Intercultural education and sustainability. A local perspective of higher education students at the rural community of Huehuetla in Puebla, Mexico.

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is first to provide a historical overview and discuss the progress of the status of indigenous knowledge in Mexico. How has it advanced from being a repressed tradition to becoming part of an intercultural education today? And second is to provide insights into the intercultural education experience of the state-run Intercultural University of Puebla (UIEP) through a study of students perceptions of traditional knowledge. This higher education institution is located in the north highland region of Sierra Norte de Puebla in Mexico in the small rural municipality known as Huehuetla, which due to its outstanding natural and cultural wealth creates an interesting research framework. The rationale for this research focuses on the need to reconsider the relationship of science and indigenous knowledge and reevaluate the idea of replacement into an act of inclusion, where plurality of thought and diversity of culture complement formal education. The theoretical framework of this research relies on the social constructivist learning theories of Lev Vygotsky and Kenneth Gergen respectively, and the social identity theory of Henri Tajfel and John Turner. In order to address the objectives and research questions and generate results, a historical-ethnographic approach represents the governing philosophy behind the methods employed in this study. David W. Orr (1993) argues that education is a key to a society s achievement and makes a difference in a society s future, stating that all previous peoples who had sustainable cultures wove education and research together within the vessel of community . This is the case of the educational model promoted at UIEP which places high priority on students own research and on links to their rural communities. The institution s main objective is to train professionals and researchers (indigenous and non-indigenous) through a model of education based on the principles of sustainability and framed within an intercultural approach. However, the students worldview reflects that even though respect is a value quite relevant for the educational model of UIEP, in practice, it is the prior knowledge learned at home that brings these students stronger values from which they can reclaim sustainable ways of development.