Date of Award

5-2012

Document type

dissertation

Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Program

Education (also CAGS)

First Advisor

Maurianne Adams

Second Advisor

María José Botelho

Third Advisor

Henry Geddes

Subject Categories

Curriculum and Social Inquiry | Education

Abstract

Based on intercultural education, socio-cultural analysis, and decolonization and critical pedagogy perspectives, this dissertation explores contradictions in Peruvian intercultural education policy and examines the potential role that African and Afro-Peruvian thought may have in the reform of this policy.

Despite redefinitions of the Peruvian state as multicultural/multilingual and the adoption of intercultural concepts in Peruvian education law, the official interpretation of intercultural principles has tended to undermine the social transforming potential implicit in intercultural education. First, official Peruvian education policy overlooks the historical and cultural contributions of non-European and non-Incan social groups. Second, it fails to address inequality and inequity between socio-cultural groups in the access to economic-political resources. Third, it restricts intercultural education programs to Indigenous speaking communities.

Despite redefinitions of the Peruvian state as multicultural/multilingual and the adoption of intercultural concepts in Peruvian education law, the official interpretation of intercultural principles has tended to undermine the social transforming potential implicit in intercultural education. First, official Peruvian education policy overlooks the historical and cultural contributions of non-European and non-Incan social groups. Second, it fails to address inequality and inequity between socio-cultural groups in the access to economic-political resources. Third, it restricts intercultural education programs to Indigenous speaking communities.

Archival and contemporary evidence is used to show how the substantial African presence in Peru has been erased from official history, with negative socio-political consequences for Afro-Peruvians. It presents the philosophical, political, pedagogical, and sociological contributions of the Senegalese Leopold Sedar Senghor (1906-2001), and the Afro-Peruvians Nicomedes Santa Cruz Gamarra (1925-1992) and Jose Carlos Luciano Huapaya (1956-2002) as bases for rethinking Peruvian cultural diversity and intercultural policies from decolonized, democratic, and global perspectives. Further, it presents objections and counter-proposals to intercultural education policies of the Peruvian state that were gathered in a small pilot study of the personnel of the Afro-PeruvianYapatera High School and the nonprofit organizations CEDET and Lundu. Finally, it articulates these counter-proposals with Senghor, Santa Cruz, and Luciano's theoretical inputs for decolonizing and democratizing Peruvian intercultural education policy.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/3297615

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