Intercultural Bilingual Education in Ecuador as a site of negotiation and struggle over difference: A case study of an Amazonian Kichwa school system Maria Antonia Manresa Axisa Doctor of Philosophy School of Modern Languages Newcastle University June 2018 2 Abstract The aim of this research is to study the process of Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) in Ecuador as a means of formulating, representing and incorporating ‘indigenous’ knowledge into formal schooling. The study is based on an ethnographic case study of a Kichwa Amazonian territory. I frame schooling within the historical struggle for recognition as generating an intrinsic tension between the need to demonstrate ‘sameness’ and simultaneously ‘difference’. I contrast between two theoretical trends conceptualizing intercultural education as a means of positioning epistemological pluralism. Through textual analysis of education policy and government discourse, I demonstrate a utilitarian notion over cultural difference and suggest a serious undermining of the active participation of diverse political actors in policy decision-making. Locally I identify the demand for recognition of difference in schooling, is express as ‘una educacion propia’ (our own education). I argue, this reflects the political objective of constructing an ‘intercultural utopia’ (Rappaport, 2005) as means of a decolonizing education. From my analysis of classroom observations I suggest little evidence of teaching practice that aims to reveal epistemological plurality. I interpret teachers generate equivalence between ‘official’ and ‘local’ knowledge, creating a disjuncture between what they enunciate and what corresponds to the school subject. I conclude that classroom practice does not aim to put into dialogue different forms of knowledge whether this is to contest or expand official knowledge. I propose however that identifying intercultural education practice limited to an epistemological concern, could in effect inhibit the actual enactment of difference, I suggest takes place in the classroom. By shifting the focus of analysis away from an epistemological concern, to consider ontological divergence, I propose difference passes unnoticed whilst existing as continued possibilities of ‘worlding’ (Latour, 1994; Blaser, 2009) within the classroom. 3 Acknowledgements I want to thank my son, Amaru Guaman Manresa who has had to accompany me closely throughout this journey. I want to thank him for being there, sometimes with patience other times without but always making me put things in perspective. I also want to thank my family who have encouraged me throughout and who have helped me in many different ways to complete this work. A very special thank you to my supervisors Prof. Rosaleen Howard and Dr. Patricia Oliart, first for giving me the opportunity to conduct this research and then for their continuous support and guidance. I also wish to acknowledge the ESRC PhD grant without which I would not have been able to embark on this study. I thank my friends both near and far for their invaluable and continual moral support. I would also like to thank Manuel Paza for his patience and hours spent working with me on the transcripts and translations. I thank Dr Jorge Gomez for letting me into his lessons and group discussions and passing on invaluable historical material. I am very grateful to Soledad Mena, Dr Rosemarie Terán and Ariruma Kowi, from the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar for their hospitality in opening up the space for seminars and academic conversations. I would not have been able to conduct this research without the permission and support of the community of Pumamaki especially from the leadership and teachers who allowing me to enter and probe into their space and who shared with me part of their life stories, I am extremely grateful for their tolerance, trust and support. A special thanks to those that opened their homes to me and looked after me during my fieldwork. 4 TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... 4 TABLE OF CONTENT .............................................................................................................................. 5 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 9 MY OWN POSITION AND RATIONALE FOR THIS RESEARCH .............................................................................. 11 BRIEF BACKGROUND OF CASE STUDY ................................................................................................................... 15 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................... 18 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH ............................................................................. 24 PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 26 STRUCTURE AND CONTENT .................................................................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 1. CONTRASTING THE THEORETICAL FRAMINGS OVER ‘INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION’ .......................................................................................................................................... 36 1.1 MULTICULTURALISM AND THE POLITICS OF RECOGNITION ..................................................................... 37 1.2 ‘INDIGENOUS’ EDUCATION IN LATIN AMERICA: FROM ‘BI-CULTURAL’ TO ‘INTERCULTURAL’ ........... 41 1.2.1 Contesting bicultural education ....................................................................................................... 43 1.3 ‘INTERCULTURALISM’ AS A CRITICAL EDUCATION PROCESS ..................................................................... 47 1.3.1 Rights based discourse .......................................................................................................................... 49 1.3.2 De-colonial based discourse ............................................................................................................... 58 1.4 THEORETICAL IMPASSE ................................................................................................................................... 63 1.4.1 Masking theoretical divergence in discourse on intercultural education ..................... 65 1.5 SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................................................... 72 CHAPTER 2: THE NATION, SCHOOLING AND THE EXPANSION OF CITIZENSHIP: UNDERSTANDING CHANGING ATTITUDES TO SCHOOLING FROM A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE ........................................................................................................................................ 75 2.1 ‘EDUCATING & CIVILIZING’ THE INDIGENOUS POPULATION OF THE SOUTHERN-CENTRAL ECUADORIAN AMAZON REGION ............................................................................................................................ 77 2.1.1 From the centre of the margins, to the margins of the centre ............................................ 79 2.2 SCHOOLING PROVISION AND THE GROWTH OF POPULATION ................................................................... 82 2.3 THE EMERGENCE OF PUBLIC STATE SCHOOLING IN ‘TRADITIONAL’ SETTLEMENTS ............................. 89 2.3.1 Local attitudes towards the emergence of formal schooling .............................................. 90 2.3.2 Clash of visions ......................................................................................................................................... 92 2.4 SCHOOL PROVISION AS A CITIZENSHIP PROJECT ......................................................................................... 96 2.4.1 Changing local attitudes to schooling ........................................................................................... 99 2.4.2 Organization, voice and territory .................................................................................................. 103 2.5 SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................................................... 107 CHAPTER 3: PAST AND CURRENT STRUGGLES IN DETERMINING BILINGUAL INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE NATIONAL CONTEXT .............................................. 110 3.1 INDIGENISM AND THE FRAMING OF A POLITICAL ACTOR ....................................................................... 111 3.1.1 The indigenous political actor at the national level .............................................................. 113 3.2 INTERCULTURAL BILINGUAL EDUCATION AS PART OF A POLITICAL PROJECT ................................... 117 3.3 MEASURING THE SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF IBE? ..................................................................................... 123 3.3.1 Parental choice: a measure of quality, or relative access to resources and higher social status? ...................................................................................................................................................... 124 3.3.2 Cultural pertinence