Collective and collaborative actions among peers in school as a form of cultural resistance of Mapuche children in La Araucanía, Chile

Abstract

Based on a participant observation, this article reports children actions and activities that may identified as ways of cultural resistance in the school. Three elementary rural schools participated in this study. The research team visited each school taking field notes during school routines. The analysis consisted of textual and conceptual codification of the three contexts in which the mapuche children deployed their patterns of cultural interaction. The results demonstrated that despite the traditional school system, mapuche children display their own patterns of cultural interaction to promote collaboration, collective organization and supporting and care for others. This work invites us to questioning the ways in which the learning strategies of the western school, are suitable to the mapuche indigenous children. In order to be effective in education, we must integrate the cultural framework of family learning. Thus, may be necessary, to deconstruct hegemonic teaching practices that stimulate individualism instead cooperation.