Historizando la educación intercultural; La Escuela Intercultural Laguna Verde como parte del proyecto de decolonización

Abstract

In this study, I propose to investigate Mapuche Intercultural Bilingual Education in Chile and its impact on the decolonization project of the Chilean school system, in collaboration with the Laguna Verde School. This research is important given that homogenizing linguistic ideologies continue to act as a form of power, denying minority indigenous groups access to education and citizenship in general. This research excludes the worldviews and ways of life of the Mapuche people and other indigenous peoples from the construction of hegemonic discourses of "Chilean national identity." Throughout the world, there are linguistically diverse classrooms that lack the resources to support students who do not speak the dominant language or dialect. Because these classrooms are not accessible, this not only prevents students from learning at the same pace as their dominant-language peers, but also demotivates them from fully participating in school by developing their indigenous language, culture, and identities. Access to participation and social resources is mediated through a process of assimilation and acculturation. In relation to this reality, I hope this research contributes to the movement to revitalize Indigenous languages ​​and their full integration into the school system. In this sense, one of the main objectives of this work is to understand how an intercultural classroom, specifically the Laguna Verde School, functions and to evaluate the impact of this model in combating raciolinguistic ideologies based on the co-naturalization of language and race. Specifically, and guided by a principle of reciprocity, I propose through this exploration to contribute to the intercultural mission of this school so that this study serves as an instrument that the different participants can re-appropriate in their own Action Research projects in different phases: planning, action, observation, and reflection. Finally, I hope this thesis also informs us about how we can change the structure of public schools in Chile so that they can be part of the process of revitalizing Indigenous languages ​​and the decolonization of and through language in the Chilean context.