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 socio-environmental 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.