Intercultural and Post-Colonial Education in Bolivia

(im) relevant contributions from School Physical Education

Abstract

The aim of the study was to understand the relationship between the curricular organization in the area of ​​Physical Education and the Bolivian intercultural Education policy. This is a qualitative research on the interpretation of the curricular documents available at the digital address of the Ministry of Education of Bolivia. The Bolivian Plurinational State Base Curriculum and the Regionalized Curricula of indigenous peoples were found, read and analyzed. It was observed that the objectives, contents and methodologies proposed for Physical Education classes in the Base Curriculum do not dialogue with the principles of intercultural and decolonizing education defended in the document, since psychomotricity, health and sport pedagogy predominate as foundations of the organization curriculum. In Regionalized Curricula, developed by autonomous indigenous communities, bodily practices appear as curricular themes connected with cultural tradition and the meaning of physical exercises for each ethnic group. Therefore, these curricula break with the standardizing character of Education and inspire the construction of educational practices that value differences and multiculturalism, which is not the case in the basic curriculum document. The work shows, in the Bolivian context, inconsistencies between the discourse of intercultural and post-colonial educational reform and the curricular proposals for Physical Education classes.