Indigenous Intercultural Universities in Latin America: Interpreting Interculturalism in Mexico and Bolivia

Abstract

The newly created Indigenous Intercultural Universities in Latin America challenge the conventional conception of universities and their "universal" quality. Such universities seek to decolonize knowledge by generating knowledge that is relevant to the communities in which they are located. These intentions, however, do not necessarily exclude the knowledge and research methods imparted by long-established Western universities. Instead, they have been conceived as Intercultural institutions designed to train indigenous community leaders capable of hybridizing or carrying out a "dialogue of knowledges"(Mato, 2007) and research methods of what are ultimately two different, and often times, opposing and contentious paradigms, one stemming from conventional Western universities, referred to as Modern (global), and another originating from Indigenous people, better known as Traditional (local). Two specific programs offered by two intercultural universities have been chosen in countries with strong colonial and indigenous legacy, Mexico and Bolivia. This study examines and compares how these two distinctive institutions are interpreting and carrying out their conception of intercultural, a concept that not only appears to have multiple dimensions but it seems susceptible to different interpretations as well.

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