Mapuche education and situated learning in a community school in Chile |
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Authors: | Laura Luna Consuelo Telechea Natalia Caniguan |
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Institution: | 1. Campus Villarrica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Villarrica, Chile;2. Secretaría Regional Ministerial de Desarrollo Social de la Araucanía, Temuco, Chile;3. Instituto de Estudios Indígenas, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile |
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Abstract: | The article analyses the Mapuche language and culture teaching practices of a rural school in the Chilean Araucanía region run by Mapuche teachers, aimed at reinforcing the language, culture and identity of children. Based on a comparative study of two school ethnographies, the article shows and discusses the ways children learn to be Mapuche by participating of social and communitarian practices reproduced in school. While teaching of traditional core subjects is conducted in standard ways, Mapuche language and culture are taught through the recreation of modes of living, producing and reproducing indigenous traditional knowledge that normally occur in family and community. The maintenance of this ‘bicultural pedagogy’ is grounded on an epistemological claim on the indivisibility of contents from its forms of transmission. |
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Keywords: | Indigenous education situated learning schooling Mapuche education |
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