Intercultural Early Childhood Education from Paulo Freire's Pedagogical Approach. From Theory to Practice

Abstract

This article is based on the Thesis "Intercultural Early Childhood Education from Paulo Freire's Pedagogical Approach" (Sánchez, 2019), a research conducted to obtain a master's degree. It reflects the reflective process of the educational team in an intercultural kindergarten located in the district of La Florida. They questioned the relevance of the traditional pedagogical approach in relation to their mission, vision, and principles. Thus, the initiative emerged to study whether Paulo Freire's pedagogical model was relevant to intercultural education and if this methodological approach could be applied in early childhood education. To do so, a Participatory Action Research (PAR) was conducted, involving the community in the creation of an action plan that aimed to highlight cultural diversity. After implementation, research techniques such as document analysis, in-depth personal interviews, and a focus group were used to understand the significance of this PAR, transforming their reality by democratizing and contextualizing the curriculum. Ultimately, it was evident that critical interculturality requires community participation and the democratization of education, content programming, and teaching, making Paulo Freire's pedagogical model highly relevant in this regard.