Indigenous education in progress: Individuals, schools, and autonomy in Cauca, Colombia

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a research study regarding the process of establishment of the Autochthonous Indigenous Education System (SEIP from its Spanish acronym) in the department of Cauca, Colombia. This approach explores the identification of indigenous individuals, who are subordinated in a hegemonic social order, within the context of modern education under neoliberal influence. This research proposes acknowledging the presence of a traditional educational model offered to indigenous population and the resulting creation of an alternate autochthonous educational proposal within indigenous communities. It provides evidence of a series of emerging conflicts in the process of appropriation of the schools, based on the accomplishment of higher levels of educational autonomy on the part of indigenous communities in detriment of the power of traditional hegemonic actors, given the social, cultural, and political interest in this setting. Therefore, it discusses the structure of the territorial autonomy and government project in the school setting, taking into consideration the leading role of indigenous individuals and the achievement of a successive series of accomplishments in the administration of a school system that materializes a key factor of alternate hegemony. It concludes that acknowledging indigenous individuals proposes a cultural and political change supported in an autochthonous educational system, which is an aspect that aims to establish an alternate hegemony. This is possible only if higher levels of educational control are achieved with a view to consolidating autochthonous intercultural education for the indigenous movement in the department of Cauca in Colombia.