Paper short abstract:

This paper questions to what extent the new education law of Ecuador, passed in 2010 attempting to create a unified intercultural education system, is fundamentally addressing the historical epistemological, political and social marginalization of indigenous knowledge and ways of living.

Paper long abstract:

Since 1989, Ecuador has had two parallel public education systems; an intercultural bilingual education system for the indigenous populations, managed by the indigenous movement and a Hispanic education system for the Spanish speaking population, managed by the Ministry of Education. The existence of an independent indigenous education system has represented a unique experience in the region, resulting in a separate curriculum model and pedagogy for the indigenous nationalities. However this has also represented a segregated education system, in which 'intercultural' tends to be considered as unidirectional (Walsh, 2009), i.e. from the indigenous population towards the dominant Spanish speaking population but not the other way around. With the new constitution of 2008, which among other things stated that intercultural education was a right for all, a change to this parallel education system was imminent. In 2009 the President Rafael Correa, declared by decree, the incorporation of the intercultural bilingual education system under the administration of the Ministry of Education. Soon after in 2010 a new law for creating a unified intercultural education system was passed. In this paper I will show that this new law maintains a segregated educational policy and demonstrates a high degree of centralization of power. I shall argue that this policy is likely to promote essentializing of cultural identity by presenting a fixed representation of indigenous 'knowledge'. I conclude by questioning whether this new unified intercultural education system is capable of addressing the historical process of inequality, leading to social transformation, as stated by the new constitution.