


































Education, Language and Sociology Research 

ISSN 2690-3644 (Print) ISSN 2690-3652 (Online) 

Vol. 4, No. 3, 2023 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr 

1 
 

Original Paper 

Mapudungun, Interculturality and Inclusiveness in the Chilean 

Educational System 

José Manuel Salum Tomé, PhD1 

1 Doctor of Education Catholic University of Temuco, Chile 

 

Received: April 15, 2023       Accepted: May 1, 2023      Online Published: May 15, 2023 

doi:10.22158/elsr.v4n3p1         URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v4n3p1 

 

Abstract 

Mapudungun is one of the heritages that defines the identity of the Mapuche people. Their survival over 

time is mainly due to the re-ethnification processes that have occurred in the last decade. However, it is 

necessary to follow the strategies briefly developed in this work, in order to maintain its validity and 

revitalization in the Chilean sociocultural context. A maintenance program for this indigenous language 

must have the proper state support to become a healthy and self-sufficient language. All this will allow 

the continuation of the way of life of its users, as well as the faithful reflection of their culture within the 

multicultural world. 

Keywords 

mapudungum, identity, interculturality 

 

1. Introduction 

The goal of Intercultural Education is respond to the cultural diversity that prevails in developed 

democratic societies. For this, it starts from approaches that respect cultural pluralism, as something 

inherent to current societies, valuing it as a source of wealth for all members of a society. From the 

pedagogical point of view, cultural differences are understood as an important educational resource. 

Intercultural Education proposes an educational practice that turns the cultural differences of individuals 

and societies into the focus of reflection and research. 

It must not be forgotten that Intercultural Education is ultimately a form of attention to diversity. From 

this perspective, its contribution in the educational and social field is much better understood, since it 

constitutes the final stage in the process of acceptance and appreciation of cultural variables. To 

understand this better, it is necessary to know what are the existing models in the treatment of diversity, 

whatever it may be, including linguistic and cultural. 



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We live in a diverse world in which biodiversity has been talked about for a long time. On the other hand, 

diversity is one of the defining characteristics of humanity and, therefore, of our societies. The school is a 

reflection of this social variability and must treat all the diversities that come together in it, from cultural 

to physical or capacity. When dealing with this diversity, they have started from different budgets that 

attended to ideological and political wills. Traditionally, two theories have been based on: the deficit 

theory and the difference theory Arroyo González, Mª José. (2012). Both intend to attend to diversity, 

although from completely different approaches. Each one of them has given rise to different educational 

models to deal with this inherent diversity of people and societies. 

The two theories are based on the close relationship between diversity and inequality, but they give 

completely different solutions to that relationship. The deficit theory proposes eliminating these 

differences through educational models based on assimilation and compensation, while the difference 

theory does not propose eliminating them, but rather proposes mutual enrichment by developing specific 

educational models: multicultural and intercultural. AS POINTED OUT by Tuts (2007, p. 34) 

Intercultural education is too often confused with attention to immigrant students and the vehicular 

language prevails as an integration factor, forgetting its necessary transformation into a bonding 

language of communication. Respect for difference often borders on promoting cultural relativism, 

while coexistence is seen as a utopian situation. As for social cohesion, it is often confused with 

homogeneity, monolingualism or monoculturalism. Therefore, it seems that cultural and linguistic 

diversity tends to be disconcerting and suspicious. 

Intercultural education and inclusion present multiple connections that can and should guide our 

educational practice. As we will analyze later, intercultural education is a way of doing school and 

educating. 

 

2. Chile Context 

Currently, several indigenous groups in Chile still use their language, which constitutes one of the 

heritages that define their identity, including their way of life, their history, their rituals, their philosophy, 

and their customs. 

Indigenous people in Chile face several linguistic challenges. When they are in the city or in 

environments where Spanish is exclusively spoken, they must adapt to this situation, leaving their native 

language to communicate sporadically with a member of their group who speaks the language at family 

gatherings or friends. The groups that reside in rural centers maintain their language and culture to a 

greater extent, which allows them to perpetuate some ancestral rituals. However, only the elderly speak 

the native language in many of these places, including the rural areas of Arauco, Malleco, Cautín, 

Mehuín and Panguipulli, mainly. There are also Mapuche people who speak their language in the cities to 

which a large number of them migrate as temporary or permanent workers, more specifically in Santiago, 

Concepción and Temuco. 



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Indigenous languages have been strong enough to survive over time, facing enormous assimilation 

pressures from Spanish as the official language. There is still a significant number of speakers of each of 

the languages that are still in force, such as Aymara, Rapanui and Mapudungun. The current process of 

re-ethnification has activated the development of the vitality of these languages in various communities, 

both rural and urban. Within this motivation, it is necessary to plan the resources available to guide all 

these efforts under the tutelage of a program with realistic goals and effective procedures. This means 

obtaining the necessary information to diagnose the conditions in which the language is found, and thus 

choose the appropriate intervention strategies leading to its revitalization. Approaches, resources, ideas 

and goals should be based on the experiences and knowledge of indigenous groups, as well as the 

theoretical and practical experiences and knowledge of linguists, educators, anthropologists and other 

social scientists. 

 

3. Interculturality and Education 

Interculturality is a dimension that is not limited to the field of education, but is present in human 

relations in general as an alternative to authoritarianism, dogmatism and ethnocentrism. However, the 

search for more democratic and pluralistic societies supposes educational processes that affirm and 

provide experience of living in democracy and respect for diversity. As educators we have an inescapable 

responsibility. 

Interculturality in education appears closely linked to the new spirit of equity and quality that inspire 

current educational proposals, thus overcoming the egalitarian vision that prevailed in the Latin 

American social scene since the arrival of the first liberal waves on the continent. Interculturality in 

education supposes a double path: inward and outward, and that one of the necessary directions to which 

an intercultural educational project should be directed, particularly when it comes to peoples who have 

been the object of cultural and linguistic oppression, (such as ours) is precisely towards the roots of one’s 

own culture and one’s own vision of the world, to structure or recompose a coherent universe on which 

one can, later, cement from a better position the dialogue and exchange with cultural elements that, if 

well alien, they are necessary both to survive in today’s world and to achieve better living standards, 

taking advantage of those advances and scientific-technological developments that are considered 

necessary. 

Intercultural education must be understood in a pedagogical process that involves various cultural 

systems. It stems from the individual and collective right of indigenous peoples, which entails not only 

enjoying the right to education like all citizens, but also the right to maintain and cultivate their own 

traditions, culture, values, but also the need to develop intercultural skills that allow any citizen from any 

part of the country, whether they belong to the hegemonic culture or not, to be able to coexist 

democratically with others. 

Based on the experience accumulated in the first years of implementation of bilingual intercultural 

education in the Chilean educational system, and having clarity of the fundamental role of the indigenous 



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language for the recognition, valorization and respect of the culture, worldview and history of the peoples. 

natives, the challenge of converting the school into an educational space in which the opportunities for 

learning that language are guaranteed to its students is imposed, in a systematic and relevant way to their 

reality. 

Thus, in 2009, the Chilean Ministry of Education established the Fundamental Objectives and Minimum 

Mandatory Contents for the creation of the Indigenous Language Sector in Basic Education; which 

allowed to begin the design of Study Programs for the Aymara, Mapuzugun, Quechua and Rapa Nui 

languages. The foregoing, considering at least three different realities of access to the indigenous 

language by girls and boys: those whose mother or family language is one of these four languages, those 

who hear the indigenous language only in their social environment, and those who only listen to it at 

school. 

The Indigenous Language course, with four assigned hours per week, seeks to strengthen the cultural and 

linguistic knowledge of four indigenous peoples who still maintain their native language in force: 

Aymara, Mapuche, Quechua and Rapa Nui. For this, a pedagogical duo is formed, made up of a 

classroom teacher (who supports pedagogical aspects) and a traditional educator, the person in charge of 

imparting traditional knowledge, especially the indigenous language. 

The teaching of the Aymara, Mapuzugun, Quechua and Rapa Nui languages was articulated around two 

axes, conceived as complementary: 

 Orality: understood as a dynamic and contextual form of knowledge, and recognized as the 

traditional way of transmission and accumulation of knowledge of native peoples. 

 Written communication: understood as highly complex for indigenous languages, due to the history 

of oral tradition in the transmission of knowledge. However, knowledge of the written code of the 

indigenous language is promoted through the Spanish graphemes. 

The Indigenous Language subject has been implemented gradually, beginning in 2010 in the first year of 

basic education to reach 2018, the teaching and learning of Indigenous languages in eighth grade. 

Additionally, schools can autonomously develop their own plans and programs around indigenous 

knowledge, which are incorporated into the school curriculum as subjects or as extracurricular 

workshops. These initiatives have allowed educational communities to generate content relevant to their 

territories and the particularities of their students. 

By way of example, within the plans and programs that the establishments develop, there are workshops 

on ethnic cooking, interculturality and development, worldview and Mapuche-Huilliche language, 

Mapuche traditional medicine, and Chedungun language, among others. 

The creation of this subject is based on the following laws and decrees: 

 The indigenous law (1993) that favored the beginning of a systematic process for the teaching of 

native languages and cultures, by indicating the establishment of a programmatic unit that facilitates 

access to this knowledge. 



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 General Education Law (2009), which establishes obligations and principles, one of them being 

interculturality, which states: “The system must recognize and value the individual in their cultural 

and origin specificity, considering their language, worldview and history”. In articles 28, 29 and 30, 

it commits the teaching of the Indigenous Language in establishments with a high indigenous 

population for pre-school, basic and secondary education. 

 Decree No. 280/2009, which incorporates the Fundamental Objectives and Minimum Mandatory 

Contents of the Indigenous Language Sector for the level of basic education and establishes the 

obligation to implement this subject in all establishments that have an enrollment of more than 20% 

of students’ natives. 

 ILO Convention 169, ratified by Chile in September 2008. Convention on the Rights of the Child, 

ratified in August 1990. Both normative instruments refer to the right of children belonging to 

indigenous peoples to receive education and respect their language and culture. 

3.1 Interculturality for Everyone 

Interculturality allows us all to know each other, value each other and live with different cultural 

universes, enriching our experiences as people and as a society. In this sense, interculturality seeks to 

generate a reflection in the educational system that makes it possible to recognize, value and understand 

the richness of the diverse, questioning with it, for example, the imposition and hierarchization of a 

certain type of knowledge or the establishment of social relationships. 

In terms of native peoples, from the recognition of their existence and social, cultural, spiritual, economic 

development, among others, as cultures that inhabit this territory centuries before colonization, the 

Mineduc (2015) in a process that aims to settle the historical debt that the State has towards these peoples, 

assumes the policy of revealing the languages, cultures, histories and worldviews of indigenous cultures 

in the processes of integral quality educational improvement of the country’s establishments, with the 

aim of promoting a citizenship intercultural. As of 2016, 223,087 indigenous students were identified in 

the school system in 9,335 educational establishments (79% of the total number of schools in the country, 

according to the State Statistics Institute (INE). 

In the same way, the Ministry of Education has decided to develop its own concept of interculturality, 

seeking to reflect the reality and the environment in which we are immersed as a society: Interculturality 

is an ethical-political social horizon under construction, which emphasizes horizontal relationships 

between the individuals, groups, peoples, cultures, societies and with the State. It is based, among other 

things, on dialogue from otherness, facilitating a systemic and historical understanding of the present of 

the diverse people, groups and peoples who permanently interact in the different territorial spaces. 

Interculturality favors the creation of new forms of citizen coexistence among everyone, regardless of 

nationality or origin. For this, symmetrical dialogue is possible by recognizing and valuing the richness 

of linguistic-cultural, natural and spiritual diversity. In the case of native peoples, it reveals their 

characteristics and different systems that problematize, and at the same time, enrich the constructions of 

the world, ensuring the exercise of individual and collective rights. 



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3.2 Bilingual Intercultural Education 

Children and young people belonging to indigenous peoples have the right to learn in contexts of greater 

equality, in conditions that adjust to their cultural particularities, their language, and their way of seeing 

the world. 

As in the rest of the countries of the region, our educational system assumed a role of cultural and 

linguistic homogenization that left out of the discourses of “national identity” an important part of the 

knowledge, values and ways of life of the original peoples. This pedagogical imbalance over time has 

had a negative influence on the identity and self-esteem of people belonging to the original peoples, as 

well as on the possibility of building a multicultural and multilingual country. 

In this context, the State assumes the duty to generate the bases to enable an intercultural bilingual 

education that allows boys and girls to learn the language and culture of their peoples, through the 

incorporation, in the national curriculum, of the Language subject. Indigenous (currently in Aymara, 

Quechua, Mapuzugun and Rapa Nui) for basic education. 

This subject, which aims to enable children from indigenous peoples to communicate in their vernacular 

language, is implemented in educational establishments that want to promote interculturality and in those 

that have an enrollment equal to or greater than 20% of indigenous students, and is developed by the 

traditional educator, the person responsible for transmitting cultural and linguistic knowledge to the 

students of the establishment. 

The implementation of this subject is not the only way to transmit this knowledge; The school can also 

develop intercultural workshops, revitalization strategies for languages and cultures in danger of 

extinction, and linguistic immersion in specific contexts. 

3.3 Training in Interculturality 

Teacher training is a key aspect in the implementation of intercultural education. Chile needs to train its 

teachers as mediators and facilitators of the development of schools that value and integrate the cultural 

wealth of native peoples into the learning experience of their students. 

The Ministry of Education has developed a joint effort with two universities to strengthen a teacher 

training plan in Pedagogy of Bilingual Intercultural Basic Education. In this sense, it has established 

collaboration agreements with the Catholic University of Temuco (UCT) and with the Arturo Prat 

University (UAP) of Iquique. 

In the case of the UCT, this plan has two target groups: Mapuche students from the Biobío, La Araucanía, 

Los Lagos and Los Ríos regions; and students of the Pedagogy career in Bilingual Intercultural Basic 

Education in a Mapuche context. Meanwhile, the initial training plan of the UAP of Iquique is aimed at 

Aymara, Licanantai and Quechua students from the regions of Tarapacá, Arica and Parinacota, and 

Antofagasta. 

Other activities are also included within the agreements such as: developing linguistic immersion 

activities for students; disseminate the career among young people in secondary education in municipal 



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establishments in communes with a high density of indigenous population; and hold reflection 

colloquiums with students from other careers and schools from other training disciplines, among others. 

In the same way, the Mineduc intends to strengthen the training in interculturality for teachers of 

subsidized municipal and private establishments through the development of a Postgraduate in 

Interculturality, and through a B-learning course, in charge of the Center for Improvement, 

Experimentation and Pedagogical Research (CPEIP). 

On the other hand, the Ministry of Education provides support to traditional educators who implement 

the Indigenous Language subject or develop intercultural workshops through a Training Course whose 

objective is to provide tools in pedagogical, cultural, and linguistic aspects to promote learning. task of 

this figure within the schools. 

3.4 Traditional Mapuche Educator 

The first lines of work of the Ministry of Education, in terms of bilingual intercultural education, were 

linked to community participation, in order to promote meetings and collect knowledge with a territorial 

approach, from the voice of traditional authorities, communities, families, and indigenous professionals. 

In the same way, it sought to identify current practices and knowledge in the communities, in order to 

replicate some of this knowledge in the training of children and children belonging to these educational 

communities. 

It is in this context that the figure of the Community Cultural Advisor, now known as Educator or 

Traditional Educator (ET), arises and is normalized; which is governed at first as a binding actor between 

indigenous communities and educational establishments for the transmission of knowledge about their 

culture and language. 

This figure has been strengthened in the educational communities, achieving among other things: 

recreating learning strategies of their communities, developing didactics for the teaching of indigenous 

languages, collecting oral stories, and systematizing knowledge associated with mathematics, sciences, 

cosmogony, among others. 

In this context, and from the creation of the Indigenous Language subject, the ET becomes relevant as it 

is responsible for specifying the teaching of the Aymara, Quechua, Rapa Nui and Mapuzungun languages 

in establishments that have 20% of indigenous enrollment, or in those who want to promote 

interculturality through intercultural workshops, bilingualism, or cultural and linguistic revitalization. 

Some aspects to consider in the fulfillment of their functions are the following: 

 Accredit sufficient linguistic and cultural skills to perform in the teaching of the languages and 

cultural knowledge of the original peoples. Be validated by the Indigenous Communities or 

Associations linked to the educational establishment. 

 Teaching preparation, understanding as such the ability to structure the teaching-learning process 

with learning objectives to be achieved in the students from the point of view of indigenous 

knowledge, 



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 Creation of an environment conducive to learning, that is, the ability to promote conditions in the use 

of multiple spaces and diverse methodologies, which favor intercultural learning, 

 Teaching for learning of all students, that is, the ability to deliver linguistic and cultural knowledge 

in diverse realities to achieve learning objectives and propose strategies according to these. 

3.5 Training and Accompaniment 

For more than fifteen years, community cultural advisors, in the first instance, and currently traditional 

educators, have received training through training courses and accompaniment in the linguistic, cultural 

and pedagogical, with emphasis on the development of competencies, both at the curricular and 

extracurricular level. 

These training courses have as main objective to allow a better performance and an adequate and 

pertinent insertion on the part of the traditional educators in the educational system; and therefore, they 

acquire specific characteristics depending on the territory where they are carried out, respecting regional 

autonomy and promoting their own strategic development. 

The trainings, carried out face-to-face and with an average duration of 150 hours, are financed by the 

Bilingual Intercultural Education Program and developed by three entities according to regional realities: 

a) universities together with organizations focused on indigenous languages, b) teams regional 

ministerial offices (Regional Ministerial Secretariats of Education), and c) consultants and/or 

independent professionals. 

 

4. Current Challenge 

The rescue of native languages is of great importance, not only because it strengthens the culture and 

identity of the native peoples that inhabit Chile, but also because it gives our country an identity and 

allows us to project ourselves as a more democratic, inclusive and respectful society.  

The current situation of the languages recognized by indigenous law is critical and represents a complex 

challenge that calls upon all of us, not only those who belong to a certain indigenous people, since society 

is responsible for the revaluation of the vernacular languages that we have been relegated to increasingly 

reduced spaces, to the point of endangering its existence. 

The condition in which the different languages of the original peoples that inhabit Chile are found today 

is complex; Even though it is a multilingual and multicultural country, Spanish continues to be the 

language of communication, teaching, and regulations, which is why it has the greatest number of 

functions. The studies, investigations and reports consulted indicate that the main problems identified are 

the following: 

At the macro level: 

 Lack of status of languages: understood as the possibility of giving functionality to the language in 

the different institutions and media from which the minority or minoritized language has been 

excluded. 



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 Lack of language corpus: refers to a series of actions that are carried out with the aim of 

standardizing the language, such as defining a graphemary, creating dictionaries, grammars and 

creating specific entities that are in charge of the subject (academies), among others. 

 In the context of speech and communication, lack of spaces for use and possibilities of use, 

functionality beyond the local or familiar. 

 Spanish is the official language of communication and teaching; This can be seen in the hegemony 

of Spanish in the media and transmission of languages: texts, media, arts, among others. The same is 

true for formal and informal education. 

At the micro level, the main obstacles refer to the attitude of the speakers, due to self- discrimination, 

lack of motivation to deliver knowledge about the mother tongue to the next generations, adverse local 

contexts, the decrease of communities or speaking people in a territory and lack of external support to 

promote the indigenous language because it is not part of the economy, work, professional training. 

Another challenge in this matter is related to the lack of quantitative and qualitative data that allow us to 

know more precisely the situation of the languages and their speakers in Chile today. There are only two 

official sources with general information on the 9 indigenous peoples: CASEN (MIDEPLAN) and 

CENSO 2002 (INE). 

The indigenous languages of Chile that maintain some degree of sociolinguistic vitality are Mapudungun, 

Aymara, Rapa Nui and Quechua. According to the 2009 CASEN Survey, only 24% of the population that 

belongs to these towns would have some degree of competence in their languages, with significant 

geographical and regional variations in terms of the number and proportion of speakers. (BCN Source) 

 

Year Speakers Just understand Does not speak or understand 

2000 14% 13.8% 72% 

2003 16.8% 18.9% 64.4% 

2006 14.2% 14.1% 71.7% 

2009 12% 10.6% 77.3% 

2011 eleven% 10.4% 78.6% 

2013 10.9% 10.4% 78.7% 

2015 10.7% 10.7% 78.6% 

Source: Casen 

 

4.1 Treatment of a Declining Language 

When it is noticed that a language is in a state of decline, it is possible to develop a maintenance program 

for that language. This depends on the state it is in, the historical causes of its decline, access to funds and 

human and financial resources, and the interest of the community. In a first opportunity, many members 

of the group want to develop fluency in the use of the language, thinking that it will be easy to acquire the 



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ancestral linguistic code again. Unfortunately, this is not a task without difficulties, since most 

indigenous children speak Spanish as their first language and are barely familiar with their native cultural 

traditions. 

Therefore, Spanish becomes the model of correctness or naturalness and learning another language 

causes difficulties in the production of new sounds or in the combination of words in patterns that are 

different from those of the first language learned. The researchers warn that, after the puberty stage, it is 

difficult to process information using different rules and structures in a second language. 

Actually, the best way to keep a language alive is through communication with children, using the 

indigenous language in its first stage of language acquisition. The fact of handling two languages in the 

family environment allows the child to acquire two linguistic codes simultaneously and without 

difficulties. Certainly, parents have their own preferences regarding the use of one language over another. 

This can become rule-setting for children who perceive in which contexts they can speak the indigenous 

language or Spanish. They generally speak Mapudungun with their grandparents at home, but speak 

Spanish with their peers in other contexts. Finally, they prefer to use Spanish in all situations. 

A language maintenance program should include the gradual increase in the number of speakers as a goal. 

This requires the participation and preparation of teachers who speak the language fluently and manage 

the difficulties involved in its teaching. It is advisable to locate some members of the indigenous 

community who are willing to collaborate and undergo an intense stage of preparation, to carry out this 

task in order to acquire formal knowledge in an assessment process within the community itself. 

The indigenous language maintenance program must also measure the importance of Spanish and the 

indigenous language. Both languages are essential to the community. But one should not be neglected or 

favored to the detriment of the other. Even though Spanish is officially taught throughout the Chilean 

school system, there is some evidence that the type of Spanish spoken by indigenous communities differs 

from the formal dialect accepted in the official milieu. The two languages in contact have influenced each 

other over time. 

The family dialect of Spanish, spoken by the adult generations in each indigenous group, has been 

transmitted from generation to generation, becoming a variety with phonological and grammatical 

features of the indigenous language. This requires a sociolinguistic study that can provide much insight 

into the difficulties indigenous students face when learning the standard variety of Spanish taught at 

school. Likewise, it can provide a guideline on the differences between the indigenous language and 

formal Spanish. 

4.2 Commitment of the Chilean Government and the Maintenance of Indigenous Languages 

Scholars agree that the ultimate goal of a maintenance program is to achieve fluency in the use of the 

indigenous language. If this is not possible, at least a feeling of appreciation of the language and its 

relevance as a means of maintaining cultural identity can be achieved. The factors that determine which 

goals are realistic and which are difficult to achieve can be learned through an objective assessment of the 

needs of each community. 



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It is known that any language suffers a decrease in its use, due to historical reasons of competition with 

the language of a group that expands its area of influence through the media and access to material goods. 

The first contacts between Spaniards and indigenous people were negatively aggressive, due to the 

purposes of the conquest that included the acquisition of new territories, discovery of precious metals, 

conversion to a new religious doctrine, and search for labor for forced labor. As a result of this, the 

indigenous people suffered the decrease of their population and the abuse of their culture that originated 

a feeling of frustration and of a conquered people that has hardly been overcome throughout Chilean 

history. 

 

5. Final Reflection 

Thinking about interculturality implies delving into the political approaches of the country that support 

the different intercultural and bilingual educational proposals that are generated from different social 

actors, among which appear national organizations and governments, regional education secretariats, 

CONADI, non- governmental organizations, civil associations., ethnic movements and organizations, 

among others. 

Thus, Intercultural Education is not possible by copying and/or extra-logical adaptation of identity values 

and institutionalization devices of Western civilization, because, ultimately, they only tend to cover up 

the continuity of evangelization. socio-civilization, of the cultural control that they historically exercise 

over the diverse peoples of the world and that have made possible the conformation of the current global 

order; rather, on the contrary, they demand not only public recognition of the socio-cultural plurality that 

forms the very substrate of contemporary social systems, deconstructing the modern ideal of the 

monocultural Nation State, but also the historical affirmation of the values proper to the identity 

construction of each of the existing communities in the world and, therefore, of the values of intercultural 

interaction. 

Legitimizing community existence and cultural identity based on the similarities that can be discovered, 

evidenced, assumed, and implanted in the development of particular historical events, with the values 

and devices for the civilizational affirmation of the dominant culture, strictly speaking, does not mean 

confirming the irrefutable presence of alterity, of the right to difference and, therefore, of the urgent need 

for Intercultural Education, quite the contrary, represents the self-deception of camouflaging oneself as 

one’s peer, as a neighbor, as an authentic being, that is, illegitimate projection of civilized, developed 

society, which for this very reason requires cultural evangelization so that it can fully develop. Thinking 

about the possibility of Intercultural Education, then, entails the unavoidable requirement of building 

new educational concepts that do not disguise the evangelizing claims of the dominant culture. 

This has been a small reflection on Intercultural Education as a path towards educational inclusion. The 

aim throughout the article has been to show how both concepts share a multitude of ideas, and deep down 

allow for very specific ways of learning and teaching in the classroom. The great challenge at this time in 



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school is to contribute to an interculturally inclusive education, as defined by García and Goenechea 

(2009, p. 35). 

The recognition of social diversity and multiculturalism demands the emerging transformation of 

contemporary educational processes, towards the appropriation of the values of identity construction of 

the context in which individuals develop, so that they can build their personal life project, in addition to 

participate significantly in the socio-cultural and political-economic transformation of their community 

of life, without neglecting the interaction in the order of global society. Insofar as contemporary societies 

are constituted in the recognition of onto-historical alterity, therefore, an education is required that not 

only respects, but also promotes identity diversity, within a framework of intercultural dialogue, where 

all individuals and communities have the right to appropriate their own cultural values, as well as the 

cultural capital available in today’s knowledge society. 

 

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