Disrupting curricula and pedagogies in Latin American universities: six criteria for decolonising the university

ABSTRACT

Since the colonial era, Latin American universities have been subjected to narratives about what it means to be a university. Drawing on the concept of coloniality, this paper examines curricular and teaching practices in higher education that aim to decolonise Latin American universities, a particular topic that has been under-investigated. By means of a systematic literature review and a thematic analysis, 40 papers authored by at least one scholar affiliated to a Latin American university were examined. The analysis identified three levels of educational practices (macro, meso and micro) that revolve around the principle of intercultural indigenous education. Further, six essential criteria (cultural, epistemological, relational, ecological, economic, political) in decolonising university education are proposed. The paper concludes by offering insights about decolonising curricula and teaching practices in universities and the ways in which decolonial educational initiatives based on critical border thinking and socialisation of power might transform Latin American universities.

KEYWORDS:

• Coloniality
• indigenous knowledges
• intercultural education
• Latin America
• decolonial theory

Acknowledgements

I greatly appreciate the help provided by Carolina Gómez.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 The core countries are former coloniser wealthy countries that concentrate a ‘high-profit, high-technology, high-wage diversified production … [and peripheral countries, usually former colonies] in which are concentrated low-profit, low technology, low-wage … [and] less diversified production’ (Wallerstein 1976, 462). Semi-peripheral countries, in turn, display features of both core and peripheral countries.

2 The specific terms were: (‘higher education’ OR ‘tertiary education’ OR ‘college education’ OR ‘postsecondary education’ OR ‘post-secondary education’ OR ‘postsecondary education’ OR ‘post-compulsory education’ OR ‘post compulsory education’ OR ‘post compulsory education’ OR ‘university education’) AND NOT (‘secondary education’ OR ‘primary education’ OR ‘elementary education’ OR ‘early childhood education’ OR ‘preschool education’; decolonial OR ‘colonial’ OR ‘coloniality’ OR ‘decolonisation’ OR ‘decolonization’ OR ‘decolonising’ OR ‘decolonise’ OR ‘decolonize’ OR ‘postcolonial’ OR ‘indigenous’ OR ‘epistemic justice’ OR ‘epistemic injustice’ OR ‘cognitive justice’ OR ‘cognitive injustice’ OR ‘periphery’ OR ‘global north’ OR ‘global south’ OR ‘Western South’ OR ‘western-south’ OR ‘Southern theories’ OR ‘Epistemologies of the south’; ‘pedagogy’ OR ‘pedagogies’ OR ‘pedagogical’ OR ‘curriculum’ OR ‘curricular’ OR ‘curricula’ OR ‘teaching’ OR ‘learning’; Argentina; Bolivia; Brazil; Chile; Colombia; Costa Rica; Cuba; El Salvador; Ecuador; Guatemala; Haiti; Honduras; Mexico; Nicaragua; Panama; Paraguay; Perú; Dominican Republic; Uruguay; Venezuela).

3 A translation of each paper's title is offered where one was not available in English.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by ANID-FONDECYT Chile: [Grant Number Project number 1200633].