Intercultural bilingual education in teacher education within native communities of the Amazonas region intercultural bilingual education in teacher education within native communities of the Amazonas region

Chávez Santos R.; Ruiz Vásquez Y.; Carranza Guevara R.; Campos Trigoso J.A.; Guevara Goñas R.E.; Navas Del Aguila C.E.; Poémape Oyanguren C.R. · Studies in Higher Education (2026) · DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2026.2679171

Resumen

Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) seeks to guarantee the right to education in the mother tongue while strengthening cultural identity and social inclusion in indigenous contexts. Although IBE has expanded in Latin America, empirical evidence on how teacher education programs operate within Amazonian Indigenous communities remains limited. This study examines the teacher education experiences of Awajun and Wampis students enrolled in early childhood, primary, and secondary education programs in the Amazonas region of Peru, a population that has been underrepresented in previous research. Using an interpretivist qualitative design and reflective thematic analysis with a primarily experiential and semantic orientation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 pre-service teachers from Indigenous communities and three teacher educators involved in intercultural bilingual teacher education. The findings indicate that participants describe bilingual intercultural competencies as extending beyond linguistic skills to encompass cultural responsibility, community engagement, and resilience. Participants also report that, while pedagogical practices promote the integration of ancestral knowledge, these processes are perceived as constrained by limited methodological innovation, persistent challenges in Spanish pronunciation and academic writing, and experiences of ethnic and linguistic discrimination. This study provides context-specific empirical evidence on teacher education in IBE within Awajun and Wampis contexts and conceptualizes teacher education as a formative space where linguistic development, cultural continuity, and institutional inequalities become intertwined. In doing so, it offers a more integrated understanding of how intercultural competencies are shaped within structurally constrained Indigenous higher education settings.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas