Including Eco-cultural Pluralism in Quality Education in Ecuadorian Amazonia

The Project has been designed and implemented in collaboration with the public university Universidad Estatal Amazonica of Ecuador. This project expands Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to ensure quality education for all, through an attempt to promote recognition of eco-cultural pluralism and inclusion of indigenous pedagogies as part of quality education in Ecuadorian Amazonia. The inclusion of ecological aspects is important because indigenous groups have strong connections to land and natural resources that are currently threatened by illegal logging, oil extraction, and climate change. Defending eco-cultural pluralism means protecting both the natural environment and indigenous peoples from poverty and the risk of cultural disappearance. The project studies indigenous young people’s spatio-temporal accessibility to upper secondary schools and tertiary education; realization of eco-cultural diversity and sumak kawsay or buen vivir principles in upper secondary education; indigenous students’ transition to tertiary education or working life; and politics of intercultural education.