decolonization of education in bolivia
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Stakeholders perceptions of the Decolonization of Education and intra-culturaleducation debates in contemporary Bolivia: An anthropological study
Maja Waters Senneseth
Student Number: 1804561
Master Thesis
Master Programme in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Faculty of Social Science
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
06. July 2009
Individual Supervisor: Ton Salman
Second Supervisor: Mattijs Van De Port
Cover: Image showing a Bolivian Wiphala indigenous flag. Source: from Boston.com
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The Controversy of Decolonization of Education in Bolivia
Stakeholders perception ofthe decolonization of education and intra-cultural
education debates in contemporary Bolivia: an anthropological study.
Masters Thesis
Maja Waters Senneseth
Student no. 1804561
06. July, 2009
Supervisor: Ton Salman
Second Supervisor: Mattijs Van De PortSocial and Cultural Anthropology Vrije University Amsterdam Faculty of Social Science
All photos presented in this thesis are taken by the author unless stated otherwise.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 4
Executive Summary 5Chapter 1:Introduction
1.1Bolivias education system at a crossroad 6
Chapter 2: Regional background and political situation
2.1 A very brief historical context 12
2.2 Demography 14
2.3 To the left 162.4 The educational system in Bolivia 17
2.5 Implementing intercultural education 21
2.6 The proposed bill 23
2.7 The importance of language 25
2.8 Political situation during my fieldwork 27
2.9 Conclusion 29
Chapter 3: Theoretical Framework 30
3. Bourdieu and the socio-economic reproduction of inequalities 31
3.2 Theoretical approaches to education 32
3.3 Multicultural, inter-cultural intra-cultural approaches- the problems of definition
and defending culture 36
3.4 Biases in education in other societies 37
3.5 Theoretical perspective 38
Chapter 4: Methodology
4.1 My first impressions 39
4.2 Research area and population 40
4.3 Research methods 42
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4.4 Limitations 43
Chapter 5: Decolonization complication and application
5.1 Decolonization of education-looking back in order to predict the future? 44
5.2 Problems of defining decolonization 45
5.3 Resistance 47
5.4 Community participation and confusion? 48
5.5 Religion and the curriculum 50
5.6 Health aspects 51
5.7 Conclusion 52
Chapter 6: Identity, authenticity and intra-cultural education
6. 1 In search of a lost identity? 53
6.2 Authenticity and the formation of identity 54
6.3 Ongoing transformation- the challenge of equality in difference 56
6.4 The implementation of intra-cultural education today 59
6.5 Indigenous language as obligatory in education 60
6.6 Conclusion 62
Reflections and Final Conclusions 64
Bibliography 67
Appendix 1 71
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Acknowledgement
I feel very lucky to have met so many wonderful people during my year in Amsterdam and my
fieldwork in Bolivia. I want to thank all of the people who contributed to this thesis- it could not
have been done without the knowledge, cooperation and support of my responsive interviewees.
I am grateful to all of you for making this an enjoyable and significant learning experience that
will not easily be forgotten. Although it is not possible to state them all I would like to recognize
some of them here: (the list is in no particular order):
Thank you to: Victor Hugo Quintanilla Coro, Lie Primitivo Mina, Guido Machaca,
Vincent Limiachi, Fernando Prado, Walter Guterrez Mena, Pedro Apala, Fernando Prado, FelixLpez Mamani, Melita Slel Corpio, Mara Luisa Talavera, Maria Tarque and Evangelio Muoz
Cardozo.
I am very grateful for my lovely family in La Paz and Cochabamba; for taking care of
me and for many interesting conversations. Their generosity and openness to tell me about their
lives has enriched not only my research but also me as a person.
I wish also to thank my talented Spanish teacher Vania Benavides, my wonderful
classmates and of course my friends and family in particularly I am grateful to my helpful
father and my great friend Melissa Wilson for their help with my English.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my grandmother for teaching me about
another Norway from the time when she grew up, for setting things in perspective and for
encouraging me throughout my education.
Last but definitely not least many thanks to my sympathetic supervisor Ton Salman, for
his intelligent insights and constructive comments, advices, corrections and suggestions. I am
very grateful for his willingness to share some of his insight and wisdom on my topic and for
introducing me to the fascinating country of Bolivia.
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Executivesummary:This thesis is based on three months of fieldwork that was conducted in Bolivia - South
Americas poorest country and one of the worlds most unequal countries in terms of income,
consumption and human capital. With a majority of citizens of indigenous origin, Bolivia has a
one of the highest indigenous populations in Latin America. Although poverty is widespread in
the country, it is especially high among the indigenous population. No exception to global trends,
Bolivias indigenous people attain lower levels of education, suffer a greater incidence of
disease, and are subject to more discrimination than other groups in the society.
For a long time neo-liberal, market-oriented economic policies have been considered the
only path to development and the eradication of poverty. However, persistent inequality and poor
living conditions among the majority of the countrys population has led to strong political
opposition convinced that neo-liberalism was to blame for much of the countrys hardship.In 2006 Bolivias first indigenous president; Evo Morales came to power. He achieved
the largest margin of votes of any leader since the restoration of democracy in 1982. His partys
political message has been focused on the idea of decolonizing the state and integrating
indigenous cultural knowledge into government policies. A newly proposed educational bill,
called ley Avelino Siani y Elizardo Prez, embodies the idea of decolonization of education
through the use of intra-cultural education. This implies the integration of indigenous culture
into the curriculum and has raised much controversy.
This research poses the following question: How do the different stakeholders perceive
this bill, its justification and possible application? The findings presented here are based on
interviews with teachers, professors and policy-makers who were able to articulate informed
opinions about the bill, as well conversations with locals and reviews of local media messages
(from television and newspapers). Nobody seems to disagree on the opinion that the country
needs radical change but public opinion is strongly divided overhow these changes should take
place. While the idea behind the bill is viewed by many as a means of enabling disadvantaged
groups to participate in the running of society, critics say the concept of decolonization of
education could potentially increase racial tensions because of an over-emphasis on ethnicity.
At this stage it is unclear whether the bill - if implemented - will succeed in contributing to a
functioning, pluralistic society or a growing divide between indigenous and non-indigenous
communities in Bolivia.
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Chapter1:Introduction1.1Bolivias education system at a crossroadStates must actively devise multicultural policies to prevent discrimination on cultural grounds
religious, ethnic and linguistic. The expansion of cultural freedoms, not suppressions, is the only
sustainable option to promote stability, democracy, and human development within and across
societies
Fukuda-Parr, 2004: 286.
Despite extraordinary economic growth, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting
poorer, a human development report has revealed (United Nations Development Programme,
UNDP, 2005). The same report further stressed that the world is more polarized now than ten
years ago; that the socio-economic gap continues to widen, and that gender, race and ethnicity
continue to play an important part in unequal economic and educational opportunities (ibid.).
Inequality is a worldwide problem. UN officials have warned nations that failure to address this
inequality predicament will insure that social injustice presides and better living conditions for
all people remain elusive, and that this will bring further violence and social instability in the
world for which everyone will have to pay the price (UN, 2005; citing Ocampo 1).
Measured by income, consumption and human capital, Bolivian inequality is among the
highest in Latin America and the world, slightly behind Brazil (Molina, 2005:4). While the
poverty rate is high in the region overall it is especially high among the indigenous population. It
is estimated that indigenous people have a greatly increased chance of being poor (World Bank,
2005). Moreover, there is a higher poverty rate among indigenous people all over the world,
including lower levels of education, and a greater incidence of disease and discrimination
compared to other groups in their societies (ibid.).
Education is widely recognized as an important means to combat poverty. Although the
gap is narrowing, indigenous people in Bolivia continue to have less education, and theireducational results are considerably lower than that of the non-indigenous population. This might
1 Jose Antonio Ocampo was UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs from 20032007. Hepresented the UN report The Inequality Predicament: Report on the World Social Situation 2005 together withJohan Schlvinck on 25 August 2005
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indicate that there exist problems in the quality of the education provided (World Bank, 2005).
According to many indigenous spokespersons the problem is also in the content of the
curriculum. The education that is offered is culturally and linguistically unfamiliar for many of
the indigenous groups, and hence often found not to be socially or culturally relevant (Contreras
and Talavera, 2004). This explains part of the context which gave rise to the decolonization of
education debate. Before going deeper into this debate, it is important to elaborate a bit more on
the context of Bolivias turbulent history.
Despite the fact that Bolivia is rich in natural resources it remains the poorest country in
South America. A highly diverse country, Bolivia has a rich bio-diversity, and the largest
indigenous population of the Western Hemisphere, with approximately 62 percent of the
countrys residents, divided into 36 different indigenous groups (Drange, 2007:3). There are 33
official languages in Bolivia, of which Spanish is spoken by approximately 63.5 percent of the
population as their first language. Much of the population is bilingual: it is estimated that 87.4
percent of the population speak Spanish as their sole orsecond language (Assies and Salman,
2005:4, citing Vadillo, 1997:332). Although there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of
people speaking indigenous languages it is estimated that 20.8 percent speak Quechua, 13.6
percent Aymara and 0.6 percent speak Guaran as their first language (Howard, 2009:5).
Historically indigenous people have had very little political representation; but this is no
longer the case in Bolivia. Since 2006 the country has been lead by Juan Evo Morales Ayma,Bolivias first indigenous president. He won the presidential election in December 2005,
achieving 54 percent of the votes. In a recall vote in August 2008 he won 63 percent, making
him one of the most popular presidents in Bolivian history. Evo Morales is the leader of MAS
(Movement Towards Socialism) and a former coca-grower who has named Hugo Chavez and
Fidel Castro as his political idols. He has on several occasions articulated severe criticism against
the US (which he refers to as the Empire) and the IMF. Tensions peaked in September 2008
when Morales expelled the US ambassador accusing him of conspiring against democracy, by
cooperating with the opposition party. Less than a month later Morales also expelled the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA), accusing them of financing a coup dtat against the
government. Earlier that year he also expelled USAID accusing them of disguised aid aimed at
wielding political influence in the country and supporting the opposition.
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One of the main critiques against the Morales government is precisely the fear that the
Bolivian economy is weakened by Morales severe criticism of the IMF and the US. The two
countries have had a history of cooperative relations that has been based on submission and
financial dependence on the Bolivian side. Moreover, his policies on land reclamations,
nationalization of mines and gas fields have lead to strong protest from formerly private owners.
Additionally, four of the countrys nine wealthiest departments requested autonomy in protest of
one the new draft constitution (see below) and there have been some fears of civil war erupting
(Shultz, 2007). In other words, the country is very much in a time of transformation, strongly
divided ethnically, socially and politically. This will be explored more in Chapter 2.
On 25th of January this year a new constitution was approved, allowing Morales to stand
for a further term in the coming election, December 2009. Winning support for the new
constitution by a relatively large margin (61 percent), MAS continues to have huge support in the
country expressed through support for the new constitution. The constitution marks a radical
change in Bolivian history and will grant several rights to the indigenous population through the
land advance emancipation legislation. Among other things, the new constitution puts emphasis
on traditional forms of local government in indigenous cultures where community participation
and justification play an important role.
In correlation with the 2007 United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous
people (UN, 2007)
which grants special collective rights to the indigenous people, the newconstitution explicitly guarantees collective rights to its indigenous population.2 A
supplementary question to the new constitution was whether landowners should be limited to
owning 10,000 or 5,000 hectares of land, to restrain the power of big landowners in the eastern
lowlands, some of whom gained their land illegally under the previous military government
(Economist, 2009). A clear majority (over 70 percent) voted on a limit of 5,000 hectares. With
one of the greatest wealth inequality gaps in the world, Bolivias new constitution aims to reduce
2 Although the idea of collective rights has received increasing attention and acceptance in many governmentalcircles, it has also been heavily debated. Colombia was one of the first countries that implemented these rights intheir constitution in 1991. One of the main concerns is that it gives rights to self-determination and evenautonomy. In a country like Bolivia where the majority is indigenous this is a major concern. Another criticismis that although collective rights are given providing they do not interfere with the basic human rights oftenthese rights collide.
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this by nationalizing land areas of over 5,000 hectares. Perceived by the wealthiest individuals as
the stealing of property, the land reclamations have added to increasing racial tensions in the
country.3 The extremely powerful and influential opposition to Morales owns most of the
countrys media: only one of many television channels is governmental owned, and the first
governmental -owned newspaper was published this year.
The Morales government has challenged the notion that western values and culture is
superior, or that it possesses a monopoly on the correct form of knowledge and truth. The
country is in an era of social and political transformation moving towards what many call
socialism with the aim to reduce inequality within the society. On the other hand, others
perceive the changes as dangerously over-emphasizing the indigenization of the countrys
political structures. They fear that his focus on the indigenous population ignores the increasing
urban population of Bolivia the mestizos, who have mixed Indian and European descent and
culture. Another concern from the opposition is that Morales socialist and anti-globalization
articulation against the US will lead the country to economic crisis, isolating Bolivia from the
benefits of globalization. The recent changes are indeed quite revolutionary questioning the
elite minoritys power and privileges.
The elite minority is often portrayed in the political frame as blanco-mestizo, illustrating
that an ethnic line of political reasoning has emerged. The Morales governments aim of
decolonizing the Bolivian society highlights this. A main strategy for achieving this goal is bytargeting the Bolivian educational system. In the governmental discourses, decolonization is
used as one of the terms that best express the wish to overcome a history of indigenous
submission.
Soon after Morales came to power his government started the work of promoting a new
educational bill, with the slogan of decolonization of education. In June 2006 the proposed
bill named: Ante-projecto de ley Avelino Siani y Elizardo Prez was presented.
In it the term decolonization of education refers to the indigenous peoples self-determination
process and the need to recover and re-establish their cultural roots and develop on their own
terms. This is done through the decolonization of land and territory, education, development of
a national cultural consciousness and the recovery and revitalization of ancestral cults as the
3 There have been several racial incidents in Santa-Cruz, Pando and Sucre (see appendix,) They were all attacks onthe indigenous population.
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great axis from which this process should begin. It identifies traditional Indian customs as its
fundamental pillar. Intra-cultural education is a tool to give the idea of decolonization of
education a central position in the curriculum.
Intra-cultural means, as the term implies to look inwards into their own culture;
restore faith in it, revive it and implement this cultural knowledge and language into a new, equal
interculturality and, obviously, also within the new curriculum. The bill is likely to be put into
action in January 2010 if MAS is re-elected in December 2009. In seeking a deeper
understanding of the debate over the decolonization of education I was lead to formulate the
following research question:
In Bolivia, a new proposed educational bill, which embodies the idea of decolonization
of education and intra-cultural education has raised controversy. How do the different
stakeholders perceive the bill, its justification and possible application?
In order to explore this central question, I have formulated five sub-questions:
What does decolonization of education mean? What does intra-cultural education imply? What does the bill Avelino Siani y Elizardo Prez aim at concretely? What are the different stakeholders viewpoints on these issues? Why do they support or oppose the idea behind this bill and what social memories and
viewpoints motivate them to make their decisions?
One of the main arguments for the proposed bill is to eliminate discrimination and racism which
is still very present in todays Bolivia. Ironically much of the criticism against the idea of
decolonization is based on the fear that the Bolivian society will become even more ethnically
polarized. Either way, the concepts of decolonization and Intra-cultural education are strongly
interconnectedand are inspired by the wish to overcome the inequalities that Bolivia, as a former
colony still has; a colonial mindset that has, according to indigenous spokespersons, persisted
after the countrys independence.The unequal distribution of social-economic wealth reflects the
reality that ethnic divisions are central in the decolonization of education debate.
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Education has broadly been recognized as empowering, as a mean to defeat poverty and
as positive development, both by the United Nations and Bolivia.4 In fact Bolivia allocates 23
percent of its annual budget to education, a proportion considerably higher than most other South
American countries, albeit from a nominally smaller national budget (Contreras and Talavera,
2003). The literacy rate has also significantly improved during the last decade and Bolivia now
has a large percentage of children completing primary school education. Nonetheless, the quality
in rural areas remains subordinate and the number of school drop-outs is higher among the
indigenous population (Unicef, 2004). Could the idea of the decolonization of education
together with the implementation of intra-cultural education in the curriculum become a means
to change this reproduction of inequality?
1.2 Structure of the thesis
Before elaborating on the different stakeholders views on the current debate of intra-cultural
education and the decolonization request in the Bolivian educational system, it is crucial to
provide further background information about Bolivia as a country and its educational system.
This will be done in the in the regional chapter 2. Some theoretical approaches towards education
and the reproduction of inequality will be presented in chapter 3 followed by the methodology in
chapter 4. Chapter number 5 and 6 will focus on the idea behind decolonization of education
and on identity and intra-cultural educational debates respectively. In the last chapter Iconclude this thesis by outlining the findings and the respond to the research question.
4 Bolivia became a member of the UN 13 of November, 1946 and holds 1 UNESCO chair.
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2. Regional background and political situation
This chapter provides a short regional and demographic background of Bolivia as well as a brief
explanation of the political situation in the country. To set the context of my fieldwork, I also
give an overview of the former educational system in Bolivia, the proposed bill, and the reasons
and ideas behind it. Some empirical illustrations from my fieldwork are also included.
Figure 1. Continental, regional, country level maps of Bolivia
Source: Gosouthamerica.com and the CIA World Factbook
2.1 A very brief historical context
The land area which is now Bolivia used to be a part of the kingdom of the Incas, before it was
colonized by the Spanish in 1532. As in all other Latin American countries the indigenous people
in Bolivia suffered much at the hands of often brutal colonizers, and many died from diseases
that were brought into the country. Discrimination was so severe that in 1537 when the Pope
tried to convince the Spaniards that the indigenous people had souls he met strong resistance
(Helgesen, 2008). Named after the independence fighter Simon Bolvar, Bolivia achieved
independence from Spanish rule in 1825. It is sometimes referred to as the country of a
thousand coups as it has experienced nearly 200 coups throughout its history (Poestro, 2007:6).
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Bolivias national revolution took place in 1952 and has been described as one of the
quietest revolutions in Latin America. Led by the MNR5 (Moviemento Nacionalistica
Revolucionario), mineworkers and peasants defeated the army; mines were nationalized and for
the first time indigenous people gained full citizenship (Hudson et.al 1989). The MNR stayed in
power for twelve years under various leaders, during which time they restructured the primary
educational system to include the rural villages as well. Nevertheless, the party was unable to
greatly improve the standard of living even with support from the United States. From 1964 the
country was led by military dictatorship (also supported by the United States), until democracy
was implemented in 1982. The congress elected the left-wing leader of MIR (Revolutionary
leftwing movement) Hernan Siles Zuazo, who proved to be a disaster for the country, resulting in
an hyper-inflation that in 1985 reached 8,170 percent annually (Klein, 2003:241).The following
period of fragile democracy saw numerous presidents come and go, some of them more capable
in running the country than others.
Although Bolivias history has been marked by social and political inequality and
tensions, the country stands out in contrast to other similar countries in Latin-American in the
1970-80s, like Guatemala, Peru, El Salvador and Nicaragua, for its absence of large-scale social
and political violence, civil war or ethnocide - even despite the enormous ethnic inequality
distribution (Molina, 2005:3).
Bolivia had close ties to the United States (US) and the International Monetary Fund(IMF) to a point of it being named as a charity darling, receiving millions of dollars annually.
The two countries relationship has been based on obedience from Bolivias side. Even though
the US has played an important part in many development projects, it has also benefitted from
access to Bolivias natural resources at very low prices and as such has been heavily criticized
for its role in Bolivian politics.
In 1993 the neo-liberal influenced president Gonzalo Snchez de Lozada took power and
Victor Hugo Cardenas, an Aymara intellectual leader of Katarismo - an indigenous political
movement - was appointed as vice-minister to the surprise of many. This marriage between the
government and an indigenous leader functioned to create better confidence in the government,
among the indigenous population, but weakened the already declining Katarismo movement as
the many of its members saw the marriage as a betrayal.
5 The MNR used to be a socialistic party but today it is a political party associated with neo-liberalism.
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As a result of the old governments strong ties to the US, eradication of coca-plantations
as part of the US war on drugs became a priority, and enormous areas of coca were destroyed,
while little was offered as compensation to the farmers, who now had nothing. A neo-liberal
economic model dominated in the nineties, with a market-orientated economy largely viewed as
the only alternative for development and the eradication of poverty. Even though massive
amounts of aid money were sent to the country, the enormous gap in inequality persisted,
indigenous people remained poor and in some places the poverty rate even increased. The
quotation below from UN development report from 2005 sums up what Bolivian history
illustrates:
Focusing exclusively on economic growth and income generation as a development strategy is
perilous as it leads to the accumulation of wealth by a few and deepens the poverty of many.
(UN 2005)
This brief look into Bolivias history is provided so we can comprehend the context in which a
former coca-grower and leader could win the highest percentage of votes since the re-
introduction of civilian rule in 1982. The persistent inequality and the poor living conditions for
the majority of the countrys population led an opposition convinced that neo-liberalism was to
blame for Bolivian hardship (Assies and Salman, 2005:269).
Evo Morales political message has been directed towards the need to decolonize the
state and the restoration of the indigenous peoples knowledge. The governments language ofdecolonization, anti-racism, anti-globalism and anti-neo-liberalism must be seen in the context
of Bolivias turbulent history. The current government came to power due to the vast
mobilization of a people who rejected everything the [previous] government stood for (ibid.).
2.2 Demography
Located in the center of South America, Bolivia is a nation of enormous diversity. Rich in
culture and natural resources, its territories include some of the world's coldest, warmest, andwindiest climates. It also contains some the driest, saltiest and swampiest natural landscapes in
the world. A landlocked country, Bolivia shares boarders with Paraguay and Argentina to the
south, Chile and Peru to the west and Brazil to the north and east. In contrast to its neighboring
countries, the majority of the population is of indigenous decent. The country is divided into nine
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regions, or departamentos (the departmental capitals are in parentheses): Beni (Trinidad),
Chuquisaca (Sucre), Cochabamba (Cochabamba), La Paz (La Paz), Oruro (Oruro), Pando
(Cobija), Potosi (Potosi), Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz de la Sierra), and Tarija (Tarija). Although
located in the tropical zone, due to the countrys many mountainous regions temperatures vary
significantly. The Altiplano (Spanish for high plain) has an average altitude of 3,600 meters
and includes the regions of La Paz, Oruro and Potosi. These areas contain around half of the
countrys population and are where the majority of the indigenous population lives, most of them
belonging to the two largest indigenous groups: Quechua and Aymara. The deep forest of the
Amazon is sparsely populated, with mostly indigenous minority groups, while the lowland areas
and regions of Tarija, Santa Cruz, Beni and Pando have majority populations of non-indigenous
decent. In 2001, 62 percent of the total population (about 9.5 million) declared themselves as
belonging to one of 36 indigenous groups, of which the Quechua, Aymara and Guarani are the
largest (Drange, 2007)6.
There are 33 different languages spoken of which all have recently become
acknowledged as national languages of Bolivia7. According to a national population census from
2001 it was estimated that 63.5 percent spoke Spanish as their first language, 20.8 percent spoke
Quechua, 13.6 % Aymara and 0.6 % spoke Guarani (Howard, 2009). This indicates that the use
of an indigenous language is not a basis for self-identification as indigenous (Nucinkis, 2006: 29,
Molina and Alb, 2006 in Howard, 2009:5).Bolivia is rich in natural resources. Tin, petroleum, zinc, tungsten, antimony, silver, iron,
lead, gold, timber, and the recently discovered natural gas, are all part of the natural resources the
country possesses (CIA World Factbook 2009). Despite this, Bolivia is South Americas poorest
country and in comparison with other developing countries it is at the lower end of the scale in
terms of life expectancy (64 for men and 67 for women; World Health Organization, WHO,
2006). Furthermore, it is estimated that nearly 60 percent of Bolivias population lives in
poverty, and almost 40 percent lives in extreme poverty, almost all of whom are indigenous
(World Bank, 2006). Bolivia also has one of the continents most unequal distributions of
6 The numbers vary greatly, depending on what kind of question is being asked. People are more likely to identifythemselves as belonging to an indigenous group such as Aymara or Quechua even if they do not identifythemselves as indigenous per se (Drange, 2007: 2, quoting Canessa: 2006)
7 In 2006 the Morales government dubbed the country the Pluricultural Nation of Bolivia declaring all indigenouslanguages as well as Spanish as official languages.
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wealth, with 10 percent of the population obtaining over 40 percent of the total income, which
illustrates the fact that the majority of the population has not had access to enough opportunities
to improve their quality of life (ibid.).
2.3 To the left
In the region of Latin America there has been an increasing wave of left-wing governments
aiming to create social-democratic societies, and working towards evening out part of the
enormous gap between rich and poor. After the election in December 2005, Bolivia became one
of them, electing the former leader of the coca farmers union, an indigenous Aymara, Evo
Morales to lead the country. He achieved the largest margin of votes of any leader since the
restoration of democracy in 1982 (CIA World Factbook, 2009) and in January 2006 he became
Bolivias first indigenous president. Morales is the leader ofMAS - the movement towards
socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo) and won the election on the promise of fundamental
socialist change by empowering the nations poor indigenous majority (ibid.).
Hopefully capable of redistributing the wealth of the country more evenly, Morales has
been admired by many indigenous people but viewed with great skepticism by others, in
particular the Bolivian elite and the US, in addition to an increasing portion of the countrys
middleclass. The last three years under Morales have been relatively stable, although there have
been quite a few riots, mainly between opposition groups and Morales supporters. There havebeen requests for autonomy in some of the resource-rich regions opposing Morales and the
opposition has expressed great concern that his radical approaches might isolate Bolivia and
harm the economy. Both Human Right Watch and Amnesty have also expressed concern over
occasional inter-ethnic conflicts, however, they have stated in their reports that discrimination
and racism towards the indigenous population has been the underlying factor behind tensions.
The situation is somewhat blurred. As most of the newspapers and television channels are
owned by the opposition, much of the information given by the media is extremely biased. On
the other hand, the Bolivian government has a long history of corruption and inefficient
administration. There is little proof that this situation has radically changed with the Morales
government, and according to the US Government his policies have exacerbated racial and
economic tensions between Amerindians in the Andean west and non-indigenous communities
in the eastern lowlands (CIA World Factbook 2009), which is a view also argued by the
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opposition to Morales in Bolivia. This highlights the fact that contemporary Bolivia continues to
be a divided and vulnerable state.
2.4 The Educational system in Bolivia
Despite the fact that education was declared to be mandatory and free in 1880 (Taylor, 2004: 7)
education in Bolivia has been modest and very unevenly distributed. In the colonial era
structured education was limited to the elite families and even though the call for compulsory
primary educational system increased after independence, little was accomplished (Contreras and
Talavera, 2003).The educational system has had three major educational reforms, in 1905, 1955
(as a result of the national revolution in which it was promoted) and in 1994.
In 1905 Bolivia introduced a centralization of education policy and the government
provided teachers in the rural areas, but funding was limited, the rural areas were difficult to
access due to poor infrastructure, and the teachers had to divide their time between the villages,
resulting in limited time in each village (Taylor, 2004).Little real educational opportunity was
provided, and especially in the rural areas little progress was made (Contreras and Talavera,
2003).
After the national revolution in 1952 the Bolivian school system was subject to a strong
assimilation policy. Through the assimilation process many indigenous people felt ashamed of
their own knowledge and belief-systems that differed from the norm and which were treated asthe wrong kind of knowledge. It is interesting to note that indigenous communities themselves
were the main driving force behind the rapid spread of schools in rural areas during the early
twentieth century (Brienen, 2002). After the law of centralized education in 1905 the schools
implemented a linguistic and cultural policy of castellanization 8 that sought to civilize the
indigenous population(Taylor, 2004:8). One of the few exceptions to this trend was the escuela-
ayllu, a pilot school project tolerated for a few years by the government and attempting to design
a school that would fit the indigenousrealities.
This brings us to the currently debated bill, Avelino Siani y Elizardo Prez. It is named
after two teachers that started the famous escuela-ayllu of Warisata (an indigenous community
8 The teaching of Spanish (Castellano) was often considered synonymous with literacy training, hence the termCastillanization (Lopez, 2002 in Taylor, 2004:8). The term implies cultural and linguistic assimilation.
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school)9. According to Andean indigenous beliefs, it is important to look back in order to project
oneself in the future. Hence, the name of the bill is no coincidence. The school was founded in
Warisata in 1931 and created a curriculum which was especially intended to improve the living
conditions of the indigenous people by providing them with education especially geared towards
the need of indigenous people in the Bolivian highlands (Brienen, 2002). It was based on the
roots of pre-Incan socio-political construction of which included not only teachers and students
but also parental and community participation.
Later on the curriculum from the Warisata School was adapted to many of the lowland
regions as well (ibid). The curriculum taught parents and children their rights and duties of
citizenship. Hence, the school contributed greatly to the construction of a coherent Bolivian
national feeling which included the indigenous population (ibid.). In 1940 the school was closed
down as the government did not want to allow the development of local authority. Especially not
since the school clashed with the cultural assimilation policy of the government (Contreras, 1999
in Taylor, 2004). The escella-ayllu represented in many ways an early form for intra-cultural
education as it emphasized indigenous cultures and leadership structures (Taylor, 2004:8). Its
basic concept has been recognized as a possible solution for educational and cultural problems in
todays Bolivia. By carrying the name of the two teachers that started the school the bill implies
the importance of intra-cultural education. This will be elaborated further in sub-chapter 2.7
regarding the proposed bill.In 1937 the Ministry of Education also became the Ministry of Indigenous affairs. With
this move, Brienen points out; the Ministry became responsible for the development and the
implementation of legislation to protect the indigenous communities (Brienen, 2003:200). At
that time many Indians were being forced to cultivate land for the landowners and to provide
other unpaid/underpaid services such as pongueaje (unpaid domestic work). Moreover, until
the national revolution in 1952 the indigenous people were highly regulated: they were forbidden
to wear traditional outfits and speak their traditional languages in public (Drange, 2007).
Even thought the literacy rate was especially low for the indigenous people, it was also
low throughout the country. It is estimated that less than one third of the adult population were
literate before the National Revolution, despite the governments attempt to defeat illiteracy by
requiring people who were literate to teach at least one other person how to read and write
9Ayllu means political unity and originates from pre-Incan and Incan periods.
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(Hudson and Hanratten, 1989). After the National Revolution a new educational reform
pronounced that school should be free for every child. This inevitably meant that three times as
many children attended school. The new obligatory educational law required huge resources and
even though the national budget spent on education increased and indigenous teachers were
being employed the drop-out rate remained high, especially in rural areas among indigenous
people. All education was in Spanish and children were beaten when they spoke in their native
language (Luykx, 1999:47-48).
In 1976 literacy levels increased to an estimated 76 percent (Contreras and Talavera,
2004:66). Nevertheless, the high number of school drop-outs, the poor educational level and
clear divide between the non-indigenous and the indigenous population continues despite more
focus on the educational situation. In fact, Bolivia uses 23 percent of its national budget on
education, which is more than most other South American countries, (albeit from a smaller
national budget; ibid).
In 1983 the World Bank summarized the tragic state of education in Bolivia as follows:
Despite sizeable budgetary allocations to education, no significant improvements in
access and quality have occurred. Some of the reasons for the low productivity of
expenditures have been the following:
Until recently, two subsystems, one for rural and one for urban education existed sideby sideboth with heavily over-centralized, inefficient administrations in La Paz.
Dropout and repeat rates are high because children are taught in Spanish and nottheir native language. They are often malnourished and cannot walk the long
distances to get to school, as well as being taught in an irrelevant and overly
academic curriculum which bears little relation to future employment.
Most of the expenditures go to salaries of untrained teachers. Few funds areavailable
for expansion of the system and quality improvements such as distribution of learning
materials or teacher supervision (In Contreras and Talavera, 2003:39).
These are, as previously stressed, challenges which still persist although the Bolivian educational
system has achieved magnificent improvements the last decade. Table 1 shows a lists of
development indicators for Bolivia that illustrate what progresses has been made regarding
literacy rates and the literacy gap between rural and urban areas. In Bolivia uneven distribution
and poor quality of social services - particularly health and education - have disproportionately
affected indigenous and rural populations (World Bank, 2005).
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Table 1. World Development Indicators for Bolivia
Country indicators 1995 2000 2005 2007Population (Million) 7.5 8.3 9.2 9.5Rural population (% of total population) 40.6 38.2 35.8
Atlas GNI per capita (US$) 860 1000 1020 1260Poverty incidence (%) 66.9 59.6 Extreme poverty incidence (%) 42.8 36.7 Inequality (GINI coefficient) ... 62.6 60.4
GDP growth (%) 4.7 2.5 4.4 4.6Inflation (%) 12.6 3.4 4.9 11.7Overall fiscal balance (% of GDP) -1.8 -3.7 -2.3 1.7Total public sector debt (% of GDP) 74.7 59.5 75.1 43.8External public sector debt (%of GDP) 71.4 47.1 51.9 16.4
External current account balance (% of GDP) -4.5 -5.3 6.5 13.4Total good exports (US$ million) 1041.5 1246.1 2791.1 4485.2Foreign direct investment (US$ million) 372.3 733.9 -290.8 163.6
Net primary enrollment 95.0 95.0 04 95.0 06School attendance rate (6 and 18 years) 82 90 Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births) 75 94 67 98 53 03 Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000 live births) 116 94 92 98 70 03 Maternal mortality (per 100,000 live births) 390 98 230 03Stunting (% of children under 5) 26.8 94 26.8 98 26.7 03
Source: Central Bank of Bolivia, OMS-Global database on child health, Bank estimates based on official surveysand World Development Indicators.
We see from this the above data that enormous challenges remain, but also that great progress
has been made. For example, the maternal mortality rate has decreased dramatically within the
last 5 years as have the mortality rates for infants and children under five. The amount of
children attending school has also increased from 82 percent to 90 percent. It is also worth noting
the decreased population in rural areas. In 1976 it was estimated that 68 percent of the population
lived in rural areas (Molina, 2005:16), yet by 2005 only 8 percent of the population was living inthe rural areas, and rural populations continue to decrease (World Bank, 2009).
Increased focus on health and education since the 1990s has improved the situation, but
poor infrastructure in Bolivia still makes it difficult to access the many rural villages and to build
schools and hospitals the citizens can access. Rural areas have always had less access to social
services and in general the poverty is higher, education lower, and overall life expectancy is
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lower in the rural areas. Improvements in health and educational sector are partly due to the
increased urbanization (Molina, 2005:29).
Today Bolivia has an estimated 90 percent literacy level. However, there is reason to
believe that functional literacy remains high in many of the rural areas of the country (CIA
World Factbook 2009). Like many developing countries, contemporary Bolivia has a high level
of children attending primary school, yet the overall quality of teaching is low, drop-out rates
remain high and the percentage of children (especially from rural areas of the country) who go
on to higher education is remarkably low (Alan and Thomas, 2001). Although public education
is free, it costs money for parents to send their children to school. They have to buy books and
school uniforms are compulsory. Sending the children to school also means that children cannot
help with work at home or on the farm etc. These are all challenges that many developing
countries are facing and that the Bolivian government is trying to overcome. In the proposed bill
education will be free and compulsory to grade twelve and the government will provide financial
support to families who need it (Gutirrez, interviewed in La Paz, 22.03 2009).
The Morales government has been working to implement a socialist educational system.
In line with the educational system in Cuba the government wanted to make all schools and
universities public. The suggestion to close private schools was met with enormous protest in the
various cities of Bolivia, leading the government to drop the plan of making all schools public.
There are great quality differences between the education in rural and urban areas and not leastbetween the private, NGO-supported and public schools. There are hardly any private schools in
the rural areas of the country but there are several NGOs that runs schools in rural areas and
these are generally better and have more resources than the schools run by the government.
2.5 Implementing Intercultural Education
In 1994 the Law of Educational Reform was introduced that promoted an intercultural
Bilingual Education (referred to as LRE). This reform represented a radical legislation thatopened up the opportunity for indigenous people to receive education in their native language.
Bolivia became the first country in Latin America to make intercultural education the policy of
the state and it was widely considered revolutionary as it was supposed to strengthen each
culture and the exchanged between cultures (Alb et.al, 2004: 14). It is a law that intended to put
a strong focus both upon bilingualism and intercultural education. Evaluations have shown the
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LRE has had positive effects on "interculturality" in the sense that indigenous pupils have
improved their mother tongue, they participate and appreciate their own culture, and they have
improved their self-esteem" (Drange, 2007: 1). In the rural areas the system has also achieved
positive results on children's learning abilities and self-esteem (Alb et.al, 2003).
The LRE was aimed at rural areas and the bilingual approach was targeted at primary
schools. Under the reform LRE expanded to 1,074 schools in 1997 and to 2,899 by 2002,
counting for approximately 22 percent of the total primary sector (Howard, 2009: 3 citing
Nucinkis, 2006: 27).The new law was received with great skepticism from the teachers union as
it required the teachers to educate bilingually - although many of the teachers could not speak the
indigenous language and did not necessarily identify with the culture of the communities whom
they were assigned to serve. Another severe critique of the reform was that little or no new
educational material from an intercultural approach existed. The teachers were also given little
training on how to teach in a bilingual and intercultural manner.
Amalie Anaya, Chief of the Ministry of Education at the time when the law became
implemented, has explained that one of the reasons behind its difficulty of application was that
the reform was applied on a massive scale, instead of introducing it gradually starting in areas
where it would have been easy applicable . Between 1995 and 1996 the reform was very widely
applied. This led to total disorder, as we tried to go beyond the limits of what was possible
(Howard, 2009:3-4 referring to Archondo, 1994:44 citing Anaya).Many indigenous intellectuals also questioned the intention of the law since it was
implemented under the neo-liberal government of Gonzalo Snchez de Lozada. They saw the
LRE as part of a neo-liberal market policy, and potentially dangerous as the educational program
could be used for research to achieve crucial information from the indigenous communities, that
again could be used for exploration and privatization of land (Drange, 2007).
Perhaps more surprisingly - the reform was widely rejected by many of the indigenous
parents who viewed the new law as a step backwards. Since Spanish was the only language
needed to enter the job sector, they viewed Spanish as the key to success. They were concerned
that the new law could be the neo-liberal governmentsway of preventing the indigenous
population from entering the city and progressing economically and politically. It became clear
that the very people the reform was supposedly made to facilitate actually rejected it.
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2.6 The Proposed Bill
The ley Avelino Siani y Elizardo Prez is a proposed bill which was introduced by the Morales
government soon after it came to power:
It is a bill built on the Por Una Education Indigena Originaria study10, also known asel libro verde or the green book, which was created in 2004 by ten indigenousorganizations. The project was built on ideological proposals by indigenous sectors
concerning intercultural education and decolonization over the past 20 years (Machacha,interviewed in Cochabamba, 06.02.09).
In June 2006, 21 different indigenous organizations and institutions came together under the lead
of Felix Patzi11 who was the chief of the Ministry of Education at that time and played a crucial
role in the creation of the bill. They agreed on the proposal of the bill Avelino Siani y Elizardo
Prez. The bill has not yet been applied and there exists an ongoing controversy about whether
or not an intra-cultural policy, which the law promotes, should be included in the education-
system or not. There is no lack of ambition in the proposed bill, among other things it states that
the Educational Law Project:
- is universal, unique, and diverse, because it offers high quality, and is culturally and
linguistically relevant in all the regions of the country. Unique in quality, diverse in
application, and corresponds to every context.
- is decolonizing, liberating, revolutionary, transformational, and anti-imperialist to
economic, social, cultural, political, and ideological structures, oriented towards
autonomy, and the re-affirmation of indigenous peoples, Afro-Bolivians and of the entire
Bolivian nation.
- is intra-cultural, inter-cultural, and multi-lingual because it articulates a stateeducation system based on achieving potential and development through wisdom, mother
10 For an indigenous education.11 Patzi became a controversial figure in the Morales government, not least for his strong critique of the Catholic
Church. After one year as the chief of Ministry of Education he was replaced, however, the text of the draft lawwhich he helped design still stands (Howard, 2009: 8)
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language of indigenous nations, where they interrelate; coexist with equal opportunities,
with mutual respect between cultures of the country and the world.
The new bill takes the idea of bilingual education a step further: it seeks to implement bilingual
education not only in the primary schools in rural areas but extends it to urban areas and includes
secondary school and also at university level. By this implementation the indigenous languages
will become far more significant and more applicable in daily life. Some elements of the plan to
increase the importance of the indigenous languages have already been applied - for example in
order to work in the government one has to speak an indigenous language as well as Spanish.
The bill underscores the importance of conserving the countrys enormous cultural
diversity. It stresses that intercultural education is more than bilingual education and it puts
emphasis on the values of indigenous communities, such as solidarity, collective work for the
community - values that are challenged by a neo-liberal and capitalist principles of individualism
and privatization. One point that rose great criticism in the media against the proposal was the
statement that Catholicism should no longer be the only official religion. This will be explicated
a bit further in chapter 5.5.
Referring to a Bolivia for all the bill also puts an emphasis on gender equality. It must
be noted that despite this the Morales government has been criticized for using political rhetoric
without focusing enough on the implications in reality. The bill has also been criticized for notbeing much different from the educational law of 1994, except for its change in emphasis on
language learning. This will be explored further in the chapter 6 discussing intra-cultural
education and identity. For more information on the bill please see Appendix one.
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2.7 The importance of language
In our language exists a peoples way of thinking
Victor Hugo Coro, Interviewed in La Paz, 02.02. 09
The above quotation draws attention to the importance of language. With the proposed
educational bill the government wants to put a stronger focus on language, promoting a bilingual
and even trilingual education. There is general consensus over the importance of learning to read
and write in ones native language before learning a second language (i.e. Spanish). The outcome
of much research has shown a clear connection between the level of literacy and whether or not
the child starts to learn in his/her own native language and how this impacts learning ability. Aswe have seen this was one of the World Banks main criticisms and rationale for why Bolivian
education remained poor in the rural areas. Although the teaching of bilingual education should
hypothetically be implemented in primary schools in rural areas, the law has been criticized for
being far from fully implemented. There are still many rural primary schools where the children
are only taught in Spanish. This finding backs up other research that shows how even in rural
areas where the majority of people speak Aymara or Quechua bilingual education has not been
fully implemented (see Contreras and Talavera, 2004, Alb, 2004). My own experience in the
field also suggests that there are many areas where this law is not fully implemented. For this
reason, it might be right to question the governments aim of a trilingual education. Would it not
be better to fully implement the previous one first?
As we have seen, historically the Bolivian state has been weak, and there are many laws
that are not fully implemented (for example, children under 14 years old still work in the mines
even though this is officially forbidden under Bolivian law). On the other hand, it is crucial to
have a goal to reach after. Perhaps while the hope of achieving a trilingual education is too
ambiguous in most of the rural (and urban) areas of Bolivia; it is possible in the richer, urban
areas and in private schools. A trilingual educational aim might mean a change for those students
who otherwise would be bilingual; the majority of the students being blanco-mestizo would learn
an indigenous language as well. After all - these are the people with the most potential to learn a
third language due to their increased resources. Additionally - learning an indigenous language
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would give blanco-mestizos insight into indigenous cultures and potentially improve intercultural
understanding.
Fernando Prado, an anthropology Professor in Cochabamba stresses that the Aymara and
Quechua are in a greater and stronger position to preserve their culture and introduce it into the
curriculum because they have many intellectuals, and highly educated people who are politically
active. This is of course present in the other groups as well, but they are in fewer numbers and
the number of people who have a higher education is lower. Hence, the bill will be challenging
to implement, especially in areas where there are a lack of professors from their own culture.
Prado himself has been working as a teacher for many years in the Amazonas stressing that it is
very difficult to implement a law of bilingual education since it is not only a problem of finding
skilled teachers but also books in native indigenous languages.
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2.8 Political situation during my fieldwork:
Photograph 1 and 2 These picture are taken in La Paz before the election of the New consitution
and shows the massive support Morales has in the altioplano.
Several demonstrations took place in Bolivia during my field work. Although the use of
fireworks and dynamite (a tradition among miners) often made the atmosphere uncomfortable,they were for the most part peaceful demonstrations.
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The first month of my field work was spent in La Paz. On the 25 of January 2009 an important
referendum took place. It was the referendum on the Nueva ley, a new constitution which
included 411 articles. It is important to stress that the many policy changes under Morales have
not come from nowhere, but are the outcome of a gradually evolving juncture that represents an
ideological and ethnic shift in government policy due to the countrys history of political
instability (Howard, 2009).
The constitution is a result of years of struggle between, among others, many social
movements. The quest for a democratically constructed new constitution started to take shape in
the early 1990s and has been central to most of the political and social conflicts since 2000
(Helgesen, 2009). As soon as Evo Morales became president in 2006 his government started the
work of creating a new constitution. However, a main criticism against the process has been over
a lack of transparency. Critics argue that the number of people who really understand the full
implications of the constitution is low and that the referendum would revolve around whether
people were Morales supporters or not. Hence, a polarization has taken place that is not desirable
for a country already deeply divided. Another major criticism is that the implementation of the
constitution requires a lot of funding that would be difficult to achieve in practice.
The Morales government gained 61 percent of the votes on the referendum. The
opposition was speculating that there was much corruption along with rumors and public
speculation of fraud. Yet, the international community, which was present during the election,concluded that the referendum was legal and fair. Accusations of fraud were made by media
owned by the opposition. It is interesting to note that only one of Bolivias many television
channels financed by the government and the majority of the newspapers are owned by the
opposition. This gives an excellent indicator of how strongly Evo Morales power is despite great
influence and competition by the opposition parties and media. There exists great variation in the
support for Morales from region to region. While he has strong support in the Altiplano, in the
lowlands the opposition is strong. For example: the election revealed that the departamento of La
Paz was hugely in support of the constitution, a remarkable 78 percent voted for the law,
whereas in Santa Cruz the no side achieved a 65 percent rate and in the deprtamento of Beni
70 percent of the voters voted against the constitution.
During the recall referendum, which was held in August 2008 Morales won with more
than 63 percent of the votes, proving that he had even gained support since his election in
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December 2005. Many of the people I spoke to were very hopeful, and supported the president
during his successful presidential election in the December 2005- as he represented a needed and
important change. However, during his three years of government they have grown more
skeptical regarding his ability to create a better society. Many people feel that the increased focus
on indigenous people rights and implementation of positive discrimination in particular job-
sections is dividing people. Unemployment rate is high and receiving employment can be a
struggle regardless of which ethnic group one belongs to.
My Bolivian family stressed that the government is focusing too much on indigenous
identity instead of a common Bolivian identity (Luis, 2009). Luis, a mestizo social-worker, was
skeptical towards the governments emphasis on the indigenous as he felt it excluded other types
of identity. It is too focused upon indigenization We are not all indigenous (ibid.). He has an
important point that is difficult to overlook. Since the Bolivian nation has been known as a weak
state due to its incapability of creating a strong national identity, or imagined community as
Benedict Anderson has put it, one of the main challenges seems to be how to combine such a
strong emphasis upon the indigenous identity with the slogan: Bolivia para todos! (Boliva for
all).
2.9 Conclusion
We have seen that Bolivia is currently going through a period of conflict caused by socio-
economic inequalities between rural indigenous and urban blanco-mestizo standards of living.
The current government was elected under the banner of reducing inequality, however there
undoubtedly still exists a gap between political rhetoric and political reality, as is illustrated by
demonstrations across the country. It is in this context that the current debate on the
decolonization of education and intra-cultural education takes place. This will be elaborated on
further in the next two chapters. Positive discrimination based on gender or ethnic
background requires an implementation that is essentially based on an exclusive system. It is a
nations responsibility to administer this challenge, making sure that as much as it can do so that
social reproduction of inequalities in life is reduced providing its citizens with equal
opportunities. This is done in many European countries with gender quotations as well and
even though salary gaps persist the equality progresses made would not have been possible with
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ought these kind of positive discrimination, at least not in a relative short period of time.
Discrimination based in ethnicity continues to take place in Bolivia, and there is a need
to implement positive discrimination to ensure a reduction in inequality treatments. Then it is up
to the current government to implement this without stepping in the trap and excluding the
non-indigenous people who utterly are a part of Bolivias cultural diversity and plural-national
state.
3. Theoretical framework
Some theoretical approaches towards how education can be used as suppression and function as
a means to reproduce inequality will be presented.
Katarismo, an intellectual, indigenous political group that was formed in the 1970s
played a central role in the formation of a collective indigenous identity, which later influenced
ideas of a more indigenous- friendly educational-system.
Paulo Freires perspective on education as being potentially suppressive- also had great
impact on the intellectual indigenous movement in Bolivia as well as other parts of Latin
America. These approaches towards education and self-determination will be briefly presented as
they provide an important background which explains why the decolonization of education is
called for by many indigenous leaders in contemporary Bolivia.Bourdieus terms of habitus, doxa, orthodoxy and heterodoxy will briefly be
presented as I find his theory functional to understand the very concepts of intolerance, injustice
and the reproduction of inequality within the society and, more in particular within the
educational system.
I will present definitions and discuss some academic perspectives upon multicultural,
inter-and finally intra-cultural education, the latter two which the Bolivian government wishes to
promote. Some findings from my fieldwork will be presented as illustrations.
Finally, I will mention some examples from the educational system of Britain and the
Netherlands, both of which were former colonial powers, to illustrate how the debate of
decolonization might be relevant here as well.
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3.1 Bourdieu & socio-economic reproduction of inequalities
In Theory of Practice (1977) Pierre Bourdieu introduced the term habitus which refers to a
set of dispositions people adopt through their upbringing. People use their habitus to interpret
their world and relate to it- it becomes their truth. This concept gives an excellent indicator of
our limits as free individuals.
Another functional concept Bourdieu has created is that of doxa, which refers to an
unquestioned knowledge on which people base their actions (Bourdieu, 1977:167). Because
doxic knowledge is excluded from the field of opinions, it is pre-discursive and becomes a
barrier to change. When something remains un-discussed and unquestioned, it will not change
but remains the same. Doxic knowledge is promoted by power-holders. The orthodoxy occurs
when the doxa becomes challenged- for example with the exposition of other cultures- it
imposes the opposition between a right and a wrong opinion- and aims to restore the state of
innocence of doxa (ibid. 1977:169).
Heterodoxy represents the opposite opinion to orthodoxy, the challenged, often vied
as having a backwards perspective, yet implies a choice in the field of opinion (Ibid.).
Orthodoxy is often described as the right way. It presents the dominant view. Our own social
and cultural lens affects our understanding of what is true, real and natural- hence often are being
taken for granted although this play a great impact into how we relate to the world around us.In Bolivia the current debate concerning transformation of the educational system relates
to these concepts. According to critics of the traditional education system it has been based on
exclusion and assimilation and this has persisted in to the current education system (Patzi, 2008).
Western knowledge has been recognized by the mainstream as the correct form for knowledge- it
is a doxa (a truth) which many people dont question. In the perspective of the current
Bolivian government this western doxa has been enforced in the educational system. The last
couple of decades changes have occurred and the indigenous movement has grown stronger in
most parts of the world. The decolonization of education debate highlights this change and in
Bolivia, currently governed by the indigenous, it might not only become a challenge to the
orthodoxy- it might become the orthodoxy.
Through the LeyAvelino Siani y Elizardo Prez the Bolivian government rejects the
continuation of privileging western thought as somewhat universal. It wants to highlight and
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stress the importance of the thoughts, knowledge and technology of the cultures of the
indigenous societies, both in the Andes- and in the Amazon by giving an explicit place to this
knowledge in the curriculum (Drange, 2007 from the Congreso Nacional de Eduaction).
3.2 Theoretical approaches towards education as reproduction of inequality
Education will determine who has the keys to the treasures the world can provide
Sen, in EFA report 2002
Education is acknowledged by the United Nations as an important step towards the reduction of
poverty (www.un.org). Noteworthy are also the numerous studies that have shown a strong
connection with good health and education. Children of educated parents generally live longer
and have better health than children of uneducated parents (ibid.). Higher levels of education
usually lead to a decrease in both infant mortality and mortality rates, and research shows that
this also accounts in very basic, primary education (Alan and Thomas, 2001). Illiterate mothers
may be uncertain of their rights, and their lack of confidence prevents many women from
seeking treatment(Ibid.).Education leads to a decline in the fertility rate, which again may give
families a better opportunity to care for and provide education for their children. Bolivia uses
great parts of its national budget on education and the importance of education is recognized in
the proposed bill that states:Education is the highest function of the State, because it is a fundamental human right
and the State has the obligation to sustain and guarantee it. The State maintains
enrolment through a national education program.Avelino Siani y Elizardo Prez
However, although education has mainly been viewed as positive, it can also be a source of
reproducing inequality, as Bourdieu has argued (Bourdieu, 1977). He points out that in education
it is always the dominant culture that has the power to define what correct knowledge is.
Bourdieus concepts might be useful in order to understand the governments wish to
implemented intra-cultural education as it can be seen as a response to counteract the almost
inaccessible circle of the reproduction of inequality. According to Bourdieu control is
administrated by the dominant ideology. Hierarchy and cultural capital determine the fate of
those less fortunate in society. These forces are imposed on those less fortunate in society
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(Bourdieu, 1991). Thus, parents in a hierarchal position (middle and upper class) invest in
linguistic and cultural competence, which again increases the chances for success for their
children. Hence, education in some ways reproduces inequality (Blackledge, 2000). The
Bolivian governments introduction of the term intra-cultural education is a means to defeat this
reproduction by no longer allowing the western orthodoxy to be the only truth.
Even in relatively homogeneous, socialistic societies such as Norway, this theory has
been proved accurate in much research. We see that children of educated parents are much more
likely to obtain higher education and that children with parents with no or little education are
likely to follow in the same pattern (Raum, 2004, .literacynow.com). Furthermore, almost
everywhere children from marginalized groups keep failing in education (Fukuda-Parr, 2004).
Thus, although education largely is recognized as a means to development and as a human right,
it does not seem to provide people with equal opportunities as it tends to reproduce existing
inequalities. One of the reasons for this may be that cultural capital of the marginalized groups is
not the same as the cultural capital12 recognized by the schools (Corson, 1998:8-10).
This raises the question: Who has the power to define what the right kind of knowledge is?
In Bolivia the educational system has to a large degree been based on learning processes
on the reproduction and memorization of information (Contreras and Talavera, 2004).
Additionally, it relied on Western ideas of knowledge, science and values, never acknowledging
traditional indigenous knowledge as equally valuable.Walter Gutierrez Mena, chief of intra and intercultural education at the Ministry of
Education in La Paz, Bolivia points out that there is a crucial point in which western and
indigenous educational learning differs;
in western society education comes from outside, whereas in indigenous society
education is in the community- it is more holistic, it comes from within, and is integrated
not only in school but by every family- it is communitarian and includes every part of the
society
Gutierrez, interviewed, La Paz, 2009
To qualify the significance of this opinion, it is worth reminding that Western societies also have
internal education. Education in itselfis a general term which explains the social processes that
12 Cultural capital is a term formulated by Bourdieu which express the advantages that people acquire as a part oftheir experiences, their peer group contract and family background.
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entails learning in human communities by becoming socialized in a culture. In a broad sense
education is universal among human societies and even in societies where individuals spend
many years in schools, much of their education takes place elsewhere, in so-called informal
education. We learn from the people who we interact with. This is an important aspect to keep in
mind when we talk about education, because part of the criticism towards the formal, Western-
style-education is that it is detached from real, significant life experiences of growing up in
indigenous communities as the above quotation illustrates.
Nevertheless, traditional indigenous education has included a greater involvement from
the society, by for example requiring parents to take more part in the education of their children.
Education was more integrated in and connected to daily life in the communities- and took its
relevance precisely because it was embedded.
In many Western capitalistic societies we see a divergence- the responsibility of the state
has taken over what traditionally was seen as the families responsibility. We see this in the care
for the elderly as well as in the public debate about to what extent it is the schools duty to raise
children. This is in keeping with individuals spending more and more time during their lives in
institutions- schools, jobs and in housing for the elderly, where traditionally this used to be
obligation of the family. In this perspective the debate about western and indigenous education is
not so much of ethnical division as a debate about modern capitalist values versus traditional
values.The Bolivian educational system was based on an intense assimilation process after the national
revolution in 1952. Previously the indigenous people were restricted to travel in certain areas but
after the revolution many took advantage of the opportunity to travel freely in their country after
receiving full citizenship rights. The migration led to increased cultural exchange between the
mestizo and the indigenous people. However- the official national policy of ignoring ethnicity,
by granting everybody equal citizen rights backfired, both because ethnicity would not wither,
and because in real life discrimination and exclusion persisted.
During the 1960s and 1970s many intellectual indigenous movements grew forward. In
the 1970s Paulo Freire, a Brazilian philosopher and sociologist, played an important impact on
the philosophy of education in Latin-America. With his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed he
gave voice to the lower classes, which in Bolivia mostly concerned the indigenous people. At
approximately the same time the intellectual Aymara movement Katarismo developed. While it
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claims its roots in a distance past it is in reality a truly modern phenomenon (Canessa, 2000:
124). The Katarismo movement is multifarious and consists of several different groups but they
all stress a rejection of elements of Western culture seen as oppressive and stress a return to
traditional Aymara religion and belief system.
The movement has created a sense of an Aymara Nation13, that previous never existed
(ibid.). The very idea of an Aymara nation is rooted as a mixture of contemporary invention and
historical facts, of which language play an immense part of gathering and creating a strong
coherent Aymara identity. Ironically, polities in the Incan and the Tiwannaku empires in the
Andes were historically multi-cultural and multi-lingual (ibid.).
In the words of Andrew Canessa what is worthy to note here is not so much that one can
find forms of hybridity, which in any case can be expected, but that certain historical forms of
hybridity are being rejected (Canessa, 2000: 120). This paradox can be seen as a reaction to
globalization, visible in many parts of the world - where the mixing of different cultures induces
a fear of cultural loss, and in an attempt to protect their traditional culture people sometimes
exaggerate its purity. Indeed, Katarismo is by far most visible in metropolitan areas of the
northern highlands of Bolivia than in the rural areas (ibid.). This movement has been highly
critical of one of the pillars of the national revolution in 1952; mass education that has promoted
a strong assimilation of the indigenous people- losing their sense of identity and self-respect.
They have argued that it is important to restore their own epistemology into the curriculum.
13 The definition of nation is not used in the way of Benedict Anderson who see it as a nation- state, but in abroader sense, as a political active group who recognize themselves as ethnically distinct. It is not necessary forthis kind of nationalism to claim a separate nation state (Canessa, 2000:126)
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3.3 Multicultural, inter-cultural and intra-cultural approaches the problems
of defining and defending culture
While multicultural education aims to achieve tolerance and co-existence between cultures,inter-cultural education takes it one step further and deals with interaction between cultural
groups Groenendijk, 2005:15
The term multicultural describes cultural diversity; it includes linguistic, religious and socio-
economic diversity (Unecso, 2006). Intercultural is a term that presupposes multiculturalism and
results in intercultural exchange- it is a dynamic concept that refers to evolving relations
between cultural groups (ibid, 2006:16).
Multicultural education was developed from Afro-Americans political movements which
wanted its history and cultural values to be presented in the curriculum (Dietz, 2003: 16-17).
Even though the main idea is co-existence and tolerance between the different cultural groups it
operates within exciting power relations in society and runs the risk of viewing different cultures
as fixed systems completely separated from each other (Dietz, 2003: 24-25).
Intercultural education arose later than multicultural education and as the quotation above
underscores: it is seen as a step further as it deals with interaction between different cultural
groups. Ideal intercultural education promotes communication, exchange and dialog between the
different cultures. In this way it can enrich the different cultures- they can relate in a positive
way without losing ones own cultural identity.
Nonetheless, true intercultural education has not really worked in Bolivia. As illustrated
in the background chapter, the educational system was supposed to have implemented inter-
cultural emphasis in the curriculum during the past 14 years in the educational system. But this
has not created more equality in the society. Being indigenous has for too long been associated
with a low status. In order to attain a true inter-cultural society, in which the different cultures
interact on an equal basis, one needs to restore self-respect, confidence and pride in theindigenous groups. This is what the current Bolivian government has named intra-cultural
education- it means, as the term implies to look inwards-into their own culture and restore faith
in it, revive it and implement their cultural knowledge and language into the curriculum.
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Intra-cultural education then, becomes the means of change as it underlines the need to create a
sense of indigenous identity and pride into the curriculum. It is meant as a tool