Seminar addressed the role of interculturality in education

The event, organized by the UC Faculty of Education and the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Studies (CIIR), featured a keynote address by Melinda Webber, a prominent Māori scholar from the University of Auckland.

“The Impact of Cultural Connection on the Educational Experience” was the central theme of the seminar held last Tuesday, June 3, in the Gabriela Mistral Auditorium of UC Education. The activity, organized by the UC Faculty of Education and the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Studies (CIIR), featured a keynote address by the prominent Maori academic Melinda Webber, professor of  The University of Auckland, co-director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM), Māori Centre of Research Excellence, internationally recognized for its work in Indigenous education, cultural identity and academic success. 

The meeting, developed within the framework of the Fondecyt Initiation project 11220756 “Challenges and possibilities for an intercultural visual arts education (2022-2025)” led by the researcher and academic of Education UC Veronica Garcia Lazo, brought together researchers, academics, and representatives from the educational and artistic worlds, who reflected on the connection between culture, knowledge, and educational justice. The event was made possible with funding from ANID, Vice-Rector's Office for Research at UC and the CIIR.

Malba Barahona, Undergraduate Director from the UC Faculty of Education, spoke at the beginning of the event, emphasizing that "interculturality cannot be conceived as a mere incorporation of cultural content into the curriculum. It is rather an ethical and political position that challenges us as teacher educators." There, she posed the following questions: What do we understand by interculturality? How is it taught? What knowledge do we privilege in our classrooms, and which do we continue to marginalize? These questions, she noted, are especially relevant in a Faculty of Education, whose role is to train professionals capable of engaging with diversity and transforming practices from a perspective of epistemic and social justice.

“Professor Webber's work invites us to further complicate this conversation. Her recent research shows that although many school leaders claim to be committed to culturally responsive pedagogies, in practice, gaps remain between what is said and what is done, especially when it comes to measuring and ensuring meaningful learning for Indigenous students,” she said.

Mana Model: Cultural Connection

Professor Melinda Webber, in her keynote address, presented the Mana Model, developed in Aotearoa, New Zealand, to strengthen cultural connection and student well-being. “What kind of ancestor do we want to be?” she invited us to think. From a Māori worldview, we must navigate the world by assuming responsibility for our ancestors, the present, and the future. “We always relate simultaneously to those who have influenced our knowledge, those who work with us in the present, and those who will participate in our work in the future,” she stated. Here, the concept of Mana emerges as each person's potential to positively transform the world and contribute to the dignity of others. The concept comes from the Māori worldview and refers to a person's sense of authority, influence, self-efficacy, purpose, pride, and belonging. A secure sense of mana can influence students' thoughts and behaviors and encourage purposeful action in the world so they can reach their full potential. 

If we believe that all people possess Mana, we must be consistently full of Mana in our interactions, even in the face of differences. If we keep students' Mana at the center of education, the curriculum is transformed, and our pedagogies center on relationality, Webber posited. Here, learning outcomes center on students, their families, communities, and meaningful ties, rather than merely on academics. 

Professor Webber argued that incorporating Indigenous concepts into education allows us to understand how the diversity of languages, cultures, and knowledge systems is valuable and critical to the holistic development of students' potential. Their incorporation can broaden the definition of success to better align with students' aspirations and the diverse communities from which they come. Concepts like Mana encourage us to reimagine curriculum content, classroom conditions, and learning contexts in ways that activate the potential of Indigenous knowledge for the benefit of all students. 

A look at our country

From that experience, the Chilean historian and CIIR Senior Research Fellow Fernando Pairican He offered a critical reflection on the national reality. He compared the New Zealand process with the challenges facing Chile in relation to the Mapuche people and other indigenous communities, warning that, while efforts are being made, structural obstacles still persist. "The concepts used here in Chile to approach interculturality are governed by the limitations of the political landscape," Pairican said.

In his analysis, the academic pointed out that real progress in Chile is limited by a social and political hegemony that does not fully share the rights of Indigenous peoples. He explained that the commissions charged with addressing these issues—such as the Constitutional Convention or the Peace and Understanding Commission—have been permeated by interests that seek to maintain the status quo rather than build lasting solutions. Even so, Pairican emphasized that experiences like New Zealand's can serve as inspiration for transforming the Chilean state's relationship with its Indigenous peoples, provided that current political and cultural barriers are broken down. "If this education is not provided," he warned, "the chances of achieving any transformation are low."

How can we continue working on issues of interculturality and Indigenous peoples in the future within the educational system in ways that reconstruct relationships, taking into account aesthetic and spiritual dimensions? The academic responded by referring to Azmapu, a Mapuche concept that, while not equivalent to the concept of Mana, could offer a path for thinking about education in a relational way in Chile.

At the closing of the seminar, the deputy director of Gender at UC Education Ana Luisa Munoz He emphasized that it is impossible to speak of social or educational justice without an epistemic justice that recognizes the diversity of knowledge and experiences. Drawing on his background in educational research, he highlighted that spaces like this seminar offer a sign of hope, opening paths for the collective construction of alternative knowledge. Muñoz emphasized the "epistemological negotiations" that must be undertaken within academia to advance toward other possible content and questioned current research funding models, which—he explained—operate as a "straitjacket" that reinforces intellectual inbreeding based on the reputation and validation of knowledge aligned with a neoliberal and conservative logic. In this context, he warned about the difficulty of formulating new and complex questions in a context where territories demand alternative answers, but those voices are often ignored by the dominant criteria of academic legitimacy.

Check out the full seminar presentation here: