Intercultural education

Especially since the 1970s and 1980s, intercultural education has been one of the most significant fights of indigenous and tribal peoples in the American continent. Their claim has not only been —and continues to be— to be educated in their own language. The goal is also to ensure that diverse cultures are included in the traditional education system and that their identities are given visibility.

In this sense, intercultural education is conceived as a strategic space to reclaim ancestral thinking, which provides an important contribution to the development of intercultural societies. These peoples assert that the thinking that has been denied traditionally should be reclaimed, together with their history and cultural values. Intercultural education is at the forefront of contributing to the decolonization of knowledge, and it opens the possibilities of learning towards a new way of organizing logic to enable people to name reality with their own language.

With this in mind, the international community recognizes the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples to establish and control their educational systems and institutions so that education is not only provided in their own language, but that it also transmits their cosmovision, their cultures, their traditions, their stories, and their aspirations.