Educational Models in Higher Education for Indigenous Students in the Context of Latin America

Higher education available to indigenous Latin-American students can be identified with one of three academic models. One, called conventional, based on the scientific method, does not incorporate indigenous languages nor traditional knowledge or their ways of learning. A second one, called intracultural, rests on elements of the indigenous culture, strengthening their language, knowledge, social fabric and world vision. The third one, called intercultural, attempts to articulate the previous two. Transmission and construction of knowledge are critical components present in all three models, thus they can be important elements in bridging the gaps between them. This paper argues in favor of interculturality as the result of a process in which different systems of creating knowledge coexist in a safe environment, allowing innovation of knowledge, intercultural knowledge.