Researching Interculturality in Post-Colonial Contexts: Indigenous Perspectives and Beyond

This volume critically explores intercultural ＂encounters＂ between Indigenous and Eurocentric education in the post-colonial contexts of Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.

In this book, interculturality in education is considered in a variety of educational and social settings, including teacher, community, secondary, and higher education, as well as language revitalization efforts, from a wide range of analytical and methodological perspectives. The contributors examine historical and emerging challenges in initiatives to expand or redesign education through interculturality/ies, highlighting the work that remains on the educational agenda while also identifying obstacles perpetuated by ideologies of monoculturalism, neoliberalism, and capitalism. Several case studies are presented to showcase pedagogical creativity, curricular innovation, and epistemological plurality in intercultural education and research. The volume also includes two expert transcultural commentaries that approach the challenges and opportunities in a comparative way, drawing on Indigenous perspectives beyond the three countries studied. This book argues for a critical and decolonial engagement with interculturality (in) education and research, emphasizing ethical collaboration, diverse worldviews, and resistance to epistemic singularity.

This book will be essential for scholars and students of intercultural studies, education, and decolonization. It also provides valuable insights for educators navigating intercultural and Indigenous education.

Vander Tavares is an Associate Professor at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway. His research interests include critical second language education, teacher education, and the internationalization of higher and language education. In 2021, he was the recipient of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Award by the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) for his years-long work in support of multilingual international students in Canada. He is the editor of Social Justice, Decoloniality, and Southern Epistemologies within Language Education (Routledge, 2023) and Social Justice through Pedagogies of Multiliteracies (Routledge, 2025).