Fostering Indigenous young people’s socio-environmental consciousness through place-based learning in Ecuadorian Amazonia

Education has a fundamental role in preparing youth to address the socioenvironmental
challenges that threaten Indigenous territories in Ecuadorian
Amazonia. In this study, we focus on place-based learning and analyse how
diverse learning spaces in the everyday lives of the Indigenous youth allow
them to engage with diverse knowledges on socio-environmental issues. We
conducted participatory mapping, photo elicitation, and interviews in three
upper secondary schools in Pastaza province of Ecuador to study young
people’s perceptions and teachable moments about socio-environmental
issues. The findings suggest that young people’s daily embodied
experiences, family life, and community meetings offer rich grounds for
learning about local socio-environmental issues, Indigenous knowledge, and
cosmovision (worldview). However, in the intercultural bilingual upper
secondary schooling, socio-environmental issues are discussed mostly as
detached global phenomena, while more explicit connections to local issues
and knowledge would contribute to pluriversalizing education and
supporting students’ territorial ties and critical socio-environmental
consciousness.