DECOLONIZING EDUCATION, FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE:
ENACTING THE AVELINO SIÑANI – ELIZARDO PEREZ REFORM
IN BOLIVIA
Eléonore NOUEL A mural inside the Bolivian Ministry of Education, La Paz, BoliviaUniversity of Amsterdam Graduate School of Social Sciences Research MSc International Development Studies 2017-2019 Supervisor: Dr. Esther Miedema Second Reader: Dr. Mieke T.A. Lopes Cardozo Email: eleonore95.nouel@gmail.com Date: 26th of August 2019 Word Count: 32 925
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This thesis would not have been possible without the help and support of many. I particularly wish to thank my supervisor Esther for her patience and encouragements, as well as for pushing me to do better. Thank you to Mieke, who as my professor introduced me to the world of education and decolonization in Bolivia. Thank you also to Dr. Anke van Dam, who helped me in the initial phase of fieldwork planning. Thank you to the CDDE team who reminded me that I had my place in academia. Thank you to my family for your love and support. Thank you to my friends and to my fellow research master students for sticking together and making those two years fantastic. Special thanks to Nicole, Raquel, David and Celia, my "partners in crime" and study buddies without whom I would not have gone this far. Above all, I wish to thank all of those who cannot be named in this thesis, the school teachers, university professors, and all of those whom I had the chance to meet and talk with in Bolivia. This thesis would not have been possible without them. Thank you to the wonderful people I volunteered with when not conducting interviews, their work is incredible. Finally, thank you to my friends there, particularly Grace and her family, Mariana, and my roommate Nadya. Muchisimas gracias for teaching me so much about your beautiful country.
I dedicate this thesis to Nadya, whose life was taken too soon while on her way to help others. Descansa en paz amiga querida, gracias por todo.
ABSTRACT
The Avelino Siñani - Elizardo Pérez (ASEP) reform was introduced in
2010 by the Bolivian government with the aim to decolonize primary and
secondary education in Bolivia. The reform intends to increase inclusivity
and revitalize local indigenous cultures. Hitherto, the reform has only been
partially implemented. The government has yet to conduct a formal
evaluation of this reform. Existing literature on the ASEP reform has focused
on teachers’ training, but there is little research on their direct and active
role in its implementation. This investigation seeks to understand what
Bolivian educators’ views and experiences of the ASEP reform are, and how
these influence the reform’s implementation.
Through semi-structured interviews, observations and discourse
analysis, this qualitative study shows that many teachers experience the
reform as deeply political, both in theory and in practice, and that this
understanding of the reform appears to be an important obstacle to its
implementation. For instance, the requirement that indigenous languages
be taught instead of, or during English classes, rather than in addition to
them – seemingly aligning with the government’s position against what it
refers to as the “United States of America’s empire” – creates resistance
amongst teachers. Results also indicate that some innovative aspects of the
reform, such as using alternative assessment methods, can work against
quality of education due to increased paperwork for teachers, especially
when teachers’ salaries remain low. I conclude that the way the government
is currently implementing the reform has led many teachers to feel forced
into complying with both the reform and the government’s ideology more
broadly. Consequently, many educators found strategies not to apply it in
their classroom, thereby undermining the reform’s objectives. This thesis
highlights these and other limits to, and of the reform, providing working
ground for improvement of the ASEP reform and for future decolonial
educational policy-making.
Key words: Bolivia, decolonization, education, educational policy
ACRONYMS ASEP – Avelino Siñani – Elizardo Pérez. Name of the reform under study in the present thesis. Also known as Law 070. The law was named after the co-founders of the indigenous rural school of Warisata which operated in the 1930s. CPE – Constitucion Politica del Estado, Political Constitution of the Sate of Bolivia (2009) ECLAC – U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean. GDP – Gross Domestic Product. IMF – International Monetary Fund. INE – Instituto Nacional de Estadística, National Institute of Statistics. MAS – Movimiento Al Socialismo, in English Movement Towards Socialism. Evo Morales' political party. MdE – Ministrerio de Educacion del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, in English Ministry of Education. MESCP - Modelo Educativo Sociocomunitario Productivo, Sociocommunal Productive Educational Model PROFOCOM – Programa de Formacion Complementaria, in English Complementary Formation Program. The PROFOCOM is a mandatory course for all teachers to learn about the ASEP reform. PSP – Proyecto Sociocomunitario Productivo, in English Socio-communal Productive Project. One of the pedagogical measures introduced by the ASEP reform. TIPNIS - Territorio Indígena Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. USA – United States of America. VES – Viceministerio de Educacion Superior, in English Vice-ministry of Higher Education. WB – World Bank.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ... 3
Abstract ... 4
Acronyms ... 5
Table of Contents ... 6
Chapter I – Introduction ... 9
1-
Welcome to La Paz, Bolivia ... 9
2-
Morales' revolution: transforming education to transform Bolivia ... 11
3-
Problem statement, relevance and research questions ... 12
4-
Thesis Outline ... 14
Chapter II – Context ... 15
1-
Introduction ... 15
2-
A brief history of Bolivia ... 15
3-
Research locations ... 17
4-
Introducing the ASEP reform ... 18
5-
Bolivian political context at the time of fieldwork and writing ... 19
6-
Image gallery ... 21
Chapter III – Theoretical and Conceptual Framework ... 23
1-
Theoretical Framework ... 23
i-
Introduction ... 23
ii-
Defining Education? ... 23
iii-
Education and (de)coloniality ... 25
iv-
Reform and reform enactment ... 28
v-
Conclusion ... 30
2-
Conceptual scheme ... 31
Chapter IV - Methodology ... 33
1-
Epistemological and ontological position ... 33
2-
Methods ... 34
i-
Introduction ... 34
ii-
Sampling ... 34
iii-
Semi-structured interviews ... 36
iv-
Participant Observation ... 37
v-
Documentary Analysis ... 38
3-
Data Analysis ... 38
4-
Limitations ... 39
i-
Semi-structured Interviews ... 39
ii-
Participant Observation ... 40
iii-
Documentary Analysis ... 41
5-
Generalization, reliability and validity ... 41
6-
Reflections on positionality and ethics ... 42
Chapter V – The ASEP reform according to the government ... 44
1-
Introduction ... 44
2-
A policy inspired by a rural indigenous school and its philosophy ... 44
3-
ASEP – an overview ... 46
4-
Law 070 in the Bolivian government’s discourse ... 49
5-
Implementation of the reform according to the government ... 51
6-
Conclusion ... 52
Chapter VI – A political reform: ASEP as perceived by educators ... 53
1-
Introduction ... 53
2-
The political objectives and underpinnings of the law ... 53
3-
Educators’ political beliefs’ importance ... 58
i-
Teachers’ perspectives ... 58
ii-
Strategies to avoid implementing the reform ... 62
4-
The law as part of a broader political discourse ... 63
5-
Conclusion ... 67
Chapter VII – Practical issues related to the reform and alternative methods ... 68
1-
Introduction ... 68
2-
What teachers believe pupils should take out from school ... 68
3-
Concerns wth the alternative methodologies introduced through the reform 70
i-
Involving families ... 70
ii-
Retaking classes and forbidding homework ... 71
iii-
Alternative assessment methods ... 72
4-
A rushed reform, educators left behind ... 74
5-
Conclusion ... 77
Chapter VIII – Discussion ... 78
1-
Introduction ... 78
2-
Meaning-making and policy enactment ... 78
3-
Who gets to (be) (de)colonize(d)? ... 82
4-
De-colonizing in a modern/colonial, globalized world ... 84
5-
Conclusion ... 85
Chapter IX – Conclusion ... 86
1-
Introduction ... 86
2-
Answering research sub-questions ... 86
i-
How has the Bolivian government conceptualized decolonization of education? ... 86
ii-
How do educators' view on the means and goals of decolonial education align with those of the government? ... 87
iii-
What are educators' experiences of the reform and its implementation in urban primary and secondary schools? ... 88
iv-
What do educators' views and experiences of the reform and its implementation imply for the application of decolonial theory? ... 88
3-
Answering the research question ... 89
4-
Recommendations ... 91
5-
Final reflections on positionality ... 92
References: ... 93
CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION 1- WELCOME TO LA PAZ, BOLIVIA On my last connecting flight on the way to La Paz, Bolivia, I could not help but to feel excited, yet slightly anxious. I had already visited the city a few years prior, but had not imagined I one day would live here for more than a week. The first time I had arrived in La Paz, in 2016, was by bus, crippled by debilitating altitude sickness after a full night stuck at over 4000 meters above sea-level due to a (rare) snowfall. Before entering La Paz, the bus passed through the contiguous city of El Alto, where real-sized human mannequins hanged to electricity poles on street corners had struck me with an uneasy feeling. "It’s to show thieves how we deal with them" a local next to me on the bus explained. Illness, hanged mannequins at dawn, and the short amount of time I had spent in the city had left me with a confused memory of a busy place with red brick buildings and rude taxi-drivers. Yet, here I was, in August 2018, going back and planning to make La Paz my home for the next four months. As the pilot announced the beginning of our descent, the Bolivian couple sitting next me asked: "Is it your first time here?". "Yes and No" I replied. I had been to a small section of La Paz, but I felt that I did not know the city yet, and did not want to stay with the first judgement I had had of it. "You are going to love it here, you will see! Have you heard of the teleferico?". Yes,
I had seen and used one of the cable cars which dance above the city during my first brief stay. "Well, we have several new lines now! There is the blue line, the green line, the red line, the yellow line... And more are going to be ready soon!". The lovely couple's excitement made me feel more confident: I would surely come to love this place. The couple offered to help me find a taxi at the airport, but I lost them as I waited for my suitcase. When I exited the luggage claim area, I was alone in the empty airport hall. It was four in the morning, and only one taxi was waiting outside. I did not have much of a choice, and although he did not have the blue colour of airport taxis, I set the price with the driver and got into the car. The anxiety was back as I sat in the back of the smashed up car, zigzagging between the potholes of the road. But it faded again quickly as the driver engaged in a lovely chat with me. He thought I was Argentinian, because of the accent I had picked up during a study-exchange in the neighbouring country, and asked me what I had been doing in Europe. He slowed down as we reached a curve: "Look, isn't the city beautiful when it sleeps?". It was: the dormant city of La Paz lied down beneath our eyes, lit up with street lights and a few passing cars. La Paz is an impressive city, hanging and diving into a valley in the middle of the Andean altiplano. The hectic and seemingly forever-unfinished infrastructure of the poorer centre area was soon replaced by big houses surrounded by high walls and security cameras as we dived deeper into the valley, into the wealthier neighbourhood where a friend would welcome me into her family home until I found my own apartment.
As I got to know La Paz better over the next few weeks, my first memories of a somewhat scary place finished to fade away, and I fell in love with it and its inhabitants. La Paz is spirited, a place where informal and formal systems blend to create a lively, spontaneous ensemble. Bolivians I met in the capital and throughout the rest of the country were always welcoming and eager to help. From the salchipapa stand-holders in the centre to the cholita running the corner shop on my street, they quickly made me feel at home. La Paz and El Alto are cities vibrant with life and the colours of cholitas' aguayos, beautiful multi-coloured cloths which indigenous women use to carry anything from fruits they sell at the market to babies. But they are also cities where inequality and poverty are visible everywhere. Just like the sister cities, Bolivia is a place of extreme contrasts, extreme climates, vibrant colours and wonderful people but high poverty levels and violence in many homes (INE, 2017). Many more Paceños told me excitedly about the new teleferico lines as I settled in. The cable cars, with their modern looks and vibrant colours flying over crowded streets, are also considered a symbol of Evo Morales' presidency, as his portrait printed on many of the egg-shaped cabins and stations reminds city dwellers. The teleferico represents the future of Bolivia as envisioned in the Morales government's discourse: a modern, elegant mode of transportation powered by clean energy, with many station given an Aymara name and decorated with indigenous imagery. The teleferico also bridged and connected people, as a Bolivian
friend told me, including by connecting the poorer El Alto communities to the "Megacenter", a new mall – symbol of modernity and wealth, full of exciting goods – located in one of the wealthier areas of La Paz. The construction of the yellow and green lines, which allowed inhabitants of El Alto to reach the new commercial centre in less than 45 minutes, when it would have taken over two and a half hours to do so with other public transportation, had initially sparked resistance among richer communities of La Paz. The connection of El Alto to richer neighbourhoods was quite symbolic, according to my friend. The teleferico epitomizes change and development in the vibrant colours of proud indigeneity, a drastic turn from the discrimination and exclusion suffered by indigenous communities in Bolivia for centuries. 2- MORALES' REVOLUTION: TRANSFORMING EDUCATION TO TRANSFORM BOLIVIA Evo Morales Ayma, a former coca-farmer who self-identifies as belonging to the second largest indigenous group in Bolivia, was first elected president in 2005 and took office in 2006. His impressive rise to power was due to his revolutionary program: decolonizing Bolivia to free Bolivians from foreign involvement and oppression, to become truly independent and proud of their indigenous origins (Klein, 2011; Harten, 2011; Zegada et al., 2011). Indeed, while "Bolivia is the most "indigenous" country in South America" (Luykx, 1999: 1) with about two thirds of the population identifying as indigenous or mestizo, the indigenous majority remained oppressed and marginalized in politics well after Bolivia's independence from Spain in 1825, and until the first half of the 20th century (Luykx, 1999; Klein, 2003; BBC, 2018). Morales' election was described by some as the climax of the indigenous struggle and revolution, bringing hope of an end to centuries of oppression (Klein, 2011; Zegada, 2011). His rise to power echoed the rising wave of leftist governments in Latin America at the time (Rodriguez-Garavito et al., 2008). Morales' government grew even stronger as his party, the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS, Movement Towards Socialism) gained majority in Congress (Postero, 2007). Morales and the MAS' program aimed to build an alternative development model for Bolivia, one which explicitly rejected the global neoliberal trend (Postero, 2007; CPE, 2009).
"We leave in the past the colonial, republican and neoliberal State. We take on the historical challenge to collectively build the Unitary Social State of Plurinational Communal Right, which integrates and articulates the objectives to advance into a Bolivia which is democratic, productive, carrying and inspiring of peace, committed to the integral development and to the free determination of peoples. … Complying with the mandate of our peoples, with the strength of
our Pachamama Mother Earth and thanks to God, we recast Bolivia." (Morales Ayma in CPE, 2009: 1 – author's translation)
The new government's alternative, "decolonial" development model places indigenous peoples and the notion of Buen Vivir at its heart (CPE, 2009). Buen Vivir can be described as a philosophy which promotes the respect of the Mother Earth (La Pachamama) and the importance of the community to "live well" (Gudynas, 2011). Morales went ahead with his program, nationalizing key industries such as mining and investing in social welfare (Klein, 2011). In 2009, Morales' government inaugurated a new "decolonial" Constitution which renamed the country the Plurinational State of Bolivia, in recognition of the 36 indigenous communities whose languages became official, along with Spanish (CPE, 2009).
For Morales' transformation of Bolivia to occur and last, education also had to be transformed.
"Without education, it is impossible to think that Bolivia move forward" (President Morales in MdE, 2011 – author's translation)
“Society will not change if we do not change education” (Bolivian MoE official cited in Lopes Cardozo, 2013: 90)
Hence, the MAS government introduced the educational law Avelino Siñani – Elizardo Perez (ASEP) number 070 on December 20, 2010. The ASEP reform (or law 070, I use both names interchangeably throughout this thesis) was presented as a "revolution in education" aligning with and supporting Morales' decolonial, anti-neoliberal agenda (MdE, 2010; Yapu, 2013). 3- PROBLEM STATEMENT, RELEVANCE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The law 070 (ASEP) appears to not have been fully implemented in many schools across the country. This lack of application of the law came as a surprise to me, as I had initially planned to do a gender impact analysis of the reform. However, as I reached out to my first research participants, it became obvious that the research project I had outlined in my proposal was irrelevant – I could not study the societal effects of a law which was still in the process of being applied. Moreover, there was no formal, official and independent evaluation of the ASEP reform nine years after its inauguration. I thus decided to adapt my research focus to what seemed a more pressing problem: understanding why the reform was not being applied in classrooms. As a policy claiming to provide an alternative to the neoliberal imaginary in education, and aiming to liberate students and Bolivian society overall, the ASEP reform deserves close attention. More specifically, I sought to understand the role and perspectives of educators, particularly primary and secondary school teachers, related to the limited application of the reform.
Teachers play a key role in the implementation of the reform (Lopes Cardozo, 2011, 2015), as they are both "subject to and objects of the law" (Ball et al., 2012: 3) and are the ones who can bring it to their classrooms. Thus, the importance of understanding educators' perspectives regarding the "revolutionary" ASEP reform and its implementation provides the present thesis' societal relevance.
Research on the ASEP reform has been mostly concerned with the difference between the ASEP and the previous reform of education in Bolivia (Strauss, 2010; Yapu, 2013) and teacher training (Lopes Cardozo, 2011, 2013, 2015; Lopes Cardozo and Strauss, 2013; Talavera S., 2012). While research on the reform has often looked at the role of teachers as potential agents of- or resistance to change (Lopes Cardozo, 2011; 2015; Talavera S., 2012) most of that research was done when the reform was very recently introduced. However, there is little recent research on the reform which takes into account the perspective of teachers. The present thesis seeks to address these gaps and to provide a form of evaluation of the ASEP reform and of its implementation (or lack thereof). Moreover, the present thesis aims to provide a reflection on some implications of my findings for the application of decolonial theory in education. In order to do so, my research seeks to answer the following research question:
The objective of the present thesis is to identify the limits of the reform as perceived by educators, in order to provide guidelines regarding where and how the policy could be improved. The results of this research also provide a case study of an alternative to neoliberal educational reforms, and could therefore be used to support future policy-making. Because the present thesis focuses on points for improvement of the ASEP reform as perceived by educators, a stronger emphasis is placed on the limits and pitfalls of the policy. It is important to note that I do not mean to discredit the law 070 in any way, or to blame teachers for the apparent limited implementation of the reform.
4- THESIS OUTLINE
Chapter II of the present thesis provides a presentation to the Bolivian context which led to the creation of the ASEP reform, as well as the one in which the law is now operating since 2010. The findings of this thesis cannot be separated from their context. The third chapter develops the theoretical and conceptual framework on which the findings and arguments of the present thesis are founded. Chapter III provides definitions of key terms and notions such as decoloniality, policy enactment, and the main goals of education. Chapter IV then informs the reader on the methodology and research methods, guided by an interpretive-qualitative approach, which I used throughout my research. The fourth chapter includes reflections on the potential limits of the data-gathering methods used, as well as an important section with reflections on positionality and ethics. Chapter V is the first of three empirical results chapters. The findings presented in chapter V provide an overview of the Bolivian government's discourse regarding and surrounding the reform, allowing to compare this discourse to educators' views and experiences of the ASEP reform presented in chapters VI and VII. Chapter VI presents the various ways in which educators perceived the law to be political, and how this perception of the ASEP law being political has been one of the main limits to its full implementation. Chapter VII then detail the more practical issues which educators perceived to be the other main limits to the full implementation of the ASEP reform. Chapter VIII brings the three empirical results chapters together and pushes further the analysis of the data already developed in chapters V to VII to propose a discussion of the findings. Finally, chapter IX concludes the present thesis by re-iterating and summarizing the response to each research sub-questions and to the overall research question explicitly. Recommendations, final reflections and concluding statements are also provided in the conclusion chapter.
CHAPTER II – CONTEXT
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INTRODUCTION In this chapter, I provide a brief background of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. This chapter starts with a discussion of precolonial times, given the relevance of doing so in terms of understanding present day identities of indigenous groups in Bolivia. I then describe the colonial era, which had a lasting impact on Bolivia’s development, in social, political and economic terms. I also summarize the complicated history of Bolivia since its independence, taking into account that "until the 1980s, coups were more common than elections and the country had more governments than years of independence." (Luykx, 1999: 8). Indeed, the country underwent close to 200 coups and countercoups in the 180 years between its independence in 1825 and the 2005 election of Evo Morales (King, 2006). Finally, I present data that are particularly pertinent to my research, including the political situation of Bolivia during the fieldwork period (August to December 2018) and during the writing period (January to August 2019). Section 6 provides images.2-
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BOLIVIA Human civilization in the Andes can be dated as far back as 1500 B.C.E.B (Fagan, 2001). The region was home to powerful empires long before the conquest by the Spanish: the Tiwanaku empire, which culminated between 500 and 900 C.E., and later, the Inca empire. Around 1200, the Tiwanaku Empire had lost much of its power and was replaced by smaller societies, mainly Aymara, which incorporated what was left of the Tiwanaku culture (Klein, 2003). Around 1450, the Inca, speaking Quechua, seized power in the region, and although they were quite successful in gaining control over the local communities and installing a centralized government, tensions remained. The Aymara were never fully integrated in the empire, and because they were the most prominent non-Quechua speaking group, they could retain their ethnic identity and language under Inca rule (Ibid.). Internal conflicts participated in the fall of the latter when the Spanish colonizers arrived in the region around 1524 and overthrew the Inca forces in 1538 (Ibid.). Today, Quechua and Aymara remain the two most spoken indigenous languages in Bolivia, and these two ethnic groups make up a large proportion of the Bolivian population (INE, 2012).After the Spanish defeated the Inca, the area of Bolivia became known as the Upper Peru. It was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until 1772, when authority over the region was given to the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata, in Argentina. Under
colonial rule, most of the indigenous population was enslaved to terrible working conditions in the mines for the profit of the Spanish empire, and millions perished underground (Luykx, 1999; Kohl and Farthing, 2012). The colonial system, in place for close to 300 years, put white European descendants in positions of power while indigenous populations had no political or civil rights. This unequal system eventually led to uprisings which are remembered as the birth of the decolonization movements throughout South America, although Bolivia was one of the last countries in the region to become independent, in 1825 (Klein, 2003). The country was named after Simon Bolivar, who led the independence forces until the liberation of the country. Bolivar became the country’s first political leader (Ibid.). However, even after the Declaration of Independence, the unequal colonial system remained (Luykx, 1999). For instance, the official language of Bolivia has been Spanish since and after colonization even though a majority of the population did not speak it until the second half of the 20th century (Ibid.). Moreover, indigenous people did not have the right to vote until the 1952 Revolution, and most did not get to vote until the end of the 1964-1982 dictatorship. In fact, although the 1952 revolution had introduced many reforms to give equal rights and access to resources to indigenous population, the military dictatorship period of 1964 to 1982 reversed most of them. In that period, and until the early 2000s, the United States of America (USA) was heavily involved in Bolivian politics and economy, particularly in the context of the USA “war on drugs” foreign policy (Bagley, 1988; Luykx, 1999). Furthermore, former president Sanchez de Lozada, who served as president from 1993 to 1997 and from 2002 to 2003 (Klein, 2011), strongly supported the neoliberal model encouraged by the USA (Luykx, 1999). Sanchez de Lozada eventually fled to the USA after resigning due to the "Gas War" – a conflict during which indigenous and campesino protesters in the city of El Alto opposed a project to export gas to the USA to instead nationalize the resource, and left many protesters dead (Gavalda, 2003). Bolivia's history of colonialism and foreign involvement eventually led to the rise of indigenous political groups, pushing for a nationalization of resources and better rights for indigenous people (Klein, 2003). In 2005, Evo Morales, first president of Indigenous descent and leader of the party Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS, Movement towards Socialism), was democratically elected. The election of an indigenous president, who won with 53,7% of the votes “amid Bolivia’s highest-ever turnout and cleanest-ever elections” (King, 2006:12) was perceived as marking a tremendous turn in Bolivian politics and for the future of the country (Ibid.). Morales, who was re-elected in 2014 for his third term with 60% of the votes (Lafuente, 2014) quickly implemented his promises to nationalize key industries, permitting greater government revenue and hence higher investments in education, infrastructure, and health. Another promise of Morales was the creation of new “decolonial” constitution embracing the principles of Buen Vivir (defined further below), which was accepted in 2009 and put in place as of 2013. However, some critiques have argued that President Morales and his party did not go far enough to fulfill their "revolutionary" program (Tapia, 2011; Webber, 2011).
The country was renamed the Plurinational State of Bolivia, in recognition of the many different indigenous societies which it comprises (CPE, 2009). According to the Bolivian government's line of actions, the process of decolonization seems to consist in recognizing and giving a greater place to indigenous knowledges and customs in Bolivian society and politics. There are 36 indigenous groups officially recognized by the Plurinational State of Bolivia, who make up 41% of the population (INE Bolivia, 2012). Together with mestizos, over two thirds of the Bolivian population is of indigenous descent (BBC, 2018). Quechua is the most spoken indigenous language, with 43,74% of the indigenous population speaking it and associating with the Quechua culture, followed closely by the Aymara (38,07%) (INE, 2012). The third most important indigenous language is Guarani, spoken mostly in the lowlands to the East of the country. However, many other indigenous groups and languages co-exist in that region, and very few people actually speak Guarani today. The official languages of Bolivia are Spanish and all 36 recognized indigenous languages.
3-
RESEARCH LOCATIONS As of 2018, 69,4% of the population live in urban areas, and the urbanization is predicted to keep increasing at about a 2% annual rate during the 2015-2020 period (WB, 2019). I conducted my research in two main areas: the contiguous cities of La Paz and El Alto, up in the Adean Altiplano to the West of the country; and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the most populated city in Bolivia, situated in the lowlands to the East. La Paz is the (political) capital of Bolivia. El Alto used to be an extending part of La Paz, but eventually became so large that it became a city of its own. Most rural migrants moving to the city in the region move to El Alto, which keeps growing rapidly. La Paz and El Alto are situated in Aymara territory, the second largest indigenous group in Bolivia and the one which the president Evo Morales identifies with. Santa Cruz de la Sierra, situated in the lowlands, has recently become the largest and most populated city and is considered the economic capital of the country. Santa Cruz' position as economic heart of Bolivia is related to the tropical climate, more favourable for agriculture than the arid highlands of the Andes, as well as the city’s proximity to the Brazilian and Paraguayan borders. The region of the same name in which Santa Cruz is located is home to many different indigenous groups, but only a small portion of the population of the area identifies with either of them or speaks one of the local indigenous languages. The main recognized language of the region is Guarani.Research participants described La Paz and El Alto as cities where the population was most politically active, with protests happening quasi-permanently. Locals claimed this political activity was due in large part to the concentration of most government institutions and representatives in the city of La Paz, which provided
more visibility to protests. Moreover, La Paz was initially a centre of support for Evo Morales, although the same could maybe not be said anymore today as the president's popularity has been perceived to decline in recent years. On the other hand, several participants from Santa Cruz described their city as fairly inactive politically, and focused on economic growth and "business as usual" in times of social unrest. Participants from Santa Cruz also claimed that a majority of local citizens did not support the government, and argued that Morales' administration, knowing the lack of support of Cruceños, tended to reduce allocated investments to the region to favour the Andes regions.
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INTRODUCING THE ASEP REFORM As previously explained, Evo Morales and his government have put a particular emphasis on decolonizing education to bring change in the country. The Avelino Siñani - Elizardo Perez (ASEP) education reform was first discussed as the now longest serving president of Bolivia first came into office, in 2006 (MdE, 2016). It was ratified on December 20th, 2010, and became effective as of 2012 (Ibid.). The reform was written based on the example of the Warisata school, a rural school founded in the 1930s in the region of La Paz by Avelino Siñani, an Aymara campesino (farmer, from the countryside), and Elizardo Pérez, a white rural teacher (Mejía, 2015). The Warisata school aimed to provide access to education to rural indigenous children of the region, with an emphasis on learning through practice and a focus on local philosophies and knowledges (Ibid.). The Warisata school also sought to involve the community as a whole in formal education, which led to it being called Ayllu school, an Aymara word referring to kinship, family or community (Ibid.: 40). The Warisata schools' involvement of families and communities, teaching through practice and focus on local indigenous knowledge can be found again in the pillars of the ASEP reform, as I present in chapter V. Although the Warisata school was dismantled within a decade of its foundation, it remained a symbol for indigenous and rural education in Bolivia (Ibid.). Remembering the origins of the law 070, which is named after the founders of the Warisata school, is crucial because it grounds the reform in its historical, socio-cultural and geographical context.The aim of the law 070 (ASEP) is to decolonize education and Bolivian society as whole. It was designed taking into account the coloniality/modernity debate detailed in the theoretical framework (chapter III section 1-iii) and has so far been implemented in primary and secondary education, as well as in teacher trainings centres. It is important to note that, in 2016 (most recent data), 97,7% of the gross population was enrolled in primary school, and 86,5% of the gross population was enrolled in secondary school, with a constant Gender Parity Index of 1 since the
2000s1 (World Bank (WB), 2019). The reform focuses on bringing forward indigenous knowledges (VES, 2007) to revitalize regional indigenous cultures, and was presented by the government as intending to increase inclusivity in primary and secondary education.
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BOLIVIAN POLITICAL CONTEXT AT THE TIME OF FIELDWORK AND WRITINGSince the first election of President Morales in 2006, Bolivia has undergone steady and significant economic growth: the country is the leader in its region in this regard, with a 4,4% GDP growth in 2018 compared to the previous year, much higher than the 1,2% average GDP growth in the Latin America and Caribbean (ECLAC, 2018). The country also saw an increase in life expectancy, from about 63,5 years in 2005 to about 69,5 years in 2017; and an important decline in poverty, from 59,6% of the population under the national poverty line in 2005 to 36,4% in 2017 (WB, 2019). However, there have been growing concerns regarding the Morales government. The president has recurrently accused critical media of lying, without providing founded arguments, and has allegedly been funding certain medias in an un-transparent and biased manner (HRW, 2017). In fact, according to a report by the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW, 2017), “In May 2017, President Morales said that media outlets that did not receive government advertisements were those that “lie, insult, slander, and discredit authorities” (p.80). Another issue arose as Evo Morales announced that he would run for the 2019 elections, for his fourth term, and third term under his own new constitution of 2009. In doing so, he went against the outcome of a referendum held on February 21, 2016 (commonly referred to as "21F") in which a majority of Bolivians voted "NO" to let the current president seek another term (Casey, 2018). After going against the outcome of the referendum, President Morales went as far as changing his own constitution, to lift the limit of two presidential terms (Vaca, 2018). The words "Bolivia said NO" and "respect 21F" could be seen on many walls around La Paz and the rest of the country, as well as on banners during protests (see images II-3 to II-5).
While I was in the field, unrest and protests related to Morales' renewed bid for elections worsened as the Bolivian Electoral Court officially allowed the current president to run for his fourth term (Vaca for Pagina Siete, 2018) in the upcoming October 2019 presidential elections. The decision of the electoral court led to many protests around the country, which often turned violent, including clashes between 1 under 1, less enrolment of women; over 1, less enrolment of men; 1, gender parity (World Bank, 2018)
demonstrators and the police and the burning down of the electoral tribunal of Santa Cruz (El Deber, 2018). There have also been arbitrary arrests of protesters: for example, in November 2018, a young man shouting “Bolivia said NO” on the street was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison (Alanoca Paco for El Deber, 2018). The current political situation has been leading many to worry that Bolivia may be returning to authoritarianism, and fears of being “the next Venezuela” were very present amongst my Bolivian friends and research participants. This fear was highlighted during some protests I attended, where one of the main phrases chanted by protesters was “Bolivia said NO. We are not Venezuela, we are not Cuba, we are Bolivia and Bolivia is to be respected” (own translation).
As I will further explain later in this thesis, the political context described above added a layer of complexity to my research: many of my participants lived in fear of losing their jobs and livelihood if they were seen to speak against the ASEP reform, by extension, the current government. Indeed, one surprising aspect of my research was discovering that the ASEP reform could not be separated from the politics of the MAS. The perceived inseparability of the law 070 and the Morales government entailed that my research became much more political than initially expected, bringing up ethical issues which I will detail in the appropriate section.
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IMAGE GALLERY
CHAPTER III – THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 1- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
i- Introduction
The present thesis seeks to understand Bolivian educators’ views and experiences of the ASEP reform to decolonize education; how these views and experiences shape teachers’ enactment of the reform in classrooms; and what the answers to the two previous points entail for the application of decolonial theory in education. In order to respond to these questions, this chapter explores existing theories around the concepts of education, decolonization and reform enactment. ii- Defining Education? There exists little literature regarding the actual meaning of the term education (Carr, 2010; Miedema, 2013). One of the few scholars to ponder on the English term "education" was Peters (1966), who defined it “as the initiation into a broad body of knowledge that was deemed to be of some worth.” (Miedema, 2013: 88). Peters also differentiated education from indoctrination, the former encouraging and respecting critical thought while indoctrination did not (Peters, 1966). Peters’ definition of education leads one to question “the politics of knowledge – who controls the production of knowledge, what is considered knowledge, how that knowledge is produced and who that knowledge is for” (Motta, 2013: 1), in other words, who decides what makes “worthwhile” knowledge and for whom. The politics of knowledge are central to the debates around coloniality of power and knowledge, as I present later in this chapter.
Rather than defining what the term means, education has often been defined in relation to its aims. Drawing from Winch and Gingell’s (2008) six basic educational aims, Miedema regrouped main educational goals into three categories: (civil) enculturation, which is concerned with students’ development of socio-cultural knowledges and behaviours accepted in their society; promotion of autonomy with(in) society; and vocational preparation, which is concerned with students’ capacity to find and pursue an occupation outside of school/after they graduate (Miedema, 2013). Within her tripartite framework of education, Miedema identifies two broad socio-political approaches to civil enculturation, which she defines as “the process by which young people learn what are considered appropriate social and political norms, values and procedures” (Ibid: 100):
“traditional and transformatory approaches. The former is defined as those directed at maintaining social harmony and unity. Education is then geared to the integration of the individual into a predefined whole. The latter seek to enable individuals to become a part of a community through a process of reflective and critical engagement with the practices and beliefs of that community.” (Miedema, 2013: 109)
This notion of traditional versus transformatory civil enculturation is of particular interest for the present thesis as it echoes the works of Freire (1972) and hooks (1994) who argue that education is always political. In fact, in the foreword of Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 1972), Shaull states:
“There is no such thing as a neutral educational process. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes “the practice of freedom”, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” (1972: 15, emphasis in original)
In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire contrast two types of education. The first is called “banking education”, in which students are considered as empty “receptacles” to be “filled” by a knowledge-full teacher (Freire, 1972: 58). Through this form of education, teachers and students are placed in opposition to one another, students are considered to know nothing while the teacher detains all the knowledge and therefore may not be questioned or challenged in his teachings. Students are not encouraged to think critically and are instead taught to repeat specific, selected and static knowledge. The notion of "banking education" could therefore be related to Peters' idea of indoctrination – although the two philosophers represent radically different branches of educational thought (liberatory for Freire, conservative for Peters) (Beckett, 2011). In contradiction, Freire defines “problem-posing education” as the learning process in which students and teachers learn together in dialogue:
“The students – no longer docile listeners – are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher. The teacher presents material to the students for their consideration, and re-considers his earlier considerations as the students express their own.” (1972: 68)
According to Freire, “banking education” represents “education as the practice of domination”, whereas “problem-posing education” corresponds to “education as the practice of freedom” (Freire, 1972: 69). Freire is concerned with education through schooling. The present thesis focuses on formal and non-formal education, defined as the education which is institutionalized and takes place with a teacher (ISCED, 2011). Non-formal education " is an addition, alternative and/or a complement to formal education within the process of the lifelong learning of individuals"(Ibid.: 11), whereas informal education or learning are not
institutionalized (Ibid.). To summarize, education is often defined in relation to its main goals, which should be to encourage students to become conscious, critical thinkers with the ability and courage to question everything around them according to liberatory thinkers such as Freire and hooks. Otherwise, liberatory scholars argue, education is no longer a process of liberation but instead becomes "the practice of domination" (Freire, 1972), similar to what Peters (1966) called indoctrination. The view of education as liberatory fits the transformatory approach to (civil) enculturation as a main goal of education identified by Miedema (2013). Both Freire and hooks demonstrate that “Education and curricula are always political” (Dale and Hyslop-Margison, 2010: 8) and are instrumental in the shaping of any society. Freire and hooks draw from their own experiences, as well as from theories of coloniality/modernity in their arguments. I detail the relation between coloniality and education in the following section. iii- Education and (de)coloniality
As highlighted by several authors, capitalism and imperialism are closely intertwined (Quijano, 1991; Lugones, 2008; Mignolo, 2007). Western European societies and former empires have built highly unequal societies in their own countries and then spread their ways through colonialism. One major tool to disseminate Western culture was education: children in colonies learnt the curriculum imposed by their oppressors, and would only be considered “civilized” and given opportunities if they internalized it and became more westernized. While they were forced to learn Western, “rational” knowledge and ideology, indigenous populations’ “savage”, “primitive” knowledges and cultures were violently repressed and subordinated (Quijano, 1991). One the one hand, European colonizers would expropriate the knowledge that they deemed useful; and made “Cultural Europeanisation […] an aspiration” and the only way to “develop” (Ibid: 169) on the other.
After independence movements officially freed colonies from European colonial rule, the legacy of colonialism manifested itself in the form of coloniality of power and knowledge (Quijano, 1991). Whereas colonialism was physically visible, with governors and colonial town halls, its legacy remained less visibly ingrained in the socio-political and economic systems and minds of the newly independent nations. Quijano’s notion of coloniality of power can be defined as “a global hegemonic model of power in place since the Conquest that articulates race and labor, space and peoples, according to the needs of capital and to the benefit of white European peoples” (Mignolo, 2007: 39). Coloniality of knowledge refers to the subalternization of non-western knowledges. Decolonial theories therefore shed light on the politics of knowledge at play since the beginnings of colonisation: white European colonizers, usually male (Lugones, 2008), defined which knowledge “was
deemed to be of some worth” (Miedema, 2013: 88), suppressing and/or subalternizing knowledges which were not their own. Colonizers also decided who was to be provided with and benefit from this “worthy” knowledge to be allowed to integrate into their colonial system through schooling. Under colonial rule, indigenous populations were in most cases excluded from formal education, as well as from the political and economic spheres. Instead, they were discriminated and treated as cheap labour, sometimes still long after independence, as was the case in Bolivia (Klein, 2003; Galeano, 2003).
This coloniality of knowledge was reinforced during and after the Cold War, when the neoliberal imaginary of globalization (Rizvi, 2017) was spread through “development” programmes led by the United States, heirs of the European colonizers, as well as institutions such as the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) structural adjustment programmes (Rizvi, 2017; Dale and Hyslop-Margison, 2010). There again, education was instrumental in spreading the “American Dream” and way of life (Shields, 2012). Although the neoliberal order enforced in so-called developed and developing countries alike led to increased inequalities and socio-economic turmoil in many countries (Galeano, 2003; Shields 2012), it still guides most educational reforms all around the world today (Rizvi, 2017; Dale and Hyslop-Margison, 2010; Shields, 2012). The tendency for reforms to homogenize internationally towards neoliberal ideals can be explained by the fact that neoliberal globalization is often described as a neutral, inevitable process, masking its political, social and economic underpinnings and motivations (Steger, 2003; Rizvi, 2017). Nowadays, the idea of globalization has been denounced by authors such as Escobar (2007) as yet another form of coloniality. Escobar (2007) states that “From a philosophical and sociological perspective, the root of the idea of an increasingly overpowering globalization lies in a view of modernity as essentially an European phenomenon.” (P.35).
Colonialism and its legacy have had profound effects on former colonies’ economic, social and political order. By suppressing indigenous cultures, colonialism and coloniality suppressed not only knowledges but also ways of living and relating to the world. For example, the articulation of hierarchies and power around things such as race or gender may have been very different prior to colonization (Lugones 2008; Oyéwumi, 1997). Lugones (2008) states that “Race is no more mythical and fictional than gender, both powerful fictions.” (P.384). Lugones also shows that terms such as chachawarmi in Bolivian Aymara indigenous communities cannot be translated into the western dichotomous vocabulary of gender (Lugones, 2008: 750-751). In fact, many studies from the field of neuroscience have shown that language shapes the way humans relate to their world and environment, including their perceptions of time and space (Nunez and Sweetser, 2006; Boroditsky, 2018). In Aymara, the notion of qhipa nayra refers to the notion of time through space in which the past is in front of us and the future is behind us, contradicting western understandings of time through space (Nunez and Sweetser, 2006; Swinehart, 2019). As I will show throughout the present thesis, the notion of qhipa nayra is of crucial relevance to the current views of Bolivians regarding the Morales
government’s decolonization policies, as these policies are rooted into Aymara semantics and culture (Swinehart, 2019) which not all Bolivians share.
Hence, decolonizing knowledge and education does not simply mean reviving indigenous knowledges and languages, it also entails acknowledging philosophies and ways of life associated with them. One of the many alternative ways of thinking stemming from indigenous cultures is that of Buen Vivir. One of the understandings of Buen Vivir arises from the Ecuadorian concept of ‘sumak kawsay’, describing “a fullness life in a community, together with other persons and Nature.” (Gudynas, 2011, 442). The notion of Buen Vivir was explicitly used in the making of new, decolonial Constitutions in Ecuador and in Bolivia to emphasize a specific and explicit relationship between humans and their natural environment, although each included it in different ways (Ibid.). The concept of buen vivir, like the concept of qhipa nayra, was instrumental in the making of decolonial policies in Bolivia such as the Avelino Siñani-Elizardo Pérez reform studied in the present thesis (VES, 2007; MdE, 2010). Still, it would be dangerous and inappropriate to idealize indigenous cultures and philosophies. For example, some scholars suggested that women may be better off if their indigenous culture went extinct (Okin, 1999), because these cultures were, in some cases, very limiting for women (for an example, see Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958)). However, I concur with authors such as Mignolo (2007), Escobar (2007), Mohanty (2003) or McKerl (2007) that decolonizing knowledge is not only about coming back to ancestral ways of knowing and doing, but about taking positive components from these traditions and capitalism to go beyond either of them and create a more socially just system and education. For instance, Mignolo (2007) contends that decolonizing is about de-linking from coloniality, that is, recognizing that we live in a colonial system, acknowledging how this shaped our understanding of the world and of being, and separating ourselves from it. In doing so, one could recognize Eurocentrism as just another local knowledge which was spread through colonialism and subalternized other local histories and knowledges (Escobar, 2007). From this point on, one could build new paradigms by taking inspiration from various local knowledges, or what Reinaga called “pensamientos propios” (loosely translatable to “own thinkings”) (Reinaga in Walsh, 2007: 85). “Pensamientos propios” are not to be understood and used as merely specific local knowledges, but must be used “to put forward [their] political and decolonial character, permitting a connection then among various ‘pensamientos propios’ as part of a broader project of ‘other’ critical thought and knowledge.” (Walsh, 2007: 85).
The ASEP reform in Bolivia was thought and written based on the theories of liberatory education and decolonial theories highlighted in the sections 1-ii and 1-iii of the present chapter (Lopes Cardozo and Strauss, 2013). Thus, the notion of decolonization of education refers to the process of going against the effects of coloniality of knowledge and the attempt to revalorize formerly subalternized knowledges and cultures. As I will explain in chapter VI, the above definition was
also provided to Bolivian educators throughout the training course (PROFOCOM) they had to follow as the ASEP reform was introduced (MdE 2014, 2016). However, educators’ interpretation of the definition of decolonization (of education) and of decolonization’ means and goals varied vastly (see chapter VI section 3-i). Throughout the thesis, and in accordance with my methods (see chapter IV), I consider and analyse the definitions of decolonization and decolonization of education provided by educators during fieldwork rather than exclusively use the definitions provided in the theoretical framework. iv- Reform and reform enactment In sections 1-ii and 1-iii of the present chapter, I have attempted to provide theoretical backgrounds to the concepts of education and decolonisation. The ASEP reform is a policy which intends to decolonize education in Bolivia, connecting those two concepts. Section iv presents what types of reforms can be found in literature and how this applies to the reform under study in the present thesis. More specifically, I clarify the terms policy implementation and policy enactment, which are central to the present thesis. Ball et al. (2012) state that the notion of reform or "policy itself is frequently just taken for granted and/or defined superficially as an attempt to ‘solve a problem’" (p.2). Like the notion of education, it appears that educational reforms or policies are often defined in terms of their objectives. Fabella (2017) identifies two main types of educational reforms based on studies in the USA: access reforms which “aim to broaden the coverage and scope of education” (Fabella, 2017: 146), and quality reforms which “aim to improve the productivity and effectiveness of investments that are already in place.” (Ibid.: 146). Following these definitions, the ASEP reform seems to fit the description of a quality reform: it mainly involved a change in curriculum, new teacher training, recommendations in terms of class size, etc., while it suggested that teachers create their own teaching materials and reduced the possibilities for teachers to be certified (MdE, 2010, art. 36). Yet, the ASEP reform was also accompanied by the creation of stipends for students in public schools as a means to reduce dropout rates, and more open access to all populations (MdE, 2010; 2018-b).
In terms of impetus for reforms, Fabella (2017) found that quality reforms were introduced when education outcomes were deteriorating, and that local politicians felt encouraged to introduce access reforms when educational performances were increasing (p. 158). However, it is crucial to consider context when looking into educational reforms (Ball et al., 2012). In the Bolivian case, the ASEP reform appears to have been initiated for political and socio-cultural reasons, as the policy was introduced after a radical change in government positionality regarding neoliberal tendencies worldwide (Lopes Cardozo and Strauss, 2013; Yapu, 2013). As previously
explained, the ASEP reform was introduced by the Morales government as going explicitly against the global neoliberal trends (in education) described in section 1-iii, and against the previous Bolivian educational reform of 1994 which, according to the current government, served a neoliberal international agenda (Yapu, 2013; Aguirre for Sin Filtro Bolivia, 2016). Rather than attempting to define what type of reform the law 070 is, the present thesis seeks to understand potential limits to and of the policy’s implementation and, more specifically, teachers’ enactment of the reform. Ball et al. (2012) defend that policy implementation and enactment are two different things. Policy implementation is understood as the direct application of policy texts and its objectives as written, which Ball et al. argue is impossible, due to often unclear policy texts which are open to interpretation (Ball et al., 2012). The ambiguous language of policy texts is not uncommon, as Yanow (1987) explains:
“Purposeful ambiguity is at times a necessary recourse to accommodate conflicting interests in order to devise draftable legislation. […] Under circumstances where ambiguity is intentional and interpretation expected, it is not always possible to express policy intentions explicitly. […] Such verboten goals are often communicated tacitly, through the purposeful ambiguity of symbolic or metaphoric language or images.” (p. 109, emphasis in original)
If policies are not fully explicit in terms of their goals and means to achieve those goals, then the policy texts cannot be “implemented”, that is, literally applied. Instead, they are interpreted and translated into action by those who are required to enforce them, such as educators, within their material, energy and time limits (Ball et al., 2012). Still, I use the term "implementation" to broadly describe the overall application (or lack thereof) of the Law 070's (also ASEP reform) requirements. Throughout this thesis, I use Ball et al.’s (2012) definition of enactment as “the diverse and complex ways in which sets of education policies are “made sense of”, mediated and struggled over, and sometimes ignored.” (P. 3). Teachers play a key role in bringing educational reforms to classrooms, and enact them in relation to their specific historical, social, political and economic context (Ibid.: 71; Lopes Cardozo, 2015). Ball’s theories have been used to study educational policy in various Latin American countries (Beech and Meo, 2016) and teachers’ crucial role in bringing (or resisting to) reforms to their classrooms has been established in studies worldwide (Thomson and Gregory, 2013; Vrabcová, 2015; Nguyen and Bui, 2016) including in Bolivia (Lopes Cardozo, 2015). However, research with Bolivian teachers was mostly concerned with their training and expectations of the ASEP reform which was not fully in place at the time (Lopes Cardozo and Strauss, 2013).
v- Conclusion
Throughout this theoretical framework, I have presented the theories of liberatory education and decoloniality in which the ASEP reform is rooted, as well as the theories regarding the neoliberal imaginary against which the Morales government, who introduced the law 070, explicitly positions itself (Lopes Cardozo and Strauss, 2013). I have also introduced theories regarding educators’ enactment of educational reforms, and how this enactment is different from simple implementation because it relies on teachers’ interpretation of policy texts (Ball et al., 2012). The theories I have presented in this chapter will be used throughout the present thesis to respond to the research questions. In the next section, I provide a conceptual scheme presenting how these concepts interact, as well as further details regarding key terms where necessary. Because I had to drastically change the focus of my research, the operationalization table which I had come up with for my research proposal became irrelevant and had to be removed from the present thesis.
2- CONCEPTUAL SCHEME
Figure III-1: Conceptual scheme
Throughout the present thesis, I look at educators' as well as the Bolivian government's conceptualizations of (decolonial) education. Conceptualization of (decolonial) education of educators refers to the perceived means and goals of (decolonial) education of research participants. Conceptualization of (decolonial) education according to the Bolivian government refers to the means and goals of education stated in analysed official policy documents and government representatives' statements.
In the thesis, I use the term education quality because research participants used it during interviews. The notion of quality can be tricky, as there are many different ways to measure it (Mortimore and Stone, 1991). Education quality can be defined in terms of educational outcomes, such as examination grades, the achievement of educational aims presented above, etc. Overall, respondents seemed to define formal education quality based on whether the formal education system provided students with what educators perceived to be important for pupils to take away from school.
CHAPTER IV - METHODOLOGY
1- EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND ONTOLOGICAL POSITION
My research hones in on the ASEP reform (or law 070) of education in Bolivia, a reform which was presented as geared to decolonizing education in order to decolonize Bolivian society as a whole (MdE, 2010; Lopes Cardozo, 2011). My literature review and theoretical framework largely draw on the same decolonial theories as the ASEP reform, that is, scholars such as Quijano (1991), Escobar (2007), and Mignolo (2007). These authors encourage decolonial thinking and epistemic disobedience (Grosfoguel, 2010; Walsh, 2010). However, as a European student completing a Master thesis at a European university, my research may not be fully decolonial in nature. I conducted qualitative research that complies with western European quality criteria, and the writing of a thesis itself could be considered as a western objective.
However, as expected prior to going to the field, being a white, European student going to Bolivia, a developing country with a heavy history of colonization, I was faced with power relations which I must acknowledge and attempted to reduce or compensate for as much as possible at every step of my research. In order to do so, I tried to include my respondents in as many part of my research process as possible, as recommended by Mertens (2007). For instance, I changed my research focus depending on what my respondents found most relevant – I adapted my research after several preliminary interviews – while taking into account the time and budget constraints of my investigation. Once the research focus was adapted, I systematically asked my respondents’ own definitions of some of my main concepts (particularly of “decolonization”) during interviews, which I take into account in the present thesis.
Including respondents in my research process and reflecting on my positionality at all times tie into the qualitative-interpretive approach that guides my research (Yanow, 2007). As emphasized in this approach, I question my own position in relation to my respondents and my research, and tried to reduce power relations in the field by presenting myself as a student wanting to learn from their experiences of the ASEP reform as educators. Still, I also explicitly said that I was conducting research in an attempt to be transparent about my position and identity, to not deceive my interlocutors.
Interpretive research is “informed by constructivist ontology and an interpretivist epistemology” (Yanow, 2007: 409), assuming that multiple realities exist, which are socially constructed depending on multiple factor such as ethnic, racial, economic, political and cultural values (Mertens, 2007). I chose to take a constructivist approach although I acknowledge that these realities exist within specific political, economic and material structures, and that the discourses and understandings of
reality of my respondents may have material underpinnings. In order to understand my research participants’ realities, I assumed I should try to see their world through their own perspective, while acknowledging my own western bias stemming from my upbringing and formal education in North American and European universities. In an attempt to apply decolonial thinking throughout my research, I sought to acknowledge my Eurocentric bias, and to view it and western knowledge as just one local knowledge (Escobar, 2007), different from but equally relevant to that of my respondents. 2- METHODS i- Introduction
The qualitative-interpretive approach which guides my research encourages the use of qualitative methods, in part to provide space for respondents to express themselves at length and in their own words, as well as methods fostering a particular attention to meaning-making and discourses. As stated in the previous section, it also encourages reflexivity from the researcher.
“Word-based methods and writing, researcher reflexivity, and the exploration of multiple meanings and their ambiguities, especially in policy contexts in which contention over the policy issue under study is common – are three central hallmarks of interpretive research” (Yanow, 2007: 409).
To follow an interpretive research approach, I therefore used semi-structured interviews (iii), participant observation (iv), documentary analysis (v) and discourse analysis (see section 3) to analyze the Law 070 (ASEP) and its implementation. I provide information regarding my sampling methods in section ii. The main limits of my data-gathering methods are developed in section 4. ii- Sampling About half of my interviews and observations were conducted in primary and secondary schools in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, which is the most densely populated city in Bolivia, situated in the Eastern tropical lowlands of the country. The other half of my interviews and observations took place in La Paz, the capital city, and the contiguous city of El Alto. I chose to focus on urban settings because most Bolivians live in cities, as well as for reasons of access. Indeed, it was far more difficult for me to conduct research in rural areas due to a lack of local contacts, and due to
