Transformaciones de la Educación Comunitaria en los Andes Ecuatorianos

The article presents some of the results of the research developed by the author in the framework of his doctoral thesis. The article analyzes the impact that the educational changes promoted by the government of Economist Rafael Correa had on the dynamics of community-based indigenous education initiatives. The research was based on the contributions of Critical Pedagogy and Latin American Anthropology: from the former she took the concept of education as a cultural and political practice, while from the latter she recovered the analytical perspective of the Theory of Cultural Control. In methodological terms, we chose to analyze an emblematic indigenous education experience in the country: the Indigenous School System of Cotopaxi (SEIC); and for the collection of information we worked on the basis of oral history and documentary analysis. The hypothesis is that Rafael Correa's government, in its bid to regain control of education and its eagerness to modernize it, ended up subsuming all areas of educational decision-making that were in the hands of the communities and indigenous schools in the study area, and homogenizing their educational offerings under the parameters of Hispanic education. The article is organized in three parts: the first describes the trajectory of SEIC, from its birth until 2007. The second part describes the educational policies which had the greatest impact on SEIC's dynamics. The last part discusses the impact these policies have had on the day-to-day life of community schools.