Estudios sobre las perspectivas interculturales de la educación y el diálogo epistémico. El aula viva, un ambiente de diálogo intercultural desde los saberes ancestrales con la Universidad Pública Colombiana en el siglo XXI. Relatos entramados por múltiples territorios de sabiduría

Abstract

This paper exposes the educational innovation “Aula Viva de Saberes Ancestrales y Tradicionales de Colombia –Aula Viva para la Paz” (Open Classroom of Traditional and Ancestral knowledges of Colombia –Open Classroom for Peace), which has been developed at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, as an alternative learning/teaching environment, built upon the intercultural dialogue between the ancestral knowledge of several communities in the country and the academic disciplinary knowledge. To better understand the context where this proposal has arisen, the paper presents a small frame of the ethnic and cultural diversity of Colombia, and the disadvantageous situation and invisibilization that the ethnic and “campesinos” (peasant) communities have undergone when compared to the general population. Then, this paper shows education as a chance for those communities to overcome social inequities, only to find that there they might encounter obstacles that, according to us, the official educational system poses back, by promoting discrimination against other ways of knowing and experiencing life. Within this context, it exposes the co-creative process of the Aula Viva, its methods and extents, and its strive for an intercultural, interdisciplinar and intergenerational education. We share the narrative of some of the people who participate in the Aula by telling their experience with their very own voice, in line with the concept of “Autoethnographies,” which the text develops. This text was written –in the alphabetical-conventional sense of writing, but also with the live technology of speech and dialogue– by several hands and voices. We decided to keep the traces of each one to evidence the multiple possibilities of weaving/writing a text. Through this, the intention is to be consequent with the recognition of the diverse ways of being and learning –promoted by the Aula–, and to accept also the invitation to weave a dialogue between different “epistemes” (proposed by this conference/book). Finally, as closure, some achievements are pinpointed, as well as challenges and opportunities for Aula Viva.