Paola Minoia
Coordinator of the WG
Researcher info
Institution
University of Helsinki
Department/faculty
Geosciences and Geography
Contact information
paola.minoia@helsinki.fi
+358 204151638
Keywords
Amazonia buen vivir eco-cultural pluralism Ecuador higher education Inclusive Education indigenous knowledge indigenous pedagogy
Field of indigenous women intercultural education justice political ecology sumak kawsay upper
secondary schools
Research projects
Access to schooling and higher education are considered as primary means to empower marginalized groups and enhance sustainable development in the Global South. In Ecuador the intercultural bilingual education programme that affirmed the fundamental importance of integrating diverse local languages knowledges and pedagogical practices in education was established already in and later amended based on the community-centric ecologically-balanced and culturally-sensitive philosophy of sumakkawsay (buenvivir). However the programme is still only partially applied and thus education typically follows homogenized standards and fails to include specific cultural realities.
Team
Johanna Hohenthal
Scientific assessments and politics addressing environmental changes rarely involve local residents and their knowledge. Usually reasons of demographic growth and environmental mismanagement are used to justify local degradation; however, our aim is to understand the local perspective about causes and reasons of the degradation that causes insecurity, livelihood changes, migration trends and other decisions that bring into further environmental degradation. An ethnographic research has been conducted in two catchments of Taita Hills, South-East Kenya. Participatory mapping, observation, transect walks, historical timelines, semi-structured interviews with experts and civil society representatives, as well as focus groups were employed as main methods of data gathering.
Team
Paola Minoia, Johanna Hohenthal, Belinda Kivivuori, Marinka Leppänen, Emmah Owidi.