Learning in Kambay: an experience of intercultural dialog in Higher Education

Abstract

In order to respond to the invitation made on the occasion of the Social Sciences Didactics Conference organized by the universities of Villarrica del Espíritu Santo (UNVES, Villarrica, Paraguay) and Granada (UGR, Granada, Spain), we present the first systematization of the community research work carried out within the framework of the Degree in Education Sciences of the Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences of UNVES, with a student in the fourth year of the career.

This research took place in the indigenous community of Kambay, located 143 km from Villarrica. It belongs to the Mby'a population, one of the 20 indigenous peoples of Paraguay. Like so many groups, Kambay is the result of the progressive loss of territory, and of migrations and displacements resulting from this loss. In an extension of 87 hectares, the community sees the need to develop new strategies and patterns of life, while preserving other old patterns.

Although the research originally had as its objective the knowledge and identification of the material living conditions of the community, and other aspects such as the support or not of the public powers, the approach and the dialogues carried out with referents of the community also generated changes. in the perspective of the participating students about indigenous peoples in general, and of the community, in particular, regarding central elements of the culture, reinforcing the need for the intercultural approach to be an essential premise of this type of approach.