Docentes Interculturales Bilingües
Ecuador’s bibliographic memory produced on intercultural bilingual education, ethno-education and interculturality is being collected, digitalized made available to the public. Free access is granted through the Repositorio Digital Bibliográfico de Educación Intercultural Bilingüe (EIB).
La Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS) and the Abya Yala University Editorial – UPS are part of this agreement signed in January 2020 with the la Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) Ecuador branch, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar (UASB) Ecuador branch, the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE), the Universidad de Cuenca and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
As part of the project, books, didactic guides, articles, and digitized theses have been uploaded with the editorial teams. “The work has been arduous, especially concerning copyright,” says Milagros Aguirre, general editor.
The UPS has a history of work in the field of interculturality that has been promoted through the three essential university roles: teaching, research, and connecting with society. “For the UPS, interculturality constitutes a commitment to building a new model of society and political organization”, points out Sebastián Granda, director of the Intercultural Bilingual Education (EIB) career.
The repository is freely accessible, it will contribute to the daily work of the teachers of the country’s Intercultural Bilingual Education System and will be a resource for national and foreign researchers interested in the subject.
“The goal is for the repository to gather the most number of books, research, thesis, and articles written on indigenous education. The country has researched these topics, and there is educational material, but it was scattered and in many cases with the risk of disappearing”
– Sebastián Granda, Director of the Intercultural Bilingual Education
Among the challenges presented in this project are maintaining and strengthening the research work, publication, and dissemination on these issues; support teaching programs, think and design training programs that respond to the new requirements of the indigenous Afro-descendant population.
Granda considers that keeping the repository alive implies that universities are connected with the dynamics of life of the indigenous and Afro-descendant population and the requirements of an intercultural society’s implies;. At the same time, Aguirre comments that, as a publisher, the material is sought from other libraries and individuals to contribute to the repository. “We are managing the inclusion of the Cicame fund or private bibliographic funds, such as that of Ruth Moya, editor of our magazine Indigenous Peoples and Education,” he said.
The bibliographic material can be found here: https://www.repositoriointerculturalidad.ec/
This content has been originally published by the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana del Ecuador (UPS, 2020)
Posted by: Luis Fernando Garcés