Mellem oprindelige og koloniale identiteter - en undersøgelse af tosproget interkulturel uddannelse i Peru: Between indigenous and colonial identities - a research in intercultural bilingual education in Peru

This thesis examines intercultural bilingual education (IBE) as a national strategy of education and development, and its role in the local life in an indigenous community. The overall purpose of the research is to explore and assess how colonial power structures affect the indigenous people and their right to education and self-determination. How perspectives on communication and pedagogy can enable and empower people to take part in decision-making that affects their lives. By using ethnographic field research combined with a theoretical framework in critical pedagogy, dialogic communication and post-development theory, the thesis explores the transition of IBE from a national education policy to the life of Amazonian Kichwas, living in Campo Serio in northwestern Peru. The collection of empirical data is based on observations and situational interviews in the teacher training program for intercultural and bilingual education Zungarococha, the school of Campo Serio and in the local community. The empirical data contains document analysis of Peruvian laws and guidelines for IBE. These connections contribute to a complex understanding of the different perspectives and challenges that influence the implementation of IBE. Perspectives and challenges that are identified using a macro-meso-micro frame analysis. Starting from a macro-level it is explored how the Peruvian education policy retains colonial ideas of indigenous people. Through the concepts of interculturalism and bilingualism they define cultures as separate entities based on difference, and retain the linguistic homogenization of society through the imposition of the Spanish language. The meso-level unfolds how state policies are negotiated and challenged by the Peruvian NGO Formabiap. It is explored how the teacher program strengthens the indigenous identity by creating new relations to the social and cultural diversity that exists in these communities. Finally, on a micro-level it is explored how the macro- and meso-levels are transformed and reproduced in the classrooms and community of Campo Serio. The analysis states that TIU still is challenged in the classrooms by assimilationist colonial approaches on teaching and learning. An educational process that is further complexed by the ongoing transformation in the communities, contributing profound changes in the cultural identity of the Amazonian Kichwas in Campo Serio. Present thesis opens up to further studies on the role of education and communication in the indigenous peoples fight for self-determination within in the national states of Latin America, by stating those complexities that characterizes the educational process from national policy to local life in the indigenous community.