Analysis of the Interpretation of Different Actors about Intercultural and Bilingual Education and its Policies

Abstract

Intercultural and Bilingual Education (IBE) policies in Peru are usually implemented without reaching the expected results. Among the causes that originate this situation, this investigation is based on the idea that an IBE policy cannot be successful if the educational actors that participate in its implementation have different interpretations of this matter and no critical perception of the social and cultural situation in Peru. This is because if there is no agreement between what is going to be interpreted as interculturality and if the causes of the social and cultural problems are not studied, then the intercultural policies turn idealistic and empty of significance. Through in-depth interviews to different educational actors and analyzing political documents, this investigation searches about the perception and understanding of educational actors (public authorities and teachers) about intercultural and bilingual education and its policies.

Even though the educational actors interviewed have different ways of interpreting intercultural education, and a diverse management of IBE policies, the main problem found lies in the fact that the speeches enunciated in the policy documents, and the interpretations of intercultural and bilingual education that were found in the actors, are based on an uncritical vision of reality without a common interpretation that leads what is going to be understood of interculturality in education. The consequence is the predomination of an ideal and non real interpretation of interculturalism, hiding the links between cultural relations and existing conflicts in society and perpetuating the inequality in favor of the hegemonic culture. It is from these results that some orientations are presented to clarify the discussion about the formulation and implementation of intercultural and bilingual educational policies.