The perceptions of knowledge and learning of Amazonian indigenous teacher education students

Abstract

This study focuses on the perceptions of knowledge and learning by indigenous students in an intercultural bilingual teacher education programme in Amazonian Ecuador. The study framed within postcolonial and critical theory attempts to create a space for the indigenous students to speak about their own views through the use of photography and researcher-respondent discussions. We found that the students conceptualised knowledge and learning primarily through their everyday domestic life rather than through their experiences of schooling which appears to play a secondary role.

Keywords:

• visual methods
• photographs as data
• indigenous education
• perceptions of knowledge and learning

Notes

1. Vygotsky (1986) sees a difference in the epistemic basis and development of spontaneous concepts, that are based on everyday experience, and scientific concepts, that are introduced mainly through classroom instruction.

2. Teachers and educational authorities were interviewed in the course of several fieldwork periods in 2006–2007. All these interviews were conducted confidentially, and the names of the interviewees are withheld.

3. Agricultural production is included in the teacher education curriculum, and the students did some hands-on activities.