenous social movement in the department of Cauca, Colombia has been pushing

movement Quintín Lame Armed Movement (MAQL); the Popular Army of Liberation (EPL). See also Moreno P, Hector (2011).

3. Article 68, Political Constitution of Colombia, 1991.

4. In this essay we will utilize the concept of the people, emphasized by Amenguel who “puts emphasis on the distinct cultural tion and integration among all the individuals of a differentiated and living social reality…” (Calduch, 1991).

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for appropriation5, redefinition and reassessment of schools from the communal point of view, with the goal of transforming this institution which historically had reproduced a system of hegemonic and dominant thought and converting it into a space from which new educational processes can be constructed and energized on the basis of the cosmovision6, life plans and political projects of the indigenous peoples.7 In this vein, schools are understood as agents of cultural change and production of identities, situated in a strategic position for any project of radical political and social change (Silva, 1995), recognizing the school’s function of social reproduction even as it constitutes a potential space of resistance and free exercise (Hunter, 1998).

The decision to appropriate the school and in general to intervene in the direction and control of educational and formative processes in Indigenous territory has led to new proposals for various levels of training.

This has in turn led to debate and discussion regarding the curriculum and the adoption of a theoretical and methodological perspective for its design.

5. With the term appropriation we take up again the proposal of trol,” in the sense of those foreign cultural elements which a group takes up and over which it acquires decision-making abili6. We understand cosmovision as the set of ancestral knowledge which are the collective property of a people and endure through time through the processes of socialization.

7. The Indigenous Peoples consider that the school is only one of the multiple spaces and educational processes in the social life of the communities: the family, territory, ritual, productive work, collective work, among others, are spaces which form education which is understood as a permanent social process. For a full(SEIP),” CONTCEPI, 2012.

The dynamic of curricular change in Indigenous education:

from appropriation to hybridization and constructing the curriculum Indigenous content in the official curriculum In the nineteen seventies, the first “community schools” began to be created. Teachers were leaders linked to the “recovery of the earth,” especially if they were bilingual so they could teach in their own language. Through the “community schools,” cultural content and history was introduced to the official curriculum which alluded to rights enshrined in Indigenous legislation, myths, the oral history of elders and productive agricultural and community practices.This generated an internal tension

between those who considered it important to include and reclaim the values of the culture and those who considered them backward elements.

In 1978, Decree 1142 was enacted for Indigenous communities, stating that “the curriculum must respond to the needs of the cultural, territorial, social and political context of said communities, and therefore it must be bilingual and participatory.” The decree also recognized the right of Indigenous people to provide for their own education. However, on the curricular level this change was limited to mean simply intro-

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ducing certain content and themes into the areas of knowledge already established by the national minister of education. Bolanos, G. et al., in “What would happen if the school…” 30 years of building,” allows us to the see this phenomenon: “Teaching content was structured at that time in five fields: Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Language and Arts, leaving aside physical and religious education. Nevertheless, under this same structure, there appeared new themes, for example, in Natural Sciences the first theme was “traditional Indigenous medicine” and the last was “Land adaptation (for cultivation)” (CRIC, 2004L 175) In this sense, one can affirm that the process of intervention undertaken by the Indigenous movement on the curricular level, in a moment in which the state was the only designer of the curriculum for the entire educational system on the national level, followed the same structure and conception of the curriculum, i.e., of a rational technical nature, founded in the behaviorist paradigm. The introduction of some content on Indigenous culture, in some areas or courses, was realized in the framework of the existing curricular structure, designed from a centralized and precise demarcation of educational goals and objectives which still determined the selection of contents, methods, instruction materials and forms of assessment.

From Indigenous education to ethno-education In the nineteen eighties, there was an institutional change in response to the demands of the country’s Indigenous movement, resulting in a shift from Indigenous education toward ethno-education8, put forth as a state policy through the National Program of

permanent social process, immersed in the culture itself, which consists of acquisition of knowledge and values in the development of skills and abilities in accordance with the needs, interests and aspirations of the community, which enables it to take part fully in the cultural control of the ethnic group” (Artunduaga, 1996:26).

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Ethno Education, under resolution 3454 in 1984. This program contemplated consultation and action on “curriculum design,” “training,” “design and preparation of educational material,” and “follow-up and assessment,” categories not usually part of traditional education of Indigenous peoples, but rather of the technologies of control of official education (Rojas and Castillo, 2005).

Within this framework, a process was initiated of mass professionalization of Indigenous teachers who would later begin to replace non-Indigenous professors.

Because of this, the Indigenous movement reached agreements with the Ministry of National Education (MEN) and the Secretariat of Education in the department of Cauca so that, through the “normal schools” in charge of training teachers, members of Indigenous communities themselves would be trained to fill teaching positions in their own territories.

In spite of changes made to the period of training (from six levels in five years to 10 stages over five years) in order to include content on the cosmovision and social and political history of the peoples, the training of teachers was still carried out under traditional formats of additional curriculum whose contents were based on the disciplines in a closed relationship, restricted and isolated among themselves (Bernstein, 1988). The rigid structures, fragmented and disciplinary, constituted a matrix on which Indigenous teachers based their pedagogic actions, thereby reproducing the traditional format of the curriculum.

The evaluation of this experience, which began in 1988, introduced a variation in curricular design which was applied to the fourth promotion (1994-1999), examining differentiated and vertically component areas (see fig. 1), in an initiative to integrate disciplines in wider areas whose contents are not separated but rather in an open and interdependent relationship. This, added to the degree requirement of designing a pedagogical project and other “didactic mechanisms to bring out the comprehensiveness of curricular contents for various levels” (CRIC, 2004), may well be identified as a first effort towards abandoning the aggregate curriculum

structure and moving to a proposal for an integrated curriculum (Bernstein, 1988).

Hybridization in curriculum for education of Indigenous peoples During the nineteen nineties, Educational Community Projects (PECs)9 were promoted and established in each territory or reserve (resguardo), bilingual educational materials were created and new educational experiences were promoted by Intercultural and Bilingual Educational Community Centres (CECIBS)10. Relevant areas of curriculum were designed and research by and training of Indigenous teachers were promoted with greater vigor (CRIC, 2004).

At the centre of the PECs was a pedagogical position on the connection of the school and the community, where culture itself is made possible, seeking to develop education that leads to students becoming familiar with vital questions of the community, its needs and problems, and developing in every child a desire for the common good, a positive identity and territorial rooting. Four areas of PEC were developed, understood as areas of the 9. PECs are spaces to design and develop training programs, curriculum and pedagogical projects in a collective and communitarian manner in which teachers, students and the community participate. (See CRIC, 2004).

10. The CECIBS emerged at the beginning of the nineties, primary schools with a certain trajectory in the construction of the educational community project, and whose teachers were formed in the period of professionalization. They were characterized by their strong work on bilingualism, interculturality, work atmosphere, productivity and strong ties with the community. See (CRIC, 2004:65-70).

curriculum itself: Communication and Language; Man and Society; Mathematics and Production; Community, Territory and Nature.

These areas represent a complex and diverse framework of visions which bring together the disciplines and areas of knowledge required by the MEN within the official national curriculum. The pedagogy of using questions as a strategy for approaching problems in their context; linking parents to students’ learning to help motivate reflection and knowledge; notions of the social or collective construction of knowledge, and a desire to integrate the cosmovision and original languages into a comprehensive approach to reality.

These ideas are interlaced; they combine and develop simultaneously, in a mixture of various theoretical proposals which correspond to constructivism, critical pedagogy, popular education and community pedagogy, which we could well characterize as a hybrid process11 of curricular organization (Verna, 2011).

While the Indigenous movement advanced in the construction of PECS, and demanded that the national government recognize them, the state for its part assumed a policy of decentralizing the curriculum through 11. Hybridizing the curriculum allows us to include and connect; in this way, it allows us to group together distinct categories of 12. “This decade of the nineties brings new concepts and focuses, transcending the concept of the plan of studies by a broader vision of the curriculum; [ ] that of teaching for the sake of learning, contents of plan of studies-courses for development and evaluation of learning for abilities, based on guidelines in the new paradigms of constructive style” (Lago de Vergara, 2012, p. 116).

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the enactment of Law 115 in 1994 and Decree 1860 in 1994, conceding autonomy to educational institutions in the construction of their own plans of study from the Educational Institutional Projects (PEI). These projects had to be carried out, in a participatory fashion, in every one of the educational institutions of the country. The state, by means of the MEN, takes on the role of regulating the quality of education by means of testing strategies.12 Decree 804 in 1995 presents among its guidelines that:

digenous policy are incorporated into the institutional and government dynamic of the state, as a strategy of cooptation, allowing us to understand that dynamic of change/control drives the policy options of curriculum design and development (Moreno, 2008). Both the state and the Indigenous populations are mutually affected in their logic and practices as a result of the scenarios of negotiation, in which it is defined who will assume the project of education of and for the Indigenous peoples of the country (Rojas and Castillo, 2005).

The formulation of the curricula of ethno education will be founded in the provisions of Law 115 of 1994 and in the conceptualizations regarding education prepared by ethnic groups, looking after their uses and customs, the native languages and the logic implicit in their thought.

The Ministry of National Education, together with departments and districts, will offer corresponding specialized advice.13

From the official curriculum to “weaving knowledge and culture”

In this sense, the educational processes developed as part of the cultural policy of the Indigenous peoples have influenced the state to modify its public policies.

However, we must also understand that the policy of “ethno-education,” the result of various negotiations, constituted a strategy which, while responding in a transitory fashion to the demands of the Indigenous peoples, still allowed for continued state control of educational policy (Moreno, 2008).

The redesign of curriculum in the framework of building the PEC operates as a political option by Indigenous peoples to take control of the educational processes and carry them out on the basis of their life plans, their political project and their formative and identity needs; meanwhile, ethno-education continues to be a state policy for Indigenous peoples, in which theoretical and practical developments of cultural In13. Special curricular orientations, contained in Articles 14 and 15, Chapter 3, of Decree 804 of 1995, regulation of Law 115 of 1994, General Law of Education in Colombia.

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At the beginning of this century, the Indigenous organization of Cauca, through social mobilization, achieved national norms which made it possible to control the political, administrative and pedagogic components of almost all the existing educational institutions in their territories. This has allowed for the further development of Indigenous education by Indigenous people14. Negotiations between the national Indigenous organizations15 and the Colombian government between 2005-2010 produced, among other results, government recognition of the comprehensiveness of the Indigenous Educational System (SEIP)16 in 2009.

14. Indigenous Education: “It is the joining of knowledge and practice that from time immemorial have been transmitted from generation to generation by means of which they recreate and reinforce experientially and fully the cultural values, traditions, myths, dances, mother tongue, forms of production, wisdom. Edcultural identity and forms of organization of Indigenous peoples, starting from dialogue and reciprocity to relate with nature, oneself, and other societies for the achievement of autonomy as plural and equitable peoples and societies'' (Taken from the document Comprehensive Proposal of the Association of Indigenous Councils of the North of Cauca – ACIN, 2011).

15. ONIC: National Indigenous Organization of Colombia.

AICO: Indigenous Authorities of Colombia. CIT: Tayrona Indigenous Confederation and OPIAC: Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon.

16. The SEIP is the educational policy constructed for the Indigenous Peoples of Colombia, composed of three components: Organizing, Administrative and Pedagogic Policies, and comprises fundamentals, principles, objectives, criteria, and orientations for all levels of education. See CONTCEPI, 2012.

17. Problem-solving nuclei form part of the nucleus of the curric

PHOTO: DANIEL FELIPE CAMPO

Many changes are underway at the school level and in terms of pedagogical practices, curriculum and teachers. Rather than being centred on the individual and institutional, teaching practice is shifting to the community and territorial level. There is an initiative to organize school calendars to coordinate with natural cycles, agricultural calendars and cultural practices, in an attempt to break with imposed schedules. Teachers from different disciplines work together in pedagogical groups, or problem-solving nuclei,17 in which traditional knowledge has a place.

In some Indigenous territories in Cauca, innovative examples of participation and social construction of discourse and political practice of education have been developed, in which original languages18 are used together with Spanish in political communication and scholarly and community learning, with values and principles which orient the new educational processes in tension and contraposition to the hegemonic thought which the state imposes for the majority society through the official curriculum. In this way, a “recontextualized” discourse is configured which appropriates and selectively relates other discourses to establish its own order, fulfilling a function as a symbolic regulator of conscience: which is essential as a condition for produc-

tion, reproduction and transformation of culture and fundamental in the creation of autonomy in education (Bernstein, 1998, p. 63).

In a direct manner, Indigenous peoples carry out political, pedagogical and administrative control of the “community teachers” in the sense that selection and evaluation are carried out in spaces of collective decision-making which translates into decisions regarding a permanent position, transfer or definite retirement of a teacher. This means the direct participation of communities in decisions and an appropriation of authority which in the past was the exclusive jurisdiction of the central or regional government and, thus, a clear ethnic strategy of “cultural control.”19 As Moreno puts it (2014:313), “evaluations are particularly susceptible to political utilizacion from the point of view of the government (in this case an Indigenous government) for control of and changes to the curriculum at various levels of decision-making.

All these developments show that Indigenous peoples and organizations are beginning to have greater levels of autonomy in the conception, design, control and development of their own education processes in their territories. And a vision that sees the need to abandon the very concept of curriculum has begun to

ulum. This design forms part of the focus of the integrated curriculum. For more on this subject see Ortiz, 2006.

18. Indigenous languages involved in this process are: Nasa Yuwe (Nasa People), Namtrik (Misak People), Siapede (Eperara Siapidra People), Quichua (Yanakuma People), and Inga (Inga People).

19. “Cultural control” is conceived as “a system according to which the social capacity of decision-making over cultural ele-

20. Yaneth Hoyos has accompanied the Indigenous communities for the last 20 years; orientator and facilitator in the Autonomous Indigenous Intercultural University and in the University of Cauca. (Interview 12-02-2015).

21. The conception “weaver of knowledge and culture” also comes from the expression “kwe’sx uus kipnxi umna” which in the language of the Nasa people can be translated as “weaving learning thinking from the heart.”

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PHOTO: DANIEL FELIPE CAMPO

gain force. Curriculum has a foreign origin and has been thought out and developed from outside of the peoples, with an historic trajectory linked to political intentions contrary to traditional knowledge and to the political projects of Indigenous peoples.

“The curriculum continues to be conceived epistemologically from the outside. In contrast, the weaving of thought and culture must be considered from within, and therein lies the difference. From our own concepts of education, we must move the structure, remove it and think of a new one. We must understand well the structure of the national educational system so as not to repeat it” (Interview with Yaneth Hoyos). 20 Recently there has been a reclaiming of weaving knowledge and culture21 as an expression of epistemological decolonization, from which we must assume the construction of educational processes and forms which Indigenous peoples require in correspondence with their aspirations, problems, contexts, needs and political undertakings.

“The elders put forward the idea that what is wanted is a weaving of life because what is needed is to learn for life, in order to live well and in relation to 12

the dialogue with Spanish. Weaving of knowledge and culture because it is not just any knowledge, but a knowledge very much linked to culture, where there will be different knowledges of the different cultures, and a process of weaving it, of integrating.” (Interview with Yaneth Hoyos.)

The weaving of knowledge and culture means generating ruptures with traditional school culture because it implies transforming spaces, times, practices, methodologies, materials, and also like the role of teachers.

The school is called on to stop being a space of answers and instead to be centred in questions and inquiry. To be school which opens up to the community and vice versa to become a single space.

Final Reflections These developments in Indigenous resistance and autonomy have led to political authority over educational processes expressed in control of curriculum, of teachers, of pedagogical discourse, of the administration and planning of schools and of the public resources destined for education. We are positioned as a subject which, with its social cohesion and its historical and

cultural particularities, has strategically appropriated the productive, reproductive and symbolic potential of the school in order to construct the Educational Indigenous System.

In this overview we have been able to observe how, over the last forty-four years, the Indigenous movement of Cauca’s perspective on curriculum has changed.

Initially, the behaviorist model imposed on education through a technical, rationalist curriculum was being reproduced. As experience and knowledge were accumulated, a more hybridized model was adopted, in which curriculum structures were maintained, with the addition of adapted and recontextualized content, using tools from various theories such as constructivism, popular education, critical pedagogy, among others. These all had some affinity with the idea of moving toward the construction of an autonomous Indigenous education.

In recent years, given internal developments in matters of education and changes to the national constitutional achieved through struggle and resistance as well as presence in international legal spaces, we have seen the emergence of an important shift toward greater levels of internal production, incorporating Indigenous languages and the ancestral cultural heritage contributed by the elders.The goal is to develop a conceptualization which contributes to decolonizing the way we have thought about and approached education.

Without a doubt, the complex changes which this perspective entails will produce interesting questions, debates, challenges and contributions to the transformation of education. This will be of great value, not only for Indigenous peoples.

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Bernstein, B. (1996). Conocimiento oficial e identidades pedagógicas: la política de recontextualización. In B. Bernstein, Pedagogia, control simbólico e identidad.

Madrid: Morata.

Bonfil, G. (1991). Teoría del control cultural, en el estudio de procesos étnicos. Estudios sobre las culturas contemporanéas , IV (12), 165-204.

Calduch, R. (1991). Relaciones internacionales. Recuperado el 27 de Mayo de 2014, de Ediciones Ciencias sociales: http://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/ sdrelint/lib1cap6.pdf Colombia, Constitución Política. (1991). Recuperado el 20 de mayo de 2014, de http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/ contituci%C·%B3n_de_Colombia_de_1886 Comisión Nacional de Trabajo y Concertación de Educación para Pueblos Indígenas (CONTCEPI).

(2012). Perfil del Sistema Educativo Indígena Propio.

Bogotá: Unpublished.

Consejo Regional Indigena del Cauca (CRIC). (2004).

"Que pasaría si la escuela.... 30 años de construcción de una educación propia.". Popayán: El Fuego Azul. gr Dussel, Enrique (2000). Ética de la liberación. En la edad de la globalización y de la exclusión. Trotta.

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Hunter, I. (1998). Repensar la escuela. Subjetividad, burocracia y crítica. Barcelona: Ediciones Pomares-Corredor.

Lago de Vergara, D., Aristizábal, M., Navas, M., Agudelo, N. (2014). Evolución del campo del currículum en Colombia (1970-2010). En Díaz-Barriga, A. y García, José María (coords). Desarrollo del currículum en América Latina. Experiencia de diez países. Miño y Dávila editores. Buenos Aires, (105-151).

Moreno, H. (2011). La Constituyente un acuerdo político para la paz. Recuperado el 20 de mayo de 2014, de Semanario Virtual Caja de Herramientas. Edición No. 00255.

Moreno, J. (2008). “La dinámica y desarrollo del currículum”, en Benavot, A. y Braslavsky, C. El conocimiento escolar en una perspectiva histórica y comparativa. Cambios de currículos en la educación primaria y secundaria. Granica. Buenos Aires (310-335) 13

We need to walk a new path…

Totlahtol Yoltok Pedagogical Collective Translated by Erika Fuchs

“Education does not change the world, it changes the people that will change the world.”

Paulo Freire

Abstract: This article describes the origins of the Totlahtol Yoltok pedagogical collective, which came out of the Mexican teachers’ struggle against the imposition of the Education Reform of then President Enrique Peña Nieto in 2013, and looks at how alliances were woven, through the struggle in the streets, to organize in defense of public education both nationally and internationally.

The article also outlines the basic ideas that gave origin to the collective, whose core focus has moved from the defense of public education to a search for the necessary transformation of what is taught and how it is taught. In this way goals were established, through a decolonizing gaze, for education, teachers, classrooms and in defense of communality.

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Public education is the pillar, but it must be transformed Education has turned into an instrument of the dominant class. Through it they have imposed educational models on us that are not adapted to the reality of the contexts in which children and youth live. Educational initiatives have long been promoted that are foreign to the pluricultural context of our peoples. In both rural and urban environments, practices are carried out that tend to homogenize children’s thoughts, with the goal of creating individualistic subjects without social commitment. Through the process of these meaningless educational practices, guided by standardized evaluations, what is left far behind is learning that prioritizes thoughtful reflection. They have deprived us of the right to construct knowledge, to philosophize and to sustain ways of life that are in equilibrium with nature.

PHOTO: ARCHIVO COLECTIVO TOTLAHTOL YOLTOK

In the face of this reality, we as teachers have had to adopt a critical attitude that allows us to understand neo-colonizing initiatives.

“We are communality, the opposite of individuality, we are communal territory, not private property; we are sharing, not competition; we are polytheism, not monotheism. We are trade, not business; diversity, not equality, although in the name of equality we are also oppressed (…) we base ourselves in rights and harmony in order to answer back and to announce what we want and desire to be” (Martínez Luna, 2010).

This is why it will always be necessary to be in resistance to what is imposed, in defense of that which is called “communality”. It’s here that we start this process of decolonizing our thinking, where we unlearn in order to learn again.

Our experience In Veracruz we took to the streets along with the dissident teachers’ movement led by the National Coordination of Education Worker (CNTE), teachers in resistance and in defense of public education, with the goal of stopping the so-called Education Reform imposed in 2013. This violated not only worker rights, but also imposed standardized education based on competencies, which went against the ancestral knowledge of our Indigenous peoples and reduced it to folklore.

In the protest space in the streets, we met more national and international groups, like the Trinational Coalition in Defense of Public Education and CoDevelopment Canada (CoDev), important and international spaces and models of solidarity with our struggles. It was here that a pedagogical collective “Totlahtol Yol-

tok” (Our Living Word) began when we noticed that it made no sense to go out into the streets to defend public education and then return to the classrooms to teach these same neo-colonizing models serving an oppressive system.

It was necessary to first reflect on our ways of understanding the world based on our identity as a people and to identify the learning processes that had led us to see life in a different way. We were living through difficult times due to the repression against us, so we wagered on collectivity in order to reaffirm in each moment that we were on the right path. In this sense the collective was a great container of emotions and helped us to overcome difficulties.

After the period of resistance, we considered it necessary to move from these colonial models towards alternative pedagogical practices that truly help our Mexican children. It is very difficult, but it is a utopia that needs to be achieved collectively. We are still in the process; let’s say that we are starting our journey.

The solidarity of other organizations and nations has been fundamental; their accompaniment in this transition has been important, to know that there are many others that think like us, although in different contexts. We need to take up the same path since as teachers we should provide accompaniment to humanity and more than ever now that we need to struggle for other ways of life, for dignified living conditions and to maintain a deep respect for nature.

Decolonize our thinking in order to transform pedagogical practice As this pedagogical collective grows, we want to deco15

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lonize the thinking of Indigenous educators and start to transform teaching practices in our classrooms and put an end to the standardized practices that dominate in our classrooms.

It has not been easy, due to the fact that we have met with great pedagogical resistance. Let us not forget that it has been more than 500 years of submission that have made us believe that we are incapable of philosophizing. We are used to following models without having the right to talk back. In 2016, we launched a massive call out to teachers who wanted to share their experiences and alternative pedagogical models in the recovery, preservation and strengthening of our cultural identity and belonging. This is how we started to have an impact, raising consciousness and humanizing thought, generating reflection about the actions of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators, since we know that educators are the ones who teach the children and youth who will be the adults of the future. This is why it is urgent to change the thinking of Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators to be able to confront the neoliberal policies that have displaced and acculturated our peoples.

The collective has developed several fundamental proposals, like pedagogical resistance in the classrooms and implementing communal and popular education that takes into account communal knowledge related to learning and teaching. This is the only way we will advance in breaking down systems of oppression and recovering the autonomy of our peoples - through education of the people by the people. This is very important since we know that our Indigenous peoples are the site of legendary ancestral richness on the planet.

We need to consolidate an alternative pedagogical initiative by encouraging parents and community officials to become allies and by being inclusive in the application of new ways of teaching and, in this way, strengthen our connection to our cultural roots. One of our goals is to create our ancestral house, where community knowledge is reclaimed and transmitted to children from Indigenous communities. This can

PHOTO: COLECTIVO TOTLAHTOL YOLTOK

also safeguard our children from the anti-social behaviours that are increasingly present in our Indigenous communities.

Our path has not been easy. We have experienced repression in the administrative, workplace and even social realms, but we believe that if we are united and organized we can make great changes in our societies.

Reconnecting and reconciling with our Mother Earth is the core concept from which to start to unlearn what is imposed on us when we are seen as objects and not historic subjects.

“We will not take a step back, we are the feet and the voice of our grandmothers who had their dreams taken but not their roots.”

Tlasokamati miek Many thanks

Reference: Martínez Luna, Jaime. (2010). Eso que llaman comunalidad [That which they call communality.]. Culturas Populares, CONACULTA. Oaxaca, México. P. 190.

Rethinking the Model of the Intercultural Bilingual Education SystemI where the KichwaII language is taught:

The case of Engabao, San Lucas and III Nueva Loja Luis Fernando Cevallos Landilll Translated by Flor Montero

Abstract: This article looks at the different contexts in which the Kichwa language is taught in Ecuador, starting from the coastal and monolingual region, as in the case of Engabao, passing to the bilingual Andean region, the case of San Lucas, and ending in the multilingual Amazonian region, represented by Nueva Loja.

I. Model of the Intercultural Bilingual Education System, hereinafter referred to by its acronym MOSEIB. II. According to INEC statistics (2010), the Kichwa-speaking population is made up of 724,721 people, but it is estimated that there are actually more than one million speakers. The statistics are inaccurate because there are people who hide their identity when asked in the censuses. or the pollsters simply do not pay attention to these details. There are also Kichwa speakers in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Chile and possibly Paraguay. The total number of Kichwa speakers in the region is considered to be about eight million people. Alvarez, C. & Montaluisa, L. (2017, p. 68).

III. National University of Ecuador UNAE. E-mail: fer_nandolandi65@hotmail.com; luis.cevallos@unae.edu.ec

What are the difficulties encountered when teaching Kichwa in each of these contexts? Among them, we find a lack of current terminology, an absence of interest from families to learn the language of their own indigenous group and few adequate places in which the languages of the different nationalities can be learned.

Our intention is to reflect on the process of teaching and learning Kichwa proposed by the MOSEIB, from elementary to high school education. The lack of an intercultural bilingual education model for Ecuadorian post-secondary education is also discussed as it is important for the strengthening, recuperation and revitalization of the Kichwa language.

Key words: Teaching/learning, Second Language, Monolingual, Bilingual, Plurilingual, Educational Model, Kichwa.

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Introduction Intercultural Bilingual Education (EIB) in Ecuador was born from the struggle of indigenous peoples to access education without discrimination, and to be taught in their own ancestral language , regardless of the nationality to which they belong.

Since the implementation of EIB at a national level, there has been a need to create spaces and materials and to train human resources to solve the shortcomings of the system. The objective has been to shape a student profile that respects their own cultural conceptions. It should be highlighted that the historical processes of the Spanish invasion and colonization, together with globalization, have led to the leaving aside or replacing of certain cultural practices with others, including the use of other languages.

As a consequence of these historical events, Kichwa is undergoing a real linguistic regression. That is why EIB must reflect more on the problems that occur in a variety of contexts. We will present some examples of places where Kichwa is taught, followed by an analysis of the MOSEIB and the conclusions that were reached.

The Engabao case The Engabao commune is located in the jurisdiction of General Villamil Canton (Playas) in the province of Guayas. It is home to the Intercultural Bilingual Community Education Unit "Cacique Tumbalá". In its classrooms, Kichwa is taught to the new generations, from the first year of elementary all the way into high school.

The inhabitants of Engabao consider themselves a part of the Guacavilca people, whose language is now extinct. The only words that remain are toponyms and zoonyms. Spanish is their mother tongue. They live near the sea, so a large percentage of students carry out activities such as fishing and net trammeling . They carry their fishing nets to school for afternoon fishing.

Most of the teaching is carried out in Spanish. But there is an attempt to bring back Kichwa, due to the fact that the families do not speak it or any language other than Spanish.

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However, teaching Kichwa in a context where it has not been spoken for centuries poses a challenge. Plenty of vocabulary is needed to compensate for the gaps in the language, particularly in terms of new terminologies. There is also the task of piquing the curiosity of the general commune.

The San Lucas case San Lucas is a parish in the Loja canton in the province of the same name. It is made up mainly of an indigenous population of Saraguro people within the Kichwa nationality, which is suffering a linguistic regression.

Amongst the population considered to be bilingual (Kichwa - Spanish), we find the elderly people whose mother tongue is Kichwa and speak Spanish as a second language. Then there is the adult population who only speak Spanish, though they may understand conversations in Kichwa, without being able to answer in it. Finally, there are the young people and children who only speak Spanish and may know a few words in Kichwa.

San Lucas has great cultural wealth. Its cultural practices have remained intact, such as weaving, the making of mud pots and caring for and respecting nature, and are typical of the Andean worldview. It is also surrounded by archaeological sites such as Ciudadela and Cerro de Ramos.

The UECIB at Mushuk Rimak has the largest number of students in the area. It teaches Kichwa to the new generations, though they do not feel attached to learning it due to migration and discrimination. Although teachers make an effort to make it appealing, it is not encouraged by the families because its use does not extend beyond the classroom and a few social events.

Therefore, neither the families nor the students see it as necessary.

The Nueva Loja case Next is the multilingual context of the Amazons; specifically the Support Center of the National Education University (UNAE), located at the Lago Agrio canton

PICTURE 1: FISHING BOATS CALLED “FIBERS”. ENGABAO PORT. CEVALLOS, L. (2018).

in the province of Sucumbios. It is attended by teachers who wish to obtain their third level degree, and Kichwa is the language of instruction.

This is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse places. Thus, the Support Center includes students who are fluent in the following native languages: Shuar Chicham, Kichwa, Baaikoka, Paaikoka and A'ingae.

In its daily academic activities there is a convergence of languages from many different nationalities, aside from Kichwa. They train teachers with linguistic skills in more than two languages.

It should be noted that in the institution, Spanish is considered to be the "language of intercultural relations", since all students have a command of it. It is only within certain communities that they teach in an ancestral language.

school, where they should already have acquired a certain percentage of proficiency in the particular target language, as well as English. However, in a large number of communities, the language of the nationality occupies the place of a second language.

Among the principles that sustain MOSEIB it is said that: "the syllabus must take into consideration the Plurinational State Plan, a sustainable way of life, the knowledge, and practices of ancestral cultures as well as others around the world; plus the psychological, cultural, academic and social aspects of the students´needs" (Ecuadorian Ministry of Education, 2013, p. 28). The existence of these contexts and their convergence should

Analysis In the contexts previously described, teaching is based on an educational model that prioritizes the ancestral knowledge of the communities,to promote its preservation, enhancement and dissemination in educational institutions. Quoting the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education: "to apply a learning methodology that takes into account the educational practices of each culture and their scientific contributions'' (2013, p. 33). However, as far as languages are concerned, the Ecuadorian government has not provided adequate basis for their use and preservation.

The MOSEIB proposes holistic training in the language of each nationality. It begins with community kindergarten education, all the way throughout high

PICTURE 2: PURIFICATION RITUAL OF AN INTI RAYMI CEREMONY. SAN LUCAS PARISH. CEVALLOS, L. (2018).

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PICTURE 3: THEATRICAL REPRESENTATION OF A HEALING RITUAL. STUDENTS OF THE CENTRO DE APOYO LAGO AGRIO - UNAE. CEVALLOS, L. (2020).

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impel the educational systems to create Teaching-Learning models aimed at development that starts from our own knowledge to then include others and vice versa.

That is how more inclusive spaces are built.

peoples who are in a process of cultural vindication.

That is the case of Engabao, where the vindication of their knowledge and an appropriation of Kichwa should be used as the foundational elements.

Conclusion

Bibliographic references

In Ecuador, EIB professes a holistic education. It focuses more on the situation of students within their communities, to empower them according to what is proposed by the MOSEIB. However, EIB has little influence with higher education and society as a whole. Unfortunately, once high school is over, students do not have the facilities to continue with their social, political or higher education activities in their own language. They are forced to turn to a system that is ruled by Spanish and is where the acculturation processes take place.

Due to the condition of Ecuador's ancestral languages, MOSEIB should work on the creation of a vocabulary that helps mitigate the lack of Kichwa terms, as well as for the languages of other nationalities. It is imperative to create didactic resources focused on the local reality of each sector where EIB is carried out.

Likewise, the creation of virtual learning environments aimed at teaching and preserving the languages of Ecuador should be promoted. There should be elements that foster equity in the use of ancestral languages in bilingual and multilingual contexts.

Last but not least, it is important to promote the creation of a syllabus based on an ethnogenesis for the

Álvarez, C. & Montaluisa, L. (2017). Profiles of the Languages and Knowledge in Ecuador. Institute of Languages, Sciences and Ancestral Knowledge of Ecuador IICSAE. National Assembly of Ecuador. (October 20, 2008).

Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador. Let's leave the past behind. https://www.asambleanacional.gob.ec/sites/ default/files/documents/old/constitucion_de_bolsillo. pdf Bartolomé, M. (February 21, 2020). The settlers of the "desert". Genocide, ethnocide and ethnogenesis in Argentina. Amérique Latine Histoire et Mémoire. Les Cahiers. https://journals.openedition.org/alhim/103?lang=en&fbclid=IwAR28Iq7kP_KBXwm5VLF3iXZ-sXIrP-0WosAIHs7CzzXFm4I6ELg1tSELXnQ Cevallos, L. (2019). MUSHUK RIMAKPAK: Didactic strategies for the active learning of Kichwa with 6th grade EGB students at the UECIB Mushuk Rimak. Digital repository of the National University of Education UNAE. http://repositorio.unae.edu.ec/bitstream/56000/1149/1/ MUSHUK%20RIMAKPAK%20Estrategias%20didácticas%20para%20el%20aprendizaje%20a.pdf Chimbo, J. Ullauri, M. & Shiguango, E. (2008). Shi-

ILLUSTRATION 1: TAKEN FROM THE DOCUMENT THE MODEL OF THE BILINGUAL INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION SYSTEM. (2013, P. 6).

miyuk kamu Dicctionary, Kichwa-Spanish, Spanish-Kichwa (Second edition). Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana "Benjamín Carrión", Sucumbíos Nucleus.

Council for the Development of the Nationalities and Peoples of Ecuador. (CODENPE, 2011). Sumak Kawsay - Good Living. Series: Dialogues of Knowledge, Module 4. CODENPE. De Europa, C. (2002). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment. Centro Virtual Cervantes. https://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/marco/cvc_mer.pdf Ecuadorian Ministry of Education. (MinEduc, 2010).

Language Teaching Methodology Manual. Ecuadorian Ministry of Education. https://educacion.gob. ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/03/RK_manual_ensenanza_lenguas.pdf Ecuadorian Ministry of Education. (MinEduc, 2013).

Model of the Intercultural Bilingual Education Sys-

tem (MOSEIB). Ecuadorian Ministry of Education. https://educacion.gob.ec/wpcontent/uploads/downloads/2014/03/MOSEIB.p Ecuadorian Ministry of Education. (MinEduc, 2017a). Pedagogical guidelines for the implementation of the Intercultural Bilingual Education System Model.

Ecuadorian Ministry of Education. https://www.educar. ec/jornada/doc-modelo/lineamientos_moseib.pdf Ecuadorian Ministry of Education. (MinEduc, 2017b) ISHKAY SHIMI KAWSAYPURA KICHWA MAMALLAKTAYUKKUNAPA YACHAYÑAN. Ecuadorian Ministry of Education. https://educacion.gob. ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2017/03/KICHWA_ CNIB_2017.pdfÁlvarez, C. & YÑAN. Ministerio de Educación del Ecuador. https://educacion.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2017/03/KICHWA_CNIB_2017.pdf

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Living languages weave interculturality from territorial spaces: the

Ecuadorian context Bertha Emma Aguinda Grefa; Víctor Aurelio Llangarí AshquiI Translated by Flor Montero

Summary This article provides a historical overview of the living languages that weave interculturality from within indigenous territories, using Ecuador as an example of the strengthening, recuperation and revitalization of the original languages of peoples and nations at the Latin 1. Bertha Emma Aguinda Grefa. The Amauta Nanpi Bilingual Intercultural Community Educational Unit (Puyo, Ecuador) Member of the Indigenous Educators Network from the Initiative for Democratic Education in the Americas IDEA Network/Red SEPA. Email: aberthaemma@yahoo.es; ueibca@yahoo.es Víctor Aurelio Llangarí Ashqui. The San Jacinto Intercultural Community Educational Unit (Puyo, Ecuador), National Education University, Azogues-Ecuador. Email: vicllang@yahoo.es; uecibsanjacinto@yahoo.com. victor.llangari@unae.edu.ec 22

American level. It is an in-depth reflection, with the participation of social actors from the Bilingual Intercultural Community Educational Centers (CECIBs), the Bilingual Intercultural Community Education Units (UECIBs), post- secondary institutions and universities, offering an epistemological shift on learning, relearning and unlearning languages through their own linguistic codes, in education in the XXI century. It also looks at the great challenges posed by the COVID-19 global pandemic, the economic crisis, and the virtual platforms of the national education system.

Key words: Languages, Strengthening, Revitalization, Interculturality, Territorial Spaces.

Introduction The 2008 Ecuadorian Political Constitution recognizes the presence of indigenous peoples within its territory and, consequently, also acknowledges that the country is intercultural and multilingual.

Ecuador is an intercultural and plurinational country made up of different nationalities and peoples. Ecuadorian indigenous populations have their own languages and are settled throughout the four regions of the country. In the coastal region we find the Awa, Chachi, Tsa'chila and Épera nationalities; in the Amazon Region the Cofán, Siona, Secoya, Sapara, Wao, Shuar, Achuar, Shiwiar and Andwa. The Kichwa live in the highlands, the Amazons, the coast and the island regions. There is also a presence of African descendants and montubios (coastal peasants) who speak Spanish as their native language in these regions.

According to some, interculturality is a policy of state domination and control (Juan Guzman, 2019, REDIIN Chiapas). Thus, Intercultural Bilingual Education (EIB) can be seen as an integrationist policy. Teachers translate colonizing and neoliberal contents into our native languages, spreading and strengthening the colonial policies promoted by international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Their objective is to impose mass education that justifies the plundering of resources and demeans the kikin/yuyay thinking and worldview.

The 14 Ecuadorian nationalities, still living on their traditional territories that pre-date the creation of the nation-state - as well as the 15 peoples- have resisted and continue to value their own sources of knowledge.

Therefore, it is necessary to review the methodology of the Intercultural Bilingual Education System Model (MOSEIB, 2013).

Linguistic consciousness, explained from a global perspective, is a hermeneutic vision. According to Gadamer, language is considered to be not a mere dialect, but a constructivist element: in order to get to know ourselves and the world, we need to use the spoken word, our own language. As we grow, we get to know

the world, and we get to know people and ultimately ourselves while we are learning to speak. Learning a language means becoming familiarized with the world as it meets us (Gadamer, 2006, p.148).

We call upon all social actors to walk together and weave networks to continue transforming the public education system. It should be inclusive and free and the Ecuadorian State should provide the necessary technology so that all students benefit, along with their families, at all levels of the education system, from community-based early childhood programs (kindergarten) to the intercultural bilingual basic education system (elementary), the intercultural bilingual high schools (unified general high schools, technical high schools and the productive technical high-school systems) and also to the universities. Everyone has a right to education from and for life itself. We believe that the Intercultural Bilingual Education System (SEIB) should have its own platform, in which progress and skills are assessed in a qualitative way, so as not to continue measuring individuals through quantitative grades.

Indigenous Languages in the Ecuadorian Context As far as indigenous languages are concerned, the Organic Intercultural Education Law promotes interculturalism and plurality in the educational system. Additionally, the teaching of an ancestral language is promoted through its inclusion in the syllabus (Art. 6, lit. l). In this context, the Ministry of Education, in compliance with the regulations, has offered Ecuadorian teachers a curriculum on the different nationalities (seib- mineduc 2017) from unit 1 to 75 , and the curricular expansion of the high school program (seib- mineduc 2017) to include the teaching of the Kichwa language. It is an elective subject for the junior year. By teaching the language, there is an intention to recognize, respect and strengthen the cultural expressions of this Ecuadorian population.

Students are gradually introduced to the idea of the construction of an intercultural Ecuadorian society by valuing its linguistic and cultural diversity.

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IMAGE 1: ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER, BERTHA EMMA AGUINDA GREFA, IN A KNOWLEDGE PLANNING ACTIVITY, PCD DOMAINS, SURROUNDED BY HER STUDENTS OF UNITS 48-54 DDTE AT UECIB, AMAUTA ÑANPI 2024-2020.

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Language teaching in the CECIBs and UECIBs, under the guidance of the Secretariat of the Intercultural Bilingual Education System (SESEIB-MINEDUC), sees linguistic awareness as encompassing everything, from having a life project to the full formation of a human being with love in his/her heart. The following table shows how languages are integrated in the educational systems and the legal framework of public policies.

It should be said that Kichwa, like other indigenous languages, is an agglutinating system. This means that from a root word, one or several particles can be added to create different meanings. These particles are called bound morphemes because they are next to the root (Montaluisa, 2006). This characteristic is a core aspect of learning the language.

Ministerial Agreement No. 440-13 of December 5, 2013, Article 3, states that "teachers in the Intercultural Bilingual Education System will use the different languages involved in the implementation of the educational process, according to the following scheme [...]"

Under SEIB and MOSEIB policies and using institutional instruments, we studied a sample of the methodology to understand treatment of languages, in this case of the Kichwa and Shuarchicham in the Amauta Ñanpi UECIB , during the 2019-2020 school year, using the input of teachers.

There is an effort to maintain, protect and develop collective knowledge, its sciences, technologies and

ancestral knowledge (ibid, Art. 57, numeral 12) under the stewardship of SENESCYT , CES and CEAACES , in the national universities, like the National University of Education (UNAE) and in adherence to the principles of article 1° of the Ecuadorian Constitution. For this reason, the inclusion in the curriculum of Kichwa and Shuar Ancestral Languages and others will be implemented as a public policy.

The National University of Education (Ecuador), which has its own pedagogical model (2016), contributes to the strengthening of these competencies, as well as to the inclusion of the Kichwa Ancestral Language.

The pedagogical evaluation gives rise to a qualification, according to the contents, and is evidenced in the development of the autonomous praxis and classroom activities. Together, they contribute to the development of conceptual, procedural and attitudinal competencies in the fields of language and culture. They also seek to propose possible solutions to the core problem presented in the different grades of the Ancestral Language V subject: "Construction of sentences” on the VI grade, "Construction of sentences" on the VII grade, "Combination of phrases and sentences" on the VIII grade, "Sentence mutation, paragraph writing and literature".

For the assessment, criteria is related to the communicative skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. They provide indicators that show progress in the learning of the language in a systematic and

PROGRAMA DE PREGRADO Y PROFESIONALIZACIÓN EB Y EIB 45% Lengua de la nacionalidad 45% Lengua de relación intercultural 10% Lengua extranjera.

SOURCE: A PROPOSAL FOR LINGUISTIC EFFICIENCY BY THE TEACHERS OF THE ANCESTRAL KICHWA LANGUAGE UNAE 2020.

fluent way that is consistent with the professionalization program of the Basic Education and Intercultural Bilingual Education programs. The programs are under the auspices of the Cuchipata Azogues Matrix, with the support of the centers in the six Amazonian provinces.

Everything is based on the professionalization project Amazonía UNAE that includes Sucumbíos, Orellana, Napo, Pastaza, Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe. It also includes the Sierra region: the provinces of Chimborazo, Azogues, Cañar and in the Coast region of San Vicente Manabí. They are to be implemented in the Islands region as well.

Under the UNAE pedagogical model, a sample of the system methodology was analyzed to learn about the treatment of the Kichwa and other living languages in the Centro Apoyo Lago Agrio UNAE, during the academic period from September 2019 to February 2020. The teachers of the Kichwa ancestral language provided the input. They were Judith Cachipuendo, Luis Cevallos and Víctor Llangarí, along with the UNAE Matrix team (2020).

Peoples and nationalities weave interculturality together I should mention that Ecuador is a megadiverse country of native cultures. Article 57, paragraph 14 of the Ecuadorian Constitution (2008) recognizes and guarantees the right of indigenous peoples and nationalities to develop, strengthen and enhance their intercultural bilingual education system with quality criteria, from early stimulation all the way up to the highest level.

Everything should be done in accordance with their cultural diversity, and for the care and preservation of their identities, in alignment with their teaching and learning methodologies.

Caudo (2016) shows how in the last decades the education problems of people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds from those of the majority have been studied. This research has been closely related to the development of social and indigenous movements and their demands for participation and guaranteed rights. With Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO, 1989) and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN, 2007), the treatment of cultural differences and the recognition of rights appeared, and this population became a target sector for "inclusion". When the 2008 Constitution declared Ecuador as a plurinational and intercultural State, a strong inclusive discourse began to spread in the country, accompanied by some new public policies.

The existence of peoples and nationalities, with their well demarcated territories, and sacred spaces, is recognized in paragraph 5, article 57. It also acknowledges their possession of the ancestral lands and territories, adjudicated to them during the presidency of Rodrigo Borja (1988).

The understanding of life for each one of the peoples and nationalities, from all walks of life at a global level and within their linguistic awareness, starts with the family. In the CECIBs or UECIBs and the intercultural educational institutions, there is a methodology that allows all human beings to be reflective and creative entities, engaged with their own learning, so that the language is alive and felt deeply from the soul, deep within the heart.

"For this reason, the pleasure of writing and reading is based on a linguistic awareness, which requires an understanding of how languages are organized. There are five levels of organization in all languages: 1. Pragmatics studies the psycho-social context in which a language

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IMAGE 2: SHUAR LANGUAGE TEACHER RUBÉN MARIANO WASHICTA SANCHIM, DURING A PCD PLANNING ACTIVITY, UNITS 34-54, DDTE PROCESS AT THE UECIB AMAUTA ÑANPI, 2019- 2020 SCHOOL YEAR.

is located. 2. Semantics (lexicon) studies the meaning of verbal expressions. 3. Syntax (syn meaning along with and taxis meaning 'harmony and order') studies the order in which words are placed in a sentence. 4.

Morphology studies how a word is structured; and 5.

Phonology studies the minimal sounds called phonemes with which the language is constituted." This explanation is taken from the work of Luis Montaluisa and the DINEIB Team, 2018.

Territorial spaces in the diversity of homogeneous cultures

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The territorial space is a place determined by the diversity of beings and living elements within PACHAMAMA (Mother Nature). Ecuador is full of a diversity of cultures, each with their own worldviews, but they all share the belief that human beings, through the use of our senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste) capture reality and represent it in our brains and in our bodies.

In some of these territories, people have been cut off from this traditional family-led teaching-learning through assimilation and non-identification with their original roots, And the policies of all parts of the education system are well defined, from the national education system, the intercultural system, the Intercultural Bilingual Education system, to the Higher Education System, to impose a state-controlled hegemony.

Because of the violation of the rights of peoples and nationalities to an intercultural bilingual education, and with the participation of organizations that follow the decrees and the LOEI reforms and regulations, almost

IMAGEN 4: PRESENTACIÓN DE LA TEMÁTICA 4 UNIDAD DE VIII CICLO DE LENGUA ANCESTRAL KICHWA. DIALOGO SOBRE EL COMERCIO.

all schools serve the monolingual and monocultural educational model and curriculum -with a few proud exceptions- in spite of the teachers’ vocation at the SEIB. The establishment of a new educational model (according to Ministerial Agreement 020-2012, the Organic Statute and Process Manual) depends on the PNBV (Correa's administration) and the Toda una Vida Plan (Lenin Moreno's administration). But they are both patriarchal, hegemonic, homogeneous and homocentric education models. Although with slight differences, they are still elitist schemes to shape the mind of submissive, obedient, individualistic and consumerist young people.

The policy has had no change whatsoever to include the traditional practices, knowledge, wisdom, symbols and languages of the nationalities. These policies are unconstitutional, and go against the collective rights included in Articles 347.9 and 57. 14, and the right to a bilingual intercultural education according to

IMAGE 6: EVALUATION FORM FOR THE STUDENTS OF VIII GRADE IN THE KICHWA ANCESTRAL LANGUAGE CLASS.

FUENTE: IMAGEN EN LA PÁGINA WEB. HTTPS://WWW.GORAYMI.COM/ES-EC/ECUADOR/CULTURAS-NACIONALIDADES/ PUEBLOS-NACIONALIDADES-INDIGENAS-ECUADOR-A0UBMQ0JF 27

the socio-cultural and linguistic reality of each of the nationalities and peoples in Ecuador.

Conclusions Although education in Ecuador is promoted as a pedagogical system, it is in fact an ideological instrument to convey and reproduce the dominant colonial system.

The current globalization of capital, throughout the pandemic, and the global economic crisis marked by corruption, are creating a standardized society that bends to the demands of the capitalists and dominant market.

Given this reality, it is urgent for teachers' organizations, especially those under the SEIB and the organizations of peoples and nationalities to coordinate joint actions with all sectors committed to EIB to reflect on how to achieve a strengthening of "educational quality". It is vital to construct our own epistemologies, to revitalize the "living languages'' and to make important decisions to defend our rights with the goal of constructing a plurinational and intercultural state.

The CECIBs, the UECIBs, the postsecondary institutions and the universities of the country should lead the pedagogical way for interculturality in Latin America and the world. Under the guidance of the Secretariat of the Intercultural Bilingual Education System and with the public policies of the Ministry of Education, the syllabus must be opened up to include living languages of the peoples, according to their own worldview and respecting their principles and the right to knowledge and spaces for the expression of their

living culture within the methodological processes, in synchronization with all the processes of life. Because so far in Ecuador, languages have not been treated as they should.

Bibliographic references - Aguinda, Bertha. PCA, PCD and UECIB Curricular Planning. Amauta Ñanpi. Puyo, 2014-2020.

- Equatorial Political Constitution, 2008.

- Intercultural Education Organic Law - LOEI, 2011.

- Llangarí, Víctor. Kichwa curricular planning. Centro de Apoyo Lago UNAE. Lago Agrio, School year from September 2019 to February 2020.

- ME, Bilingual Intercultural Education Model.

Quito. SUBSEIB-Ministry of Education, 2013.

- MEC, DINEIB, DIREIB-A. Intercultural Bilingual Education Model Project for the Amazons, Pastaza 2006.

- Montaluisa, Luís. Community Participation in Intercultural Bilingual Education in Ecuador. Vermont USA: School for International Training, 2003.

- SEIB, DINEIB, MINEDUC, SEIB Educators Pedagogial Workshop. Quito, 2018.

- SENESCYT, Higher Education Organic Law, 2010.

- UNAE, Kichwa Language Teachers. The Curriculum for the ancestral Kichwa language. Azogues, 2019.

- UNAE, Teachers of the Kichwa Ancestral Language.

Module of Kichwa Ancestral Language of V, VI, VII, VIII terms of the professionalization career. Azogues, 2019.

- UNAE, Pedagogical Model. Azogues, 2016.

- Washicta, Rubén. Curriculum planning for PCA and PCD. UECIB Amauta Ñanpi. Puyo, 2020.

28 FUENTE: IMAGEN EN LA PÁGINA WEB. HTTPS://WWW.SLIDESHARE.NET/PAUGARCA4/PRESENTACION-AL-INPC-DEL-PDOT

Open Forum

In this section you will find current discussions, debates and reflections on public education, and the construction of alternatives, expressions of solidarity and collective actions.

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More than a dream... the ongoing struggle of the grandchildren of the Mayan people

IN MEMORY OF ROMEO JIATZ

Guillermo Chen1

Translated by Ruth Leckie

After years of struggle and of the shared dream of creating spaces of reflection and analysis to create new knowledge based on the way of life and the cosmovision of the communities, a concrete proposal was finally put forth in Guatemala to create the Research Institute for Mayan Studies, Wisdom and Knowledge (INESCO Maya).

Romeo Jiatz was one of the builders of this dream.

An Indigenous Kaqchikel Maya, he was a human rights activist, had a masters in business administration and was a national expert in social organization and interculturality. Out of this came the idea of creating a research centre for the study of Mayan knowledge and wisdom in order to begin to fill the huge gap and denial of indigenous identity from the time of the Spanish invasion up to the years of the genocide against indigenous people.

At the international level, Romeo was active in the Indigenous Educators Network of the IDEA Network.

1. Expert in cultural identity and historical memory.

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He participated in international events in Mexico and Canada and participated in the Network in Guatemala.

In recent years, Romeo Jiatz worked for the development of his community through local electoral politics. He ran for office with the Trigo Electoral Civic Committee and as a councillor initiated important changes when they took over the municipal government of Tecpan, Chimaltenango.

Just as the dream of INESCO MAYA was becoming a reality, and while serving his people on the municipal council, he became ill with the coronavirus, COVID 19, and died of complications. For us as indigenous people, he has not died. He has just moved on to the next level, to the next task, to the future that needs to be prepared for the indigenous grandchildren of Guatemala. He is no longer pursuing the establishment of a research institute, but others will continue that work.

And from the space he now occupies, he will send the energy needed to finish this beautiful project for the next generations.

Peru: "For 28 years,

Amazonian Indigenous people have been speaking without

intermediaries”

Manuel Ysuiza Shapiama* Translated by Flor Montero

Abstract: This article presents the current situation and the actions that the Indigenous Federations have undertaken in the face of the inefficient and lazy behavior of regional authorities in terms of the pandemic and its effects on the population, particularly on indigenous peoples in Peru. It also looks at the strategies and responses carried out by organized Amazonian peoples in dealing with the pandemic as well as the projects that threaten their territories and culture.

Key words: indigenous peoples, COVID-19.

*Amazonian Quechua Teacher - San Martin Region - Peru

The Indigenous Federations of the San Martin region: CODEPISAM, CEPKA, FEPIKECHA, FERISHAM, FERIAAM, FEKIHD, FECONAKED Y FEPIBHSAM express the following: In the context of the health emergency afflicting our country, which in our region has claimed the lives of 194 people to date, we have witnessed with great concern the inaction of many officials of the regional government. There is a lack of medical supplies, which is completely unacceptable, but it appears that the officials prefer to cover-up their shortcomings and failures by using the media to dismiss or minimize the suffering of all the families who urgently need medical attention and who are already suffering from a precarious health system. Little is being done to provide urgently needed

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solutions to the Covid-19 health emergency. Thus, the above-named federations declare: 1. Since the beginning of the emergency, the Awajun, Kichwa and Shawi indigenous peoples of the San Martin Region, represented through CODEPISAM, have repeatedly approached the regional authorities with a series of requests but have received no response.

Those include inclusion of COVID-19 needs in health planning, disclosure of statistics in order to know how many of the infected are members of our indigenous communities and approval of a regional plan for an intercultural approach to care in our native communities.

In spite of more than 30 COVID-19 positives and more than 100 suspected cases among our native brothers and sisters, to date we have not received any response.

The regional authorities have refused to comply with their functions for more than 90 days, not meeting the demands and requirements of the indigenous population at risk due to lack of resources and IPRESS staff (Editor’s note: IPRESS is one of the healthcare agencies in Peru). There is also a latent threat to their livelihood, considering the situation of our relations in the regions of Loreto and Ucayali.

2. For this reason, the indigenous populations that we represent are outraged to learn that despite the fact that the regional government has had access to resources from the central government, we are listed last in the budget priorities. This is reflected in the numerous appeals over social media from citizens in the region who have sick relatives and are desperately seeking help since they do not have the necessary supplies to save the lives of their loved ones. The same is happening with doctors and health workers who, as frontline staff in the crisis response, have had to resort to the justice system, through the prosecutors' offices, to report on the dire situation. The regional authorities have risked the lives of San Martin citizens through their lack of concrete action. As an indigenous movement, we support any recall initiatives being promoted since we have lived the consequences of such negligence. We request budgetary information and action plans to take the legal measures

that we deem appropriate and request the support of the judicial system.

3. The situation is even more serious given that the provisions of Article 2, letter C of Legislative Decree No. 1489 -a legislative decree that establishes the protection of indigenous or native peoples in the context of the declaration of a Covid-19 health emergency and published on May 10 2020 in the Official Gazette El Peruano- require the state to implement and ensure mechanisms of coordination with public entities to provide care to the indigenous population, using the criteria of relevance, cultural and gender sensitivity, opportunity, efficiency and quality. This was meant to mitigate the impact and spread of Covid-19 in the territories of the indigenous peoples that we represent.

But so far, the only response we have received has been the silence of those in charge who are delaying taking concrete action and are not taking us into consideration in their plans.

Organization of the Amazonian peoples The national and international communities are surprised by the organizational capacity of the Amazonian peoples who undertook an impressive national day of struggle. What is the secret of this organization?

Amazonian indigenous peoples do not need a modern structure of representation to defend their land.

It is enough for them to feel threatened to take up the fight. Just as religious believers would pounce on a mayor if he proposed demolishing a church to install a municipal slaughterhouse, indigenous peoples also know how to respond when their sacred waterfalls and mountains are threatened. And just as rejecting a slaughterhouse would not imply renouncing all meat consumption, nor does the rejection of legislative decrees 1015, 1073, 1064, among others, mean that indigenous people are against progress. It simply means that the spiritual beliefs that move indigenous people are not related to the market economy.

There is much talk about bringing progress and

modernity to indigenous people in order to overcome poverty. However, arguing that this requires changing the rules of collective property and establishing new norms undermines the very basis of their existence.

The road to modernity does not necessarily have to be taken by renouncing collective land ownership. Other mechanisms can and should be developed since getting out of poverty does not require taking on a mortgage or leasing or selling communal lands.

When Mr. Roque Benavides, former President of the National Confederation of Private Business Institutions (CONFIEP) and of the National Society of Mining and Oil Extraction (SNMP) says that mining companies are the big losers with the rejection of the decrees that tried to facilitate the sale of community lands and claims that every time they have asked for

community opinion, two thirds do not show up (La Primera newspaper, 24. 08.08). This only confirms our suspicions that the insistence of the government has a lot to do with collusion with economic powers to grant them access to the Amazon. They are only looking for a legal cover-up to justify their invasion of our lands.

Meanwhile, the government has announced that they will go down into the communities to explain the bonanza promised by the legislative decrees in question.

The confession of anthropologist Juan Ossio, who has hinted that he is part of the president's advisory team on this matter (Peru 21 newspaper, 24.08.08), raises the suspicion that something is being cooked up in the executive office, with the help of academics, to avoid a proper consultation with the affected population.

On the other hand, it should be noted that the

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Amazonian indigenous leadership emerged in 1974 with the recognition of the legal entity misnamed the "Native Community”, which at the same time gave rise to the representative indigenous organizations that began the search for mechanisms of dialogue with the state and its rulers.

Those who maintain that the native communities are an invention of (former president) Juan Velasco's time are somewhat right. The concept attempts to limit the ancestral territorial area claimed by the Amazonian indigenous peoples.

We would not like to think that intellectuals in Lima only hold the military government responsible for the existence of the native communities in order to hide their own impotence when they see how indigenous peoples resist. As long as indigenous peoples are standing up against perverse laws, it will be impossible to convince them to let their friends or partners enter the territories Historians, academics and anthropologists should know that through our representative organizations, indigenous people have managed to create national and international structures, such as the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) in 1984. Through this body, we have represented ourselves internationally, for example on the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues of the United Nations.

They should also know that in Peru, the Amazonian indigenous organizations have demonstrated the proactive nature of our struggles. Examples of this are the development of important programs such as the Bilingual Teacher Training Program (FORMABIAP), which originated when current Congresswoman Mercedes Cabanillas was Minister of Education (RM 36488-ED of 25.05.1988), during the first Alan Garcia Administration in 1988.

This important educational program for Peru was possible thanks to the initiative of AIDESEP. They signed an agreement with the Italian Technical Cooperation Office through the association Terra Nuova, an NGO that had the courage and commitment to support

indigenous people in the promotion of intercultural bilingual education. If it has been forgotten by the second administration of the APRA regime, they should ask the current minister to remind them of the remote education that is being implemented in our Indigenous communities.

The Minister of Health might be surprised to see that without any financial support from the Peruvian state, the Amazonian indigenous people are demonstrating our managerial capacity with different international cooperation agencies. With them we are implementing the training of Intercultural Health Technicians and very successfully I might add. The Atalaya and Datem del Marañon regions, which had been completely abandoned, are now thriving as are so many of the communities who know how to use the natural medicines offered by Mother Nature that can fight Covid - 19.

Officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Amazonian regional governments cannot refute the trade covenants, agreements and other documents that recognize the active role of our leaders and apus from many communities in defending our right to live using our own natural means.

For the health of the indigenous and San Martin population:

· · ·

Greetings from the peoples in: KICHWA AMAZONICO: TUKUY RUNAKUNAPA, INDIUKUNA KAY SAN MARTIN SUYUPI ALLI KAWSANAPA AWAJUN: JATA PACHISA CHICHAMJAMU IINIA WEANTU SAN MARTINNUM BATSAMIN AIDAUTI SHAWI: KANPUWA YAWEREWAKE’ KU KAÑUWAUN YAWEKAMARE’ SAN MARTIN NU’PAKE "UNITY AND RESPECT FOR THE CULTURES AND LANGUAGES OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF PERU AND AMERICA. QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL WITHOUT EXCLUSION".

Deschooling our communities Sisa Pacari Bacacela Gualán José María Vacacela Gualán Translated by Luis Cario

Abstract: Our peoples and cultures are disappearing at an alarming rate. We are proposing the creation of a new system of life based on awareness and community consensus.

This is an act of self-determination so that ----we can recreate our life of wisdom in community. We must do it or else disappear. We can’t allow their churches, their schools, their banks and their governments to tell us how to live.

Keywords: Our system of life; deschooling; cellular memory; community consensus; life curriculum;Yachay Kawsay; Mushuk Away.

The western system denigrated the native peoples of America, disparaging their wisdom, science and technology; exploiting them in the name of its god; using them as a low or unpaid labor force in order to accumulate wealth for monopolies; and later establishing schools in rural areas. Our grandparents saw

these schools as opportunities for their children to be accepted into the system, so they enrolled them. At school they were asked to speak in Spanish and the grandparents, in order to “help their children'', stopped speaking their mother tongue. The system then offered some of the first indigenous students the “opportunity” of paid work, a proposal that attracted them and became popular. Being a teacher was the first salaried job throughout our communities but it was like a dagger or a poison for our culture.

To turn them into teachers, the models of “normal schools” from Germany were imported. Students’ minds were twisted and alienated until they were convinced that education was only a task for inside a classroom, with discipline imposed by adults. The communities also fell into this trap, believing that in order to “be good” and to succeed, they had to go through this institution and that by doing so and speaking Spanish they would become accepted by the system. That is how we got to the current moment in which questioning school has

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PHOTO: DANIEL FELIPE CAMPO

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become subversive, undesirable and misunderstood.

For example, in 2014 “INKA SAMANA”, a community project of peace and autonomous education and an ancestral model of cultural strengthening since 1986, was shut down.

Because of our urgent awareness of the threat of extinction to our peoples, we are working to transform the education of future generations. Beyond just creating a community or cultural curriculum, we must recreate our ancestral ways of learning.

Our grandparents didn’t learn while locked inside a school with a person of the same or less knowledge than them. That’s why they became wise. They learned, with both family and community accompaniment, about life in relation to nature and the cosmos. Why should we spend our energy on making changes inside classrooms? To our way of thinking, those are the exact things that should disappear because they are tools of colonization and domination. Do we want to continue this legacy of dependence and leave it to our children?

If we want native peoples to stay alive and our cultural wisdom to rise again… our educational practice should involve identifying the areas of life in which cultural

manifestations remain intact and understanding and recreating the ways they have managed to stay alive despite invasion, colonization and neo-colonization.

We must reconnect with nature and the cosmos and re-learn their language and way of living. Behind any cultural, organizational, administrative, social or spiritual practice exists a great collective will to “live in that way”. That’s where we find the real clue as to how to continue. What remains alive in our festivities? Which forms of community work do we still practice? What pieces of oral literature do we know and how have they reached us in our times? How have artistic skills (wrongly called “artisanal”) passed from generation to generation? Western art is an individual expression, so when they see that our art is collective, like our life, they take away its value, calling it handicrafts at best and folklore at worst. These are the keys to creating our methodology of learning (we do not say methodology of teaching because it is the individual and the community that intrinsically possess a way of learning different practices).

Something that has worked well for us is to gather the communities for a couple of days to collectively

activate our cellular memory and through this exercise discover all the knowledge that we collectively possess, locate the people in the community who are experts or can explain how to apply this knowledge and identify the ancestral forms of transmission that have allowed this knowledge to survive.

We are at a life or death moment for our culture.

Colonizing institutions such as churches, schools, governments and banks, have seriously threatened and damaged our cultures over many years. We are currently facing a digital threat that is rapidly destroying our languages and our ancestral ways of thinking collectively and weaving ideas into practice. Most seriously and irreversibly, it prevents us from maintaining our cultural taste, which is that subtle feeling that tells us what combinations work in the flavours of our cooking, in the colors of our clothing and in the smells of the natural fibers with which we make art. These subtleties contain the DNA of our Andean worldview. Our cultural expressions lose their spirit with the introduction of synthetic fibers and industrialized processes. The spirit of who we are is alive in our senses and their contact with the natural environment. In order to regain cellular memory, we must learn to perceive and recover those smells, sounds, tastes, textures and colors again from those who continue to use them in remote parts of our communities. We are peoples who have had a close relationship with the cosmos, we knew the pacha as the inseparable management of time and space, life cycles, balance in food, health, social relationships, in the integration of the three worlds: Kay pacha, the world of the present; Uku pacha, the world of the ancestors and Hanan pacha, the world of infinity. We valued and practiced the principles and consensus of coexistence.

We have called all this wisdom that integrates holistically with the energies of the Universe a life curriculum. If we want to remain alive as peoples, to strengthen ourselves and to project ourselves towards our own way of life, we should leave the schools that we know, decolonize ourselves from everything that has been imposed and reorganize ourselves based on

PHOTO: SISA PACARI

our knowledge and values into new communities that create and recreate the system in which we want to live and grow. This means being reborn to make our own decisions, our own philosophy of life, our own spirituality, our own organizational politics, our own gratitude economy and our own social relationships.

We started this walk in Inka Samana in 1986 and we continue to grow, share and strengthen ourselves in “MUSHUK AWAY”, a network of dreams, experiences and alternative ideas of Ecuador since 2014 and in YACHAY KAWSAY since 2016 .

Bibliographic references Albuja, MG. Vacacela, JM. (2019) Inka Samana Un Sueño Pedagógico. Loja: UTPL. 37

Building language in community Fernando Ramírez1

Translated by Ericka Fuchs

Learning a language means much more than just grammatical structures, verb tenses, nouns and all the other elements that make it up. It means learning to view one’s relationship with the world and others differently.

Behind every language is a world, a philosophy and a cosmovision. In Mexico, 68 indigenous languages (with 364 variants or dialects) survive. However, in many cases there are very few speakers, so many languages are at risk of disappearing. The majority of these languages are transmitted orally.

I was born and grew up in an urban environment, in Iztapalapa, Mexico City because my parents migrated many years ago to the country’s capital. This is one of the reasons why I didn’t learn the language. I did learn 1. He has participated, as a volunteer, in educational projects to teach history through music. Seeking innovation in the teaching of International Relations through the theory of multiple intelligences. Interested in the dissemination and promotion of Mexican culture, through its different modalities, Seeking to preserve the Ngiwa language (Chocholteca), one of the 11 indigenous languages of the state of Oaxaca, where he has his roots.

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many other things through family discussions, like traditions and values, and thus came to understand why my elders had not learned the language (Chocholteca), which has been lost for several generations in the Ngiwa community from which I come. This is the language I want to learn.

In 2015, I found out that a teacher, Aristeo, was developing a workshop to teach the language that was denied to my parents, so I decided to try to learn it and have now been attending his class for five years.

He teaches us a bit of vocabulary and the sounds and the images that the words represent. In addition to that, and to reinforce what we have learned, he tells us a legend or anecdote that refers to the way that life used to be in the community.

I already knew about some things because my family had passed them on through oral tradition, but others I did not. I want to emphasize an important aspect of community life that continues to be practiced in almost all the communities of Oaxaca: the “tequio”,

also known as “gueza” or “llesa”, that consists of a type of community and volunteer work for the common good of the community or the town. This tradition is part of extracurricular education that is second nature to Oaxacans and that has allowed for social cohesion.

I got to experience this firsthand on a trip that I took to Oaxaca. I have always loved to take photos, and this time was no exception. When I went out with some of the men and young people from the community who were going to gather wood, I took my camera along to take photos of the scenery. And when we stopped to rest, I took advantage of the moment to take some more photos. But just as we were about to continue, one of them said to me: “Hey, give us a hand!” to which I responded immediately.

I began to remember our family discussions in the San Miguel Teotongo neighbourhood in the Sierra de Santa Catarina, in Iztapalapa. This neighbourhood was founded by groups of migrants from various regions, among them many Oaxacans and, as in the case of my family, of chocholtecos. The stories that they would tell would always make reference to community work and to the way in which the neighbourhood was built when they began to drill holes to put in the drainage system, the clearing of the roads and the construction of the schools.

As I remembered these stories, we continued to carry the wood to the truck, until we were covered in sweat. We worked like little ants: one after the other, cutting and carrying wood, all working towards one objective - the common good. My status as a “city dweller” did not give me any privilege, even though I had only gone along to take photos. Despite being tired

and having sweated like never before, I really enjoyed the experience.

Later we sat in the shade of a tree to eat. I don’t remember the discussion we had at that moment very well, but I do remember the spirit of the people and their smiles and expressions of happiness at having met the objective. After this short break, it was back to ‘Keep at it!’ until we arrived back at Concepción Buenavista, the community from which we had departed. Arriving at the community centre or house of the people (Casa del Pueblo), we started to unload and arrange the wood.

But what does my re-telling this story have to do with language and education? Simply that education in the communities cannot be reduced to the classroom, and that now I understand when the teacher Aristeo tells us what community work is called in the Ngiwa language (Chocholteco): xragutse.

Community work is not exclusive to communities in Mexico. We can also find it in various parts of the Americas, called Minga in Peru or Ecuador for example.

It is a practical reality that continues to be part of our traditions in Oaxaca and among the many Oaxacan migrants that have populated other parts of Mexico and the world.

This kind of community activity is reinforced by another - the system of positions and responsibilities.

In order to be a municipal president, you have to pass through the hierarchy of positions including topil and alderman, among others. Only then can one become a candidate for municipal president. It is a duty of all citizens to take on a position, and carry it out fully because their word and honour depend on it. They must fulfill this assignment without pay

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because it is about contributing to the common good.

Another necessary requisite is that every official must know how to speak, must have the gift of the word and exercise it; but they must also know when to stay silent, to listen and to address others. They must know the community’s history and both be respected and respect the laws. Even though written laws exist, word of honour and orality count for a lot.

This is something that the Oaxacan migrants brought with them. This is why from the time that we are children we are taught to honour our word. We hear phrases like: “if you say something, honour it. If you cannot, better not open your mouth.” Beyond this phrase itself, you will find the energetic weight of our elders’ voices, urging us to make a commitment to the other and to ourselves.

The way that they taught us to see the world from within the bosom of the family is reinforced by the teachings of Aristeo, who migrated when he was young.

Still, he was able to undertake various projects in benefit of his community, San Miguel Tulancigo, Oaxaca, such as the restoration of the church.

Sometimes, when we are in class, Aristeo says “Rxu Táa”in the Ngiwa language. Then he starts to explain: “Rxu Táa, designates the people who are considered great due to their stature, their intelligence and their deeds, but who don’t have popular support or social commitment. In previous times, the most important positions were occupied by the most respected people.

The Rxu Táa might be a student who then becomes a teacher but without having popular support in the community, so that their teachings have nothing to

do with the traditions and customs of community life.

On the other hand, I did not study, except in the school of life, but I have sought to recover a language that is based on practices, traditions and a cosmovision, that is based on a respect for nature and the relationship that we have with the planets that surround us.”

Customs and traditions develop a way of life and a vision of the world where you work for the common good, for the community.

Learning a language is an experience that brings us to life, that redefines our conception of the world, that gives us a sense of belonging and builds collectivity.

Each word has meaning, suggesting the opening of our senses and representing work. The kind of work that seeks to take care of the other in community, that generates knowledge and that is carried out with respect for nature, to whom we owe our sustenance and from where the language I am trying to learn sustains itself and develops, even very far from the land where my parents were born.

If we want to transform this reality, let us build collectivity, and generate belonging, especially in urban settings that are made up of migrants who may forget their roots or struggle to preserve them in the city.

Recovering our Indigenous languages and teaching new generations is not only an act of transformation but also an act of love. We need to build from below, from communities and neighbourhoods, and demand that the education that our children receive be a transformative education that is connected to the culture.

This will only happen if we understand the context in which we live.

Review of Public Education, Neoliberalism, and Teachers: New York, Mexico City, Toronto by Paul Bocking* (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020)

By Larry Kuehn1

Translated by Carmen Miranda-Barrios

When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was negotiated in the 1990, one of the many questions was the potential impact on public education in the three countries of the US, Mexico and Canada.

While education certainly wasn’t one of the main issues of debate and discussion, potential existed for collateral impacts. Paul Bocking’s look at education in the three NAFTA countries twenty-five years later helps to answer the question. The short version is that NAFTA probably had little direct impact on public education, but the neoliberal forces that created NAFTA did lead to some convergence, particularly on the experience of teachers and limits on their professional autonomy.

1. University of Toronto Press, 2020.

Bocking carried out case studies of education in New York, Toronto and Mexico City, focusing on these significant metropolitan areas of the US, Canada and Mexico. He chooses them not because he thinks the schools in each of the countries are the same as in these cities, but because what happens there is broadly representative of forces acting on education and is an influential source of ideas about education policy and practice.

Bocking comes at his look at education from multiple sources of engagement. He is a classroom teacher, an academic who has produced a doctoral dissertation and a teacher union activist in his local and in international union networks, particularly the Tri-national Coalition in Defense of Public Education. These connections

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give him a passion for the satisfaction of autonomy as a teacher, a broad perspective on education policy and the personal connections with classroom teachers in the three cities that lets him get a feel for the impact of those policies on the classroom reality.

Before getting into the case studies, Bocking explores the dimensions and importance of professional autonomy for teachers as a key to successful public education. It is autonomy in identifying instructional strategies, selection of resources, choosing timing, methods and types of assessment that both provide professional satisfaction and allow the differentiation of education that best serves the students. Developing capacity for judgment comes from professional training, experience and sharing with colleagues.

Bocking then provides a compressed history of how teacher unions have served to support professional autonomy and how neoliberal policies have served to restrict that autonomy. It is the global hegemony of neoliberal policies that provides the connecting link between the experiences of teachers in these three different national contexts. The policies include austerity in providing the resources for education; increasing centralization, moving decision-making away from the school or locality; the use of standardized testing as a method of control and of education; and forms of privatization, both as competition to and within the public system. Bocking particularly notes the role of international organizations in the production of common policies, including the OECD and its PISA exam.

Countervailing forces to these neoliberal directions are provided by some segments of teacher unions, although dominant elements of teacher unions in New York and Mexico City have been sometime allies in the imposition of neoliberal policies. Those opposing neoliberal directions have found common cause and mutual support in the Tri-national Coalition in Defense of Public Education, as well as other networks of teacher unions in the Americas, such as the IDEA Network/Red-SEPA. In each of the case studies of three major urban

education systems, Bocking provides context through recounting the history of developments in education policy over the past three decades. He then draws on interviews he conducted with classroom teachers that explore the restriction of professional autonomy, as well as views of how their unions have or have not supported their struggles for autonomy. Bocking’s report on Toronto also draws on his personal experience as a supply (substitute) teacher and local union activist and officer.

The section on Mexico is of particular value in providing background on the development and struggles against neoliberal education policies, information not widely accessible in English. These struggles have been led by the CNTE, a dissident section of the SNTE, the national union of teachers. The SNTE has generally played a role in support of government imposition of neoliberal policies, or, at least, complicit compliance.

The limitations of the CNTE opposition group as an effective force within the union nationally include it being the dominant force in the union only in the southern states with significant indigenous populations.

Struggles against neoliberal education policies have an anti-colonial aspect, as well as an autonomy element, that is stronger in those states, including Chiapas, Oaxaca and Michaocan.

Initially, neoliberal policies in Mexico championed decentralization, moving state responsibility to the school level as a way of forcing local communities and parents to cover more of the cost of education. However, these also opened some spaces for opposition to successfully negotiate with state governments to adopt policies different from those desired by the national government. However, centralized government policy was re-established, with the direct support of the SNTE president, Esther Elba Gordillo, a corrupt and abusive union leader. A newly elected Mexican president turned on Gordillo, jailing her for corruption, and then attempted to impose new discipline on teachers through ongoing testing of teachers. Widespread teacher opposition, beyond the traditional oppositional sections of the union, forced the government to back down on

testing, but successfully maintained other elements of neoliberal centralized control.

Based on his interviews with teachers in Mexico City, Bocking identifies why organized opposition to the neoliberal policies failed to develop there, particularly in the secondary union, which is organized separately from elementary teachers. Some of the limitations are structural because education in Mexico City has been under the direct control of the national education ministry, rather than the responsibility of Mexico City, which has had a centre-left government that might be more amenable to challenging the national policies.

In addition, secondary teachers in Mexico City are precarious workers, only a small minority having full time teaching jobs in one school. Most work part time in multiple schools on shifts, or even work at separate jobs outside of teaching. This limits their time and ability for professional autonomy, as well as the conditions for successful organizing of union campaigns.

Some of the same themes arise in Bocking’s look at secondary schools in New York. Although not precarious in the same way as in Mexico City, school-based budgeting and strong control by principals, along with restructuring into small secondary schools within a school, have led to inexperienced, less expensive teachers filling many of the positions. School choice policies have produced more inequity as some schools can choose their students and others must take whoever is left. The imposition by the state government of standardized testing and “value added” evaluation of teachers, along with the lack of stability in the faculty of the school, present major challenges to professional autonomy.

The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) has been ineffective in opposing the neoliberal policies and have been challenged, unsuccessfully, by MORE, an opposition caucus within the union. The union has supported some school district policies, such as breaking the large secondary schools into smaller schools, mistakenly thinking that teachers would be able to have more influence on school policies. They have also been limited by structural issues similar to those in Mexico

City. The direct relationship of the union is with the city in collective bargaining, but many of the neoliberal policies are imposed by the state government that can overrule any local decisions. The union puts its focus on lobbying the government, rather than, as MORE proposes, organizing collective action by teachers.

For his Toronto study, Bocking gives the history of the changing shape of neoliberal policies in Ontario that alternate between what might be called a hard, authoritarian neoliberalism and one that is softer and more reflective, but with similar impact. Both have common elements of varying degrees of austerity and centralization of decision-making toward the provincial and away from the local and the use of standardized testing to limit professional autonomy. He notes “staggering volumes of new policy” and increasing time taken up by administrators and teachers to document responses to the policy. The centralization of decisions has presented difficulties for the unions in Ontario to

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negotiate provisions that support professional autonomy.

Also, Ontario has four unions, representing four different parts of the system—secondary and elementary public schools, Catholic public schools and Francophone public schools—presenting difficulties with finding unity in challenging government in bargaining.

A common element in all three systems is a changing relationship between school principals and teachers. As control is centralized, administrators are increasingly expected to be the enforcers of government direction on teachers. Principals were removed from membership in the unions with teachers in all these cases, some more recently than others. They become increasingly the agents of policy rather than collegial participants in a collective professional autonomy.

Bocking ends with a challenge to teacher unions.

As control of education is increasingly centralized by 44

governments, the union’s focus inevitably shifts to seeking influence at that level, moving away from the local and the classroom. Whatever other successes they may have centrally, protecting professional autonomy has not been among them. His case studies give a sense of the reasons: sometimes compliance or even complicity in support of neoliberal proposals, other times a lack of focus or of unity on what to oppose and how best to do it. Bocking suggests that “a greater emphasis by teachers’ unions on analyzing and advocating the elements of good teaching could bring the spacial centre of gravity within the union back to the school site and the classroom.” And that could build the confidence and the resolve among teachers to maintain their professional autonomy against the reframing of public education as a neoliberal industry.

What is IDEA? The Initiative for Democratic Education in the Americas (IDEA) is a flexible network that brings together organizations in the Americas that share a commitment to protecting and improving public education, seen as essential to democratic development and the protection of human rights.

The Network works with other civil society organizations concerned about the impact on social rights of “free” trade agreements and other transnational neoliberal policies. The idea for a hemispheric network emerged from a meeting of teachers and students in Mexico City in November, 1998. IDEA’s structure was broadened and formalized at the Initiative for Democratic Education in the Americas Conference held in October 1999 in Quito, Ecuador.

What does IDEA do?

The IDEA network carries out research, establishes communication networks, publishes documents and organizes conferences and seminars related to neoliberalism, trade agreements and the defense and democratic transformation of public education. It also organizes campaigns to defend public education and the defenders of public education.

The objective of these activities is to lay the groundwork for an understanding of the impact of neoliberal policies on education in the Americas and to develop alternatives to ensure inclusive, democratic and quality public education.

IDEA also has two hemispheric subnetworks: the Education Research Network (RIE) and an Indigenous Educators’ Network (REI).

The RIE involves researchers working with educator, student and community organizations in collaborative work to produce studies that analyze and compare similar situations and policies in a range of American countries.

The REI enables indigenous educators to communicate with their counterparts in regions of the Americas and to share strategies and ideas related to defending culture and autonomy within a publicly funded education system.

Coordinating Committee The work of IDEA is directed by a Hemispheric Coordinating Committee made up of representatives of the following organizations: • National Union of Educators (UNE/Ecuador) • Confederation of Education Workers of the Argentine Republic (CTERA) • Federation of Central American Teachers’ Organizations (FOMCA) • National Confederation of Education Workersl (CNTE/Brazil) • Caribbean Union of Teachers (CUT) • British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF/ Canada) • Latin American and Caribbean Students’ Organization (OCLAE) • One representative each from the RIE and the REI Plans developed by the Coordinating Committee are executed by IDEA employees Steve Stewart (Canada) and Maria Ramos (Mexico), as well as the committee and participating IDEA organizations Contact: inforedsepa@resist.ca , www.idea-network.ca The IDEA Network makes available to teachers, students and the academic community of our continent, the electronic portal of public education in the Americas and the teaching profession

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2021. CENTENNIAL OF THE BIRTH OF PAULO FREIRE

"AGAINST EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY, A PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR EMANCIPATION"

MAY

|

NOVEMBER

You can join through the various modalities

Our activities: * May * May * May / August * September * November -.

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Launch of the campaign.

Declaration in defense of public education and open acces to digital tools..

Call for Intercambio Magazine and video contest submissions.

Hemispheric Forum "Weaving public education that transforms the world".

Campaign closing activities.

IDEA Network / Red SEPA https://bit.ly/32ZRzLB

www.idea-network.ca