PERSPECTIVAS SOBRE EDUCACIÓN INTERCULTURAL E IDENTIDAD DE EDUCADORES EN FORMACIÓN DE POSGRADO EN ECUADOR: LECCIONES PARA LA FORMACIÓN DOCENTE

Abstract

categoría identificarse sí ese de categorías se problemático y conflictivo, las identidades y en continua transformación, identidad mestiza. espacios de discusión intersubjetivos, cuando están enfocados en la propia identidad de cada educando y no tanto en las “otras culturas”, Abstract From the intercultural approach, this article aims to contribute to the debate on teacher training in the context of Latin America. For this, we considered it necessary to listen to current teacher’s perspectives in postgraduate training in education in Ecuador, exploring meanings of the term intercultural and how this relates to their identity and use of social categories through the use of group discus-sion research methods. The results show that though the educators critique a superficial understanding of interculturalism through the folkloric use of cultural differences, they themselves express a closed culturalist perspective of interculturalism (Restrepo, 2014), continuing to make use of closed and static cultural categories in which interculturalism continues to be defined directly associated with ‘indigenous’ culture. However, when the participants have to self-identify these categories, especial in relationship to the identity of ‘mestizo’, become problematic, generating internal conflict and enabling an opening to understanding identities as complex, permeable and in constant transformation. We propose that these intersubjective discussions focused on the construction of one’s own identity rather than the current emphasis on “other cultu-res” can provide opportunities to deconstruct closed cultural categories and challenge hierarchical cultural differentiation.