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Yachayninchis (Our Knowledge): Environment, Cultural Practices, and Human Rights Education in the Peruvian Andes

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Handbook of Indigenous Education

Abstract

Increasingly, over the past decade, environmental problems have forced Indigenous farmers to rethink broader impacts to their self-reliance where exogenous environmental destruction represents another shift for Andean Indigenous ontologies – demanding multiple and innovative interventions and strategies. This chapter argues that conceptions, practices, and spaces of Indigenous education based in Indigenous knowledge systems constitute the central arena from which to consider these problems. Thus, in order to advance notions and practices of Quechua education, this chapter first traces ideologies of conquest to projects of development and their social, cultural, economic, and political impacts in the highlands of Peru. This chapter then draws from archival and Quechua narratives in order to highlight Indigenous epistemologies, specifically Quechua knowledge systems that situate the Andean world as an ecology of balance and struggle. Lastly, international discourses of environmental rights and human rights education in Indigenous educational design and practice are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Elizabeth Sumida Huaman

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  1. Elizabeth Sumida Huaman
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Correspondence to Elizabeth Sumida Huaman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Melbourne, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Elizabeth Ann McKinley

  2. Office of the Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand

    Linda Tuhiwai Smith

Section Editor information

  1. Arizona State University, Arizona, USA

    Bryan Brayboy

  2. College of Education, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Megan Bang Assistant Professor

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Sumida Huaman, E. (2018). Yachayninchis (Our Knowledge): Environment, Cultural Practices, and Human Rights Education in the Peruvian Andes. In: McKinley, E., Smith, L. (eds) Handbook of Indigenous Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1839-8_3-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1839-8_3-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-1839-8

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