Understanding the Afro-Ecuadorian Educational Experience: Anti-Blackness, Schooling, and the Nation

ABSTRACT

The present moment represents a high point in the efforts of Afro-Ecuadorians to challenge their systematic exclusion from mainstream institutions and resources. This article examines anti-blackness in and outside of schooling in Ecuador. In the first section, I show that anti-blackness is a fact in Ecuador. Since the colonial era, Black people in the region known today as Ecuador have been located at the bottom of the social hierarchy, although recently there has been formal recognition of their humanity and citizenship within the nation. In the second section, I demonstrate that schooling attempts to compel students to deny their blackness as a requirement of becoming a member of the nation. Additionally, I show that pedagogical practices limit students’ opportunities to develop the skills they need to challenge and/or transform the racial hierarchy shaping their lives. In the third section, I examine how teachers make sense of racial inequality and discrimination and show that their different understandings shape their respective teaching practices. In the conclusion, I propose that schooling practices reinforce racial difference and inequality among and between students and teachers and suggest implications for schooling in Ecuador.

Notes

¹ Cientícos de Yachay sospechan que las negras no curan los riñones, El Mercioco del Ecuador, 2016 http://elmercioco.com/cientificos-de-yachay-sospechan-que-las-negras-no-curan-los-rinones/.

² These data are taken from a presentation called “The Educational Reality of the Afro-Ecuadorian Community” given by Jhon Anton Sanchez on December 7, 2017, at the National Institute for Graduate Studies (IAEN) in Ecuador.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ethan Johnson

Dr. Ethan Johnson is chair and associate professor of the Black Studies Department in the School of Gender, Race and Nations at Portland State University. He examines the educational experiences of youth of African descent concerning how they negotiate and interpret racial identity and racism in the United States and Ecuador. In addition, his scholarship and teaching compares and contrasts mainstream White and Black representations of blackness in popular culture and the mass media. He has also extended his work into sociohistorical analysis of the experiences of Black people in Portland, Oregon, regarding community organizing and colorism.