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Intercultural and Decolonial Education of Indigenous Territories
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Intercultural education promotes peaceful coexistence and social cohesion through respect
and collaboration between diverse cultures. Objective: This paper examines the theoretical position of
intercultural educational studies, highlighting the vital importance of intercultural education and the
advances that have occurred in recent times, especially in the change in terminology from multicultural
education to interculturality. This terminology is theoretically accepted, but in practice appears to be a
discursive strategy of lexical change to disguise the realities of cultural interaction. Methodology: This
research is based on a qualitative theoretical-documentary approach, the purpose of which is to critically
and rigorously investigate the evolution of the concept of intercultural education in the academic and
pedagogical fields. To this end, it employs a methodological strategy based on a systematic review and
hermeneutic analysis of scientific literature, which allows for the interpretation of the conceptual
transformations that the term has undergone, from the approaches to multicultural education to the
consolidation of the intercultural paradigm. This hermeneutic approach enables an in-depth reading of
the political, social, and educational discourses that shape and challenge the intercultural approach in
different contexts. Both theoretical frameworks and practical experiences are considered, using up-to-
date academic sources, to compare the rhetorical acceptance of intercultural discourse with its effective
implementation in educational systems. Likewise, the gap between theoretical postulates and school
realities is problematized, highlighting the limitations, contradictions, and challenges that
interculturality faces in everyday pedagogical practices. Consequently, the urgent need to rethink
educational models from a plural, inclusive, situated, and dialogical perspective, oriented toward the
recognition and appreciation of cultural differences in schools, is emphasized. Results: The study's
findings demonstrate that the commitment to intercultural education should not be limited to a
discursive or normative level, but rather requires a substantive transformation of pedagogical practices,
curricular frameworks, and institutional structures. Interculturality implies recognizing the student as
an active subject, bearer of knowledge, languages, traditions, and experiences that must be legitimized
and redefined in the school environment. This conception demands a break with traditional pedagogical
approaches that tend toward homogenization and the reproduction of a dominant culture, to make way
for a pedagogy of recognition, equity, and intercultural dialogue. In this sense, this review highlights
the need for effective coordination between political, social, and educational wills so that
interculturality does not become an empty slogan, but rather a concrete and contextualized practice.
Likewise, a tension is identified between theoretical frameworks that promote diversity and actual
classroom conditions, where exclusionary and decontextualized practices persist. This underscores the
urgency of designing pedagogical proposals that promote inclusion, cultural reciprocity, and the
collective construction of knowledge from a critical, situated, and transformative perspective.
Conclusion: The international political, economic and cultural contextualization (globalization) of
intercultural education is fundamental for its understanding from a paradigmatic vision.
Keywords: education, interculturality, theory and practice.
Artículo recibido 05 abril 2025
Aceptado para publicación: 08 mayo 2025