Teaching of Educational Content Expressing Mapuche Values to Children in Initial Education in La Araucanía Region, Chile

Abstract

There is a lack of knowledge about Mapuche educational values among teachers in kindergartens located in indigenous territories. The object of the present work was to identify educational content expressing Mapuche values, to contribute to an epistemic base for the education of boys and girls, both Mapuche and non-Mapuche, with an intercultural perspective. The methodology used was qualitative educational research, with a focus on indigenous research, following the interpretive paradigm, through a collective study of kindergartens attended by Mapuche children in the district of Saavedra. Sixty-seven people participated: children, parents, kimches (Mapuche sages), and Initial Education professionals. The preliminary results are organized into three categories of value content: (a) educational; (b) family and community education; and (c) teaching in Initial Education. It is concluded that the teaching of Mapuche educational values in early childhood should be coordinated between kindergartens, families, and the community; some ideas for teaching these values are suggested.

1. Introduction

Educational content expressing values in contexts of social and cultural diversity refers to an assemblage of knowledge and wisdom, the transmission of which to children is desirable and promotes the upbringing of human beings in the framework of each individual’s schooling and education [1]. This content is a part of education in the family context, which relies heavily on the role of families and wise adults who orient children’s behavior [2]. Educational content expressing values allows the development of character and integrity as expected by indigenous societies; hence, there is a need to identify such content and include it in school education from the earliest levels of school, i.e., Initial Education.

Under the Chilean General Law of Education (LGE), Initial Education refers to the education imparted to children in the country from birth up to the age of six years [3]. This level of education is the gateway to school education; therefore, the Education Ministry (MINEDUC) considers that the integration of both indigenous and non-indigenous educational knowledge is crucial for an individual’s life [4]. The proposal for intercultural education at this level lacks guidelines to orient the work of teaching teams; thus, experiences in intercultural education are limited to particular scenarios, such as intercultural educational programs and diplomas [5,6], as in the case of educational content expressing Mapuche values.

The Mapuche people (“people of the earth”) are Chile’s largest indigenous group. In cultural and identity terms, they are a binational people, scattered over both Chilean and Argentinean territory. In Chile, the Mapuche account for 79.84% of the indigenous population [7]). They live in the area included in the Valparaíso to Los Lagos regions, within which area the following territorialities can be identified: pikunche, people who live in the territory of the North; nagche, people who live in the lowlands; wenteche, people who live in the plains; pewenche, people who live in the Andes mountains; lafkenche, people who live along the Pacific coast; and wijiche, people who live in the territory of the South.

A review reveals that proposals for incorporating educational content expressing indigenous values into Initial Education have been developed in several countries, such as the following.

In New Zealand, the incorporation of values allowed the implementation of the teaching resource entitled He Māpuna te Tamaiti (“every child is precious and unique”), which promotes culturally receptive educational practices and the integrated welfare of Maori children and families [8,9].

In Canada, Entewate’nikonri, or “sake” teaching (creation of artistic spaces following Mohawk practices), coordinates lines of the school curriculum with educational content expressing Mohawk values. This program is aimed to educate children based on educational objects that will promote the spiritual interconnection of the individual with the land, the community, and the history of creation [10].

In Mexico, the Milpas Educativas have incorporated educational content expressing values based on respect, encouraging children to value both the elders (sages) of their clans and members of their own families [11].

In Colombia, the Basctemingbe Yebna children’s home and bilingual school draw on the culture, traditions, and values of the indigenous group to educate indigenous persons to form part of the people, stressing their identity and language, the earth, and the animals, the ancestors, and gods [12].

In Chile, educational content expressing Mapuche values is incorporated into Initial Education through intercultural educational programs developed by institutions such as the Integra Foundation and the National Association of Kindergarten Schools (JUNJI). These programs are intended to revive and incorporate Mapuche educational knowledge and wisdom, incorporating Indigenous Language and Culture Educators (ELCI) who support the work of Initial Education teachers and assistants [13]. Furthermore, some Initial Education institutions apply to have their Institutional Education Project (PEI) certified with the Intercultural Seal, autonomously imparting intercultural education [14].

In the Araucanía Region of Chile, educational guidelines have been drawn up to orient intercultural education in Initial Education; for example, a book entitled Kimkantuaiñ brings a bilingual, intercultural approach to Initial Education [15]. This material offers educational proposals organized according to the ambits and focuses of the Curricular Bases for Initial Education (BCEP), based on Mapuche educational content implemented by kindergarten teachers and traditional educators.

In the Mapuche context, educational content expressing values refers to knowledge and wisdom framed as ideas and reflections on respect for people, animals, and nature. It includes reflections based on the welfare of people and the different beings that make up the territory [5,16,17]. These reflections are associated with principles such as (a) respect for the family, the community, and the material and spiritual environment; (b) obedience to the adults of the family and community; (c) solidarity with the different members of the community; (d) hospitality to visitors; (e) patience, a requirement of Mapuche social rules; and (f) kindness, showing a friendly attitude toward people [17,18,19]. The Mapuche educational content presents similarities to those identified in other contexts; nevertheless, it is unique in its socio-spiritual basis, where a particular worldview emerges. This proposes a direct relation of the individual with the material and immaterial beings that make up the territory, a fundamental element of Mapuche education [16,20].

This review of background information from Chile and other countries shows the feasibility of implementing educational proposals incorporating educational content expressing indigenous values. Nevertheless, although intercultural educational programs to incorporate educational content expressing values have been implemented in Initial Education in Chile, they are inserted in a Westernized curriculum that involves largely inappropriate teaching methods. By the same token, they are reduced to particular scenarios, and their benefits are not extended to all children, both indigenous and non-indigenous [6,21,22].

Given the above, there is an urgent need to implement intercultural educational models that meet the needs and expectations of families and communities in indigenous contexts [23,24]. This implies continuing to develop education policies that incorporate Mapuche’s wisdom and knowledge into the concept of education in the school education system. This is especially true of Initial Education, which is a vital stage in the construction of sociocultural identity [4,21] if we consider the cultural variations that exist in emotional socialization processes [25,26,27].

The problem is therefore found in the scarce incorporation of educational content expressing Mapuche values into the teaching of Initial Education professionals who work in kindergartens located in indigenous communities. This, in turn, may be attributed to ignorance of Mapuche educational wisdom and knowledge [6,21], resulting in teaching based on a Western structure, with a curriculum and with teaching and evaluation methods that follow a homogenizing logic.

Mapuche Family Education: Kimeltuwün

Mapuche family education is a process that guides the upbringing of children both in the context of their family and community and their immersion in Chilean society, to bring up future generations based on kimün (Mapuche knowledge) [28]. Kimün comprises knowing, learning, and feeling; it is linked with wisdom, teaching–learning, and awareness, and with knowledge about families, including the values considered desirable in the teaching of new generations [28]. Mapuche family education promotes cultural, social, and historical elements that have been handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth and social memory [29,30,31]. An important element of this is kimeltuwün, the action of educating, which encompasses the processes of teaching, contextualization, and the linking of what is learned with the natural and social environment [6].

Kimeltuwün is an educational model that guides the upbringing of the che (person), the final object of Mapuche education. The upbringing of the che involves developing autonomy, self-efficacy, and self-control, which are achieved through the facilities provided by adults for the activities performed by children [26] in the company of family and community members [32]. Thus, they learn about their culture and values through profound observation [18]. Some of the more important cultural patterns are spontaneous cooperation to achieve common objects as well as the motivation and initiative to participate in community activities [33].

Kimeltuwün is systematized in educational principles, methodologies, and objects [6]. The methods include (a) gübam, the structuring of learning; (b) wewpin, a synthesis drawn up from different ideas discussed by various people; (c) nüxam, learning based on conversation focusing on family relationships and social memory; and (d) pentukuwün, exchange of knowledge with members of the community or people from other territorialities [6]. Thus the object of family education is to bring up children to match the ideal of an educated Mapuche person (che); this requires bringing up both boys and girls on an equal footing, based on four objects of education. While it has been observed that differences exist between the roles performed by boys and girls [18,33] and that the value of respect when applied to Mapuche girls transcends the human and embraces the natural world of non-human living beings [17], no gender-based differences are observed when it comes to value content in their upbringing. The four objects are as follows:

(a)

kimche (wise person): it is expected that children will be brought up to know and understand their culture, nature, and relations with the spiritual beings belonging to the territory. In this context, they learn about history, the origin of the people, and their ancestry [6,18].

(b)

norche (responsible person): it is expected that children will be brought up to act responsibly towards other people and to respect the members of the community [6]. To do this they are taught control, which means learning to identify corrective actions to avoid becoming a welu zuam (degenerate) [18].

(c)

kümeche (good person): this refers to a person who does what is good and who has achieved stability by effort [5]. Children learn to be good people by participating in ceremonies like nguillatun and community activities like rukantun (collective building of a house), visiting families with sick members, and rendering thanks and offerings to the spirits of nature [18].

(d)

newenche (strong person), refers to people with mental and physical strength [5,19]. Girls and boys are taught to be resilient, which is linked with a sense of strength. This is why emphasis is placed on teaching children to be proud of their origin [18].

For Mapuche society, education has a spiritual basis that includes a subset of their practices, languages, and cultural beliefs, connected with a network in which all beings are nested in their worldview [34]. Thus, it is necessary to provide a well-rounded education to children in the early years of their lives [18]. Recent investigations into Mapuche childhood have shown how this is possible [5,18,19]; the children’s activities reported in these works reveal the ideal form of Mapuche education, based on the educational objects listed above (kümeche (good person), newenche (strong person), norche (responsible person) and kimche (wise person)). The Mapuche spirituality and worldview give this education a unique, individual stamp, by which this ideal can be distinguished from other models of indigenous education [5,6,18,19].

2. Materials and Methods

The methodology used was qualitative educational research, describing and interpreting phenomena through evaluations of educational practice, from the perceptions and interpretations of social actors [35,36,37]. An interpretive paradigm was used, allowing us to study reality through the interpretations and significations of the participants, to obtain a deep understanding of the cases from a cultural and historical perspective [38]. The approach adopted was indigenous investigation, since this includes recognition of the episteme and the specific ways of seeing the world—from the indigenous angle—and implies following sociocultural research protocols [39]. Thus, we used Mapuche cultural protocols such as nütram (conversation) and wintrankontuwün (paying a visit). Our research approach therefore involved working in parallel with the participants to achieve recognition of the indigenous episteme [40].

2.1. Context and Participants

The context was the district of Saavedra in the Araucanía Region of Chile, located in the territory of the lafkenche (people who live beside the sea). It has a population of 12,450 inhabitants, of whom 99.1% self-identify as Mapuche [7,41].

The selection of the participants was intentional [35]. There were 67 participants: (a) 36 children (13 from Kindergarten No. 1, 14 from Kindergarten No. 2, and 9 from Kindergarten No. 3); (b) 15 parents (5 from each kindergarten); (c) 5 kimches (sages)—4 men and 1 woman; and (d) 11 Initial Education professionals (4 from Kindergarten No. 1, 4 from Kindergarten No. 2 and 3 from Kindergarten No. 3). The study was also supported by directors, educators, technical staff, and ELCI from the kindergartens. Finally, 25 people took part in the discussion and global analysis, or trawün (meeting): 8 from Kindergarten No. 1, 10 from Kindergarten No. 2, and 7 from Kindergarten No.3, including parents, kimches, and kindergarten professionals.

The inclusion criteria were: (a) boys and girls enrolled in the middle kindergarten level; (b) parents who self-identified as Mapuche and who were responsible for a child aged under 4 years belonging to the kindergarten catchment areas; (c) kimches who lived in the communities; and (d) Initial Education professionals who had worked in the kindergartens for more than one semester. All others were excluded.

2.2. Analysis Procedure

Data were collected by semi-structured interviews, a method in which topics are interwoven and a comprehensive knowledge of reality is constructed [38,42]. The interviews followed the Mapuche oral tradition nütram (conversation). In the case of the kimches (sages), the interview followed Mapuche formalities, such as (a) pentukuwün, discourse, and sociocultural practice incorporating formal greetings between people [6,28]; and (b) witrankontuwün, the action of paying a visit, which includes rules for verbal and behavioral interaction between hosts and visitors [33]. The instrument was a scripted semi-structured interview, developed by the authors.

Data analysis was based on Grounded Theory, an inductive method for generating theoretical proposals through analysis and comparison of the data collected [43]. The analysis procedure followed the coding paradigm, carrying out (a) open coding, to identify emerging categories; (b) axial coding, to refine and relate the categories defined; and (c) selective coding, selecting a central category and relating the other categories to it [43]. The ATLAS.ti program [44] was used to support qualitative analysis by coding.

2.3. Ethical Aspects

The project underlying the present investigation was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Universidad Católica de Temuco. The study complied fully with the deontological guidelines laid down in international agreements, such as the Singapore Statement [45], and current Chilean legislation (Law 20.120) [46]. All the adult participants received an informed consent and confidentiality statement, while minors received an informed assent. They thus had the opportunity to decide whether or not to participate, being informed of the voluntary and anonymous nature of participation. Likewise, they were informed that participation did not involve any kind of health risk and would bring no kind of economic benefit.

The data were stored confidentially, and both the interviews and the identity of the participants were coded for processing. The records will be eliminated after five years. Mapuche social and cultural protocols and formalities were observed, such as mañumtu (thanking the participants), pentukuwün (formal greetings and introduction), inatuzugu (investigating existing knowledge), and kimeltuwun (wisdom, knowledge, and methods of educational action) [47].

3. Results

The results were organized into three categories: (1) educational content expressing Mapuche values; (2) teaching of educational content expressing values in the family and the community; and (3) teaching of educational content expressing values in Initial Education.

3.1. Educational Content Expressing Mapuche Values

Educational content that expresses Mapuche values comprises subjects important to teach in the upbringing of girls and boys, in the opinion of parents, kimches, and Initial Education professionals. It also implies attributing significance to these values from the perspective of the Mapuche worldview. This category may be divided into two subcategories:

3.1.1. Educational Content Expressing Values and Ideal Character of a Person

This category comprises educational values forming part of the ideal upbringing of a Mapuche person. The participants stress that children should be brought up to be (a) norche (responsible person), with special emphasis on speaking the truth in any situation, so that when they become adults, these values will be part of their lives, guide their actions, and allow them to play a role within the community; (b) newenche (strong person), learning the value of sacrifice, placing value on what one has—both material and immaterial—as a Mapuche person must be serious and hardworking; (c) kümeche (good person), which implies bringing up children to help other people, to be cheerful and affectionate, to respect adults, and to be grateful for what they have; and (d) kimche (wise person): wisdom implies knowing about a topic in-depth and sharing this knowledge. These types of knowledge are associated with roles or trades in Mapuche society, such as the role of lawentuchefe (a person who knows about healing plants) and the trade of woodworking. The above is reflected in the following testimony:

“Er… I think that this is the value of being human, having the value of respect, and affection, and having the will, and the spirit of sacrifice. Our people, the Mapuche people, have always had this spirit of sacrifice, all for one and one for all; there are no greatly ambitious people as there are in other peoples and races”.

(Interview with kimche, Saavedra)

The ideal upbringing for Mapuche society is linked to spiritual education, which resides in their way of seeing and understanding the world; it is therefore essential to bring up children with the virtues described above. This is apparent in the following testimony:

“…It doesn’t do you any good to work so much and have so much wealth, and afterwards you die and leave it all behind on earth… It’s no good being like that, ambitious. You should be… good people, I always tell them [his children] that: don’t fight with the neighbors or anything…”.

(Interview with kimche, Saavedra)

The above testimony shows the importance of bringing a person up to be aware of their surroundings and have the ability to live and relate harmoniously with all the beings that form part of this world, be they people, spiritual beings, or natural elements.

3.1.2. Nature

The second subcategory refers to nature, as an axis that runs through the educational content expressing essential values. This concept implies that to ensure the ideal upbringing of a Mapuche person, it is necessary to know, respect, and value nature and all that it provides, such as food. The concept of nature emerges as mapu (earth), encompassing everything on the planet.

The value of nature, seen as an entity with which one is inseparably related, is emphasized in children’s upbringing. Within this relationship, children are taught to value all the elements that make up nature, both material and spiritual. Thus, nature is to be respected and valued as the provider of food. The participants stress the value of the food that the earth brings forth, which is natural food, not processed like modern food, and therefore healthier. An example of this is found in the following testimony:

“One—human being and two—Nature, immediately after. The human being and nature are alive, so they need: one—earth; two—water; three—air; and four—the sun or fire, for a normal existence” (Interview with kimche, Saavedra) (translator’s note: Mapuche culture makes use of numerology, particularly duality and to a lesser extent the number four. This explains the enumeration of elements in this citation). The participants expressed concern because, nowadays, little value is attached to the earth, as nature is not valued or respected. They stressed the importance of educating children based on values to ensure that they take care of ñuke mapu (Mother Earth) and preserve natural resources, such as lawen (medicinal herbs). The concept of punishment by nature emerges in the narratives, referring to the consequences of undervaluing nature. The participants say that when there is a lack of respect and care, nature punishes those who attack her. This conception can be understood from the following testimony:

“The earth is sacred, because the earth gives us food. It gives us everything: water, grass, animals; everything we see comes from Mother Earth, nature, the ñuke [mother], from chaw dios [God, the father]. They own all that, nature, and we have to take care of it while we live here”.

(Interview with kimche, Saavedra)

To sum up, the first category allows us to understand in ontological terms which elements of knowledge form the basis of the teaching of educational content expressing Mapuche values to children; this content arises from family education, which will be described below.

3.2. Teaching of Educational Content Expressing Values in the Family and the Community

The second category refers to the teaching of educational content expressing values, from the perspective of Mapuche families and sages. The participants highlight the importance of teaching based on traditional Mapuche education, to educate children to achieve to the ideal upbringing described in the first category. This category is divided into two subcategories:

3.2.1. Educational Content Expressing Values in the Home

This refers to educational practices used by families to teach educational content expressing values. These practices have been handed down from one generation to the next, and according to the parents, are replicated in upbringing today.

The teaching of educational content expressing values relies, in particular, on practices such as (a) observation—the children learn by observing the actions of family members, principally older siblings and parents. For this reason, importance is given to good behavior, since adults are a model to be followed; (b) prayer—children are encouraged to form a relationship with spiritual beings that are part of the territory, who provide food, health, etc.; (c) stories—educational content expressing values is conveyed by the telling of stories that have been relayed over the generations, known as epew. These stories teach children about what is or is not socially expected. Thus, stories about actions that occurred in the past are used to teach practices and behaviors that fit in with Mapuche family education; (d) advice—this is given in conversations to explain how people should behave socially. The person giving the advice reflects on how children should behave and why this behavior is expected of them. Examples of the practices described are given in the following testimonies:

“‘Look’, I said to him… ‘you know that’s dangerous, don’t do it…if your classmates are smoking drugs, don’t do it. Because they have their own mothers and fathers, and you are the son of a different woman, the daughter of (…), that’s what you two are (…). He never pointed the finger at anybody, and now that his son is pointing, I am going to feel terrible, to lose my self-esteem’ I said. ‘So no, not you. You can’t be angry or refuse to have anything to do with him”.

(Interview with kimche, Saavedra)

“In this case, yes; because I have a daughter. So I have seen attitudes—for example, my daughter may, I don’t know… suddenly show a bad attitude, and if you say something to her… And then the same day, I don’t know, in the evening or the next day, well Carlos will do the same, he does the same. He really does. It sometimes happens that my daughter loses her temper and slams the door. And what happens? When the next day, or another day, Carlos loses his temper and slams the door, then you say ‘Ah-ha!’”.

(Interview with a mother)

3.2.2. Teaching of Educational Content Expressing Values in the Family and the Community

This refers to the significance assigned by the Mapuche family and community to the teaching of educational values. It also refers to the importance assigned to educating the new generations on values, as was done traditionally, as it is evident that these have changed over time. In this respect, the participants stress education focusing on values that were traditionally important for Mapuche society, such as respect, which according to the interviews has gradually lost its significance, as is seen in the following narration:

“If we followed all those values inculcated by our forebears, I believe that we would be a very respectful generation because now it has been emphasized heavily. Our grandparents themselves say—my grandfather speaks so much sense, and the latest thing he said was that the children, the kids [small children], when they come by, practically beat their parents, their teachers (…)”.

(Interview with a mother)

Another concept that emerges is the importance of educating children to be proud of being Mapuche. By teaching educational content expressing values, rooted in Mapuche knowledge, in their earliest years, they will be educated with knowledge and appreciation of their culture. Below is an example of this:

“I always disagree with my partner, because I say ‘Hey, they are descended from their ancestors’. I say, ‘your grandmother was a machi’ [spiritual leader of a community]. Because now they deny that they come from there, so that’s how they cut themselves off. Because if you belong to a Mapuche indigenous people, you should go along, take part”.

(Interview with a mother)

Finally, within family and community knowledge, the idea arises of educating children on duties, in other words, an upbringing that includes responsibilities, and at the same time, one that ensures that children value and respect adults, as they used to. In this respect, the participants stress that children should grow up with responsibilities; in this way, they will learn educational values such as helping, respect, and sacrifice, associated with the educational objectives described in the first category. An example of the above is found in the following testimony:

“I taught my son… well, the responsibility of going to bed early so as to be able to get up in the morning, to be able to go to kindergarten the next day; he is taught respect, he is taught—well—that he has to respect adults”.

(Interview with a mother)

This can also be seen in examples from everyday life, such as household chores, which include helping to keep the house tidy and looking after animals, as the following example shows:

“Yes, to make a home for it [the mother goose], make a nest for it, because if you don’t make it a nest then you aren’t bringing the animals up. You don’t breed birds and then abandon them. So you tell them that they must make and prepare a bed for it, so the gosling can be born, and then support them, give the goslings water and food; they eat grass, anything, but you have to look after them”.

(Interview with a mother)

Based on the narratives presented in this category, we can see the importance assigned by family and community members to practices and knowledge lodged in the social memory; the narratives emphasize appreciation for traditional upbringing and certain positive aspects that should be maintained in raising children today. As we see from the testimonies, some Mapuche educational values—such as respect—have changed over time. This presents difficulties for society, since respect is one of the pillars of the ideal upbringing of the che (Mapuche person). Although changes are observed at the level of society—both Chilean and Mapuche—in how children are brought up under the influence of modernity, retaining the essence of these values is fundamental for the preservation of kimün (Mapuche knowledge). For this to endure, and for the teaching of values based on a dialogue of knowledge between the Mapuche and Western worldviews to continue, the incorporation of these versions of knowledge into Initial Education is fundamental, since this level of education is attended by children in their earliest years, a key age for acquiring educational content regarding values.

3.3. Teaching of Educational Content Expressing Values in Initial Education

The third category refers to teaching practices implemented in kindergartens for teaching educational content expressing values. This category also refers to the outstanding challenges for the incorporation of educational content expressing Mapuche values. The participants commented that strategies for incorporating Mapuche knowledge are implemented in the kindergartens, as every kindergarten has an Indigenous Language and Culture Educator (ELCI). Both parents/guardians and teaching teams recognize that progress is now being made towards a type of education that integrates the knowledge and wisdom of the Mapuche community. This change is considered positive, as exemplified below:

“Yes, once a week, we do… a llellipun (rogation), on Mondays, when we are going to start the week, so things go right for us, so the children are all right; for everyone who works here in general, the children, everyone, we mark Mondays as the day of the llellipun (rogation) and during the other days too”.

(Kindergarten Director)

Parents and guardians are pleased regarding the incorporation of Mapuche knowledge during everyday activities in kindergarten, because they value the fact that now Mapuche cultural practices are taught from early childhood. They also value the fact that the children are taught words in Mapuzungun (Mapuche language), which they then repeat at home, as the following testimony shows:

“Our children are proud, especially here in the kindergarten, that this is happening and that from an early age they can greet people with mari mari [hello], er… ‘go and drink some water’ ‘Mummy, it’s ok’, I don’t know, ‘go and eat a potato’ ‘No, Mummy, it’s poñi’”.

(Interview with a mother)

This context brings out the role of the ELCI, who plays an active part in teaching educational content expressing values and, in general, in the incorporation of Mapuche knowledge (kimün) in the kindergartens. Although Mapuche knowledge is incorporated into everyday activities, either once a week or daily, the narrations of the participants show that this role is assumed mainly by the ELCI; when they are asked about the teaching of Mapuche educational values, this practice is immediately associated with the ELCI. This result is striking, as it indicates that the teaching of Mapuche educational values in the classroom is led by just one person. This is a source of concern regarding the integration of knowledge and wisdom associated with educational content expressing values, since the teaching of this content should be generalized in everyday activities in kindergarten. This idea is reflected in the following statements:

“Now, we have an ELCI… the family has said… for example they are delighted with our ELCI, and the activities he has carried out; so, from an early age we are inculcating respect and appreciation for the Mapuche culture”.

(Interview with Kindergarten Director)

“It’s very good, what the kindergarten here is doing by having an ELCI; that the children are already picking up and absorbing the culture. And when they come home, I don’t know, sometimes they say ‘hello’ without any encouragement. There they are, when they arrive, ‘mari mari’ [hello], or they are eating, and instead of saying ‘bread’ they say ‘kofke’. So seeing what they are picking up in the kindergarten is a great basis, it is a great basis they have”.

(Interview with a mother)

Kindergartens therefore need two things in order to teach educational content expressing values:

(a) Community participation in the kindergartens, in other words, community demand for participation in the kindergartens to incorporate Mapuche knowledge into teaching. The participants highlight the importance of including family and community members, as they know about family education and thus about educational content expressing Mapuche values. If a dialogue could be generated between school education and family education, Mapuche’s knowledge could be incorporated by all of the members of the teaching teams, not just by the ELCI. This is expressed in the following statement:

“What is very important is that we should be included, that the school should recover how we teach the children values at home and follow those values, inculcating the values that we were taught by our grandparents, and go on inculcating them”.

(Interview with a mother)

(b) The need to incorporate Mapuche knowledge into the training of Initial Education teachers, in other words, the needs and demands of the teaching teams to acquire knowledge and tools for teaching educational content expressing values based on Mapuche knowledge. We see in the kindergartens that work has started to progress in the incorporation of Mapuche family education; however, the teaching teams need greater knowledge and competence to do this, as described below:

“I think it should be taught as part of the curriculum, whether or not, er… a university is located in a Mapuche region; it should not be conditioned by that, it should be in the national curriculum”.

(Interview with Director of Kindergarten No. 1)

“No, and I feel that this is also linked with the question of the Curricular Bases because, with the existing Curricular Bases, they should adjust to the people who are studying in the university to become Initial Education teachers. For our future colleagues, there should be a part, a section [of the curriculum], that teaches them some intercultural content”.

(Interview with Director of Kindergarten No. 2)

What is suggested in these testimonies would be a key element to ensure that the teaching of educational content expressing Mapuche values is not the sole responsibility of one member of the team, the ELCI. If all the members of the teaching team knew about Mapuche family education in the early years of a child’s life, the role of teaching educational values would be shared between all agents (directors, educators, education assistants, and ELCIs).

To summarize, the results reflect that educational content expressing Mapuche values is a fundamental axis in children’s education during the early years of their lives; this is supported by the families, the community sages, and the teaching teams in the kindergartens. Educational values play a fundamental role in educating children following the ideal upbringing of a person (che), as they are the qualities that a person must possess to self-identify as Mapuche. This implies a challenge for kindergartens, which educate children aged six and under, a challenge that can only be addressed through cooperative work between kindergartens, families, and the community.

4. Discussion

Our investigation enabled us to reveal, from the words of parents, Mapuche sages, and Initial Education professionals, the educational content expressing Mapuche values that would be desirable to teach children in the early years of their lives. This content is an essential axis of upbringing in early childhood, since teaching them fosters the expectation of bringing these children up according to the ideals of the Mapuche community [6,19]. This places emphasis on the role of childhood, since for the Mapuche people, it is a time window for learning kimün, which can thus be perpetuated from one generation to the next [18,21].

This is particularly important, as it can be connected with investigations that have shown the vital importance of incorporating components of Mapuche education systems into formal education [16,48]. Furthermore, the findings are related to the importance of highlighting cultural differences in the processes of emotional socialization, which occurs in the child’s first years of school [25,26].

The teaching of Mapuche educational values occurs mainly within the family, which thus can be seen as the primary educator. The educational action called kimeltuwün is recognized in Mapuche family education. In this process, children participate actively in family and community activities, learning through profound observation and participation [6,22]. Some practices for the teaching of educational values are highlighted, such as teaching by example, giving advice, telling stories, and prayer, both of rogation and thanksgiving. These forms of teaching constitute an upbringing focused on spirituality, with the object of bringing children up to be wise (kimche), responsible (norche), strong (newenche), and good (kümeche) [18,19].

This is supported by recent findings in schools located in areas of social and cultural diversity in the Mapuche context. One study showed that the pupils who self-identified as Mapuche were described by their teachers as calm, respectful, and conciliatory, particularly in situations of conflict, presumably due to their upbringing and the transmission of knowledge in their family environment [49]. Another investigation showed that pupils who self-identified as Mapuche perceive more physical and verbal violence than non-Mapuche pupils, from which it may be presumed that Mapuche family upbringing stresses healthy co-existence and considers acts that other pupils do not see as violent to be unacceptable [50].

To raise a child according to this ideal requires the generation of a dialogue between the knowledge acquired by the children at home with their families and that which is taught in Initial Education, the first level of formal education in Chile. This work, therefore, reaffirms the importance of incorporating the knowledge that underpins educational content expressing Mapuche values, as these forms of knowledge can become lost when the children start to attend school [6].

The results of this investigation show that the teaching teams of the kindergartens recognize the need to for educational content expressing Mapuche values and that there is a willingness to integrate such content into formal education. For this to happen, it must be recognized that learning is constructed by interaction with the socio-cultural context [51]. Therefore achieving a dialogue between the knowledge acquired in family education and that stipulated in the curriculum requires coordinated work between schools (kindergartens), families, and the community [48].

Educational agents must therefore be mediators in the construction of learning [52]. For this to happen, they must mediate the incorporation of knowledge from the family and the community, to achieve the co-construction of knowledge. The term co-construction implies integrating a variety of forms of wisdom and knowledge from societies; forms that are recognized and valued in a framework of understanding and legitimacy, promoting new knowledge [53].

The school system, in spaces of social and cultural diversity—in the Mapuche context in particular—is the formal structure for the transmission of knowledge; its objective has been to teach children about the world from the worldview of the dominant other [54]. This has meant that the socialization of indigenous children occurring in the school system has been marked by expressions and experiences of structural violence [50], which has doubtless limited the personal growth of children belonging to a subordinated group [55,56].

There is thus a need to open spaces for change, not from a position of domination, but one of acceptance and cooperation [57]. The idea of an Initial Education with an intercultural perspective, therefore, needs to be rethought, to progress towards a curriculum that recognizes the value-related knowledge and wisdom of the children and their families and integrates this into educational practice [10,21].

5. Conclusions

We conclude that there is a need to incorporate educational content expressing Mapuche values into Initial Education. To do this, local knowledge and wisdom need to be integrated into Initial Education, since currently teaching is restricted to a single line, i.e., Western knowledge. To reverse this situation, we stress the importance of achieving coordination among the teaching teams in kindergartens, the family, and the community/territory where the kindergarten is located. To this end, we propose five ideas:

(a) Talking with the families whose children are in kindergarten in order to learn what educational values they teach their children, how they teach them, and the contents that underlie them; (b) Starting working with the community/territory where the kindergartens are located. To do this, we suggest communicating with the families to learn about their sociocultural protocols, for example, by communicating with the traditional authorities and asking their permission to come into the community; (c) recognizing the value of the kimches (Mapuche sages) in the communities, since they are repositories of the ancestral knowledge that has been handed down from generation to generation; (d) learning about the methods used by the Mapuche family and community to teach educational values by speaking with the teaching agents in the family and the community as mentioned above; and (e) cooperating with families and communities to teach educational values that combine school knowledge (from the curriculum) and Mapuche knowledge (kimün).

Coordinated work between kindergartens, families, and the community will improve the transmission of kimün (Mapuche knowledge) from generation to generation since, if children are brought up to be proud of their origins, this knowledge will be transmitted to future generations. The above is a way of incorporating the sociocultural context in which the pupils live, benefiting both indigenous and non-indigenous children, to create an intercultural educational model for the local, regional, national, and world levels in contexts of colonization.

The present work, therefore, adds to the few investigations that have been carried out on Mapuche children in Initial Education in Chile. It also helps to reveal the knowledge lodged in the social memory about the teaching of educational values in the context of the Mapuche family and community; this knowledge could be incorporated into the school context through an intercultural approach to education.

The principal limitation of this study was the context delimited by the COVID-19 pandemic; the children’s attendance at the kindergartens during the winter months was poor, which delayed the fieldwork by several months. Future work is therefore aimed to continue analyzing the remaining interviews and the field notes of observations in the classroom and the trawün (meeting) held for the systematization and closure of the study. We also plan to continue working to establish ideas for the teaching of educational content expressing values based on the Initial Education curriculum and the knowledge of the Mapuche families and community. This will enable us to contribute to educational models, such as kimeltuwün (educational action), to assist in the construction of intercultural education focused on educational values, to the benefit of all the children in Initial Education in the Araucanía Region.