Paper short abstract:

Liveability goes hand in hand with human capability, as one teacher training initiative in the Peruvian Amazonian is acutely aware. Carving their own ecological niches to afford pan-species flourishing, this initiative employs a critical pedagogy to evaluate divergent intercultural epistemologies.

Paper long abstract:

Liveability goes hand in hand with human capability, a fact that one teacher training initiative in the heart of the Peruvian Amazonian is acutely aware. Victims of river pollution, exploitive labour relations, ethnic discrimination and invasive extractive activities, the population of the Loreto district of Peru are reimagining their futures, for themselves and for the others species with whom they live and on whom they mutually depend. Celebrating 30 years of 'alternative' forest development - focusing here on human development - the initiative has capacitated over 20 different ethnicities in intercultural bilingual education, using a critical pedagogy to evaluate the usefulness of global capitalist ideologies practices and 'dialogues of knowledge' to cast divergent intercultural epistemologies into perspective. Progressive 'western' pedagogies are counterweighed by a reverence for indigenous ways of learning and being, respecting animist perceptions whilst incorporating western science. In the community "life plan", teachers work to incorporate new skills in agroecology, pisciculture and bee-keeping into community consensus. Carving their own ecological niches to afford pan-species flourishing, this initiative may afford a template for tradition-making now and in the future.