La interculturalidad: ¿principio o fin de la utopía?

Abstract

Interculturality, a new notion in education, is a complex web of meanings, appropriations and senses. Its origins are diverse and even contradictory, depending on the place of production of their more accurate definitions. Its uses in terms of public policy and global educational agendas are a real kaleidoscope including tensions and convergences typical of the late twentieth century multiculturalism. In the field of struggles and activism of so-called ethnic movements, this notion acquires ideological relevance to confront issues of power, exclusion and subordination. This article pretends to provide an overview about these issues, and on two specific levels. On the one hand, on the journeys of interculturality in its configuration as an object of conceptualizations and theories by experts on global and continental education. On the other hand, in the Colombian context, as a possibility to visualize the dynamics and forces that determine the focus of interculturality at a given time in history. Finally, we present some problems that we consider fundamental to overcome certain naivety in the debate over interculturality in Latin America.