Mujeres Indígenas y Educación Superior

This chapter refers to the experience of the "Indigenous Women and Higher Education" project of the Education and Interculturality Research Group of the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS), Quito, Ecuador. In this research, the teachers Aurora Iza, María Sol Villagómez, Sebastián Granda and the student and research assistant José Ignacio Guamán participated. The main objective of the research was to analyze the role of higher education in the empowerment, autonomy and emancipation of indigenous women in the provinces of Cotopaxi, Pichincha and Imbabura, provinces of the central and northern highlands of Ecuador. Our interest arose from evidencing the increase in the enrollment of indigenous women in higher education, as well as their increasing participation in the public, school and community sphere; the foregoing generated the need to investigate the role of education in the social, professional and political participation of indigenous women and thus find clear evidence on the educational trajectory of indigenous women and the role of education for their participation, empowerment and autonomy in their community, social and professional context. As part of the methodology, we interviewed nine indigenous women of Kichwa nationality, graduates of the UPS Bilingual Intercultural Education Degree, from the first promotions: four from the Cotopaxi central highlands and five from the northern Pichincha and Imbabura highlands. Interviews were conducted with each one and later focus groups in each area. We then had the concern to know about the changes that access to higher education has generated for indigenous women, their families and context in general, that is, their personal and professional lives.