The historical inclusion of Mapuche children in the educational system: challenges and tensions in policy and practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study presented in this paper examines the historical experiences of school inclusion of the Mapuche people in the Chilean educational system. It focuses on the tensions between securing high-quality education for indigenous children while simultaneously providing culturally relevant education in ways that their cultural identities and ways of knowing are preserved and sustained over time. A narrative inquiry approach is adopted to document such experiences and to honour the oral tradition in the Mapuche culture. We do so by retrieving the oral memory of two Mapuches in two distinct and traditional communities located in La Araucanía, Chile, the Mapuches’ historical land. This oral memory is accompanied by a documental inquiry that sought to examine the historical experiences of schooling as captured in photographs preserved in Santa Magdalena Capuchin Archive located in Altötting, Germany. We use these stories to examine the current efforts of educational inclusion for Mapuche children in Chile and to discuss their limits and possibilities.