Ways of Seeing Indigenous Communities in Urban Intercultural Preschoolsin Chile: A Case Study

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to contribute to the emerging literature concerning Indigenous communities and preschools. It considers some tensions arising when applying the Intercultural and Bilingual Education Program to preschools without adequate prior support or preparation of educators, as in the Metropolitan Region, Chile. Here, two intercultural preschools interact with members of the Mapuche community to strengthen the education in Indigenous languages and cultures. Drawing on data collected in an ethnographic study regarding the relations between preschool teachers and members of the Mapuche community, this paper focuses on the perceptions of preschool staff regarding the construct of Mapuche communities. The findings show that the Mapuche communities were seen as: (a) responsible for providing the culture, (b) responsible for disconnection; and (c) responsible for preschool isolation. Finally, the study concludes with suggestions for public policies, teacher education and future research.

Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful for the knowledge and experiences that our participants shared with us during this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The National Preschools Board (in Spanish: Junta Nacional de Jardines Infantiles JUNJI) is a Chilean government agency created in 1970 by Law No. 17.301, as an autonomous establishment linked to the Ministry of Education, for addressing preschool education in the country.

² The Metropolitan Region is one of the fifteen regions into which Chile is politically and administratively divided. The country’s capital lies within this Region.

³ Considering the small number of individuals in IBE preschools in the Metropolitan Region, I have included only crucial personal information to protect the anonymity of participants. I have also used pseudonyms for the same reason.

⁴ Dedoose is a software program that facilitates the coding and analysis of qualitative data as well as the integration of this data with demographic and other quantitative data.

⁵ Palín is a traditional Mapuche game played by men and frequently taught in preschools.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fondo de Fomento al Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico [CONICYT/FONDECYT/11160746].