"Del dicho al hecho hay mucho trecho" Teacher education students' identities and experiences in a Chilean intercultural classroom

Abstract

This research name “Del dicho al hecho hay mucho trecho”1
focuses on teacher education
students’ experiences in an ‘intercultural classroom’. It addresses daily encounters between
Mapuche2
and Chilean undergraduates in a regional Chilean university. This topic is
particularly pressing to address in a country that has a significant population of indigenous
peoples who have been gradually gaining a greater foothold in Higher Education. Given it
is a recent phenomenon, these interactions between the actors involved have been scarcely
researched in intercultural classrooms until now. In this way, this research seeks to
contribute to a greater understanding of this phenomenon. In doing so, the research was
conducted using a qualitative case study approach, using classroom observations, focus
groups and semi-structured interviews. Participants were Mapuche and Chilean second
year teacher education students, their lecturers, and the faculty dean respectively.
Data were analysed using an integrative approach juxtaposing three methods: thematic,
narrative, and theoretical analysis. The main findings show that students' lived experiences
were diverse and multiple. Students organised themselves into specific groups occupying
physical spaces in the ‘intercultural classroom’. Two groups of Chilean students were
formed, and the two more by Chilean and Mapuche students (with Mapuche students being
more prominent) at the back of the classroom. The classroom practices were diverse,
flexible, and ever-changing, where actions and interactions happened at multiple levels
(classroom, groups, individuals). Most classroom interactions were related to students'
academic performance but also intersected with a cultural world of daily taken-for-granted
activities and practices which were connected with religion, friendship, group formation,
personal interest, and also solidarity. However, discriminatory practice against the
Mapuche People was present in students' experiences recounted through participants'
memories. In this way, students experienced ethnicity as a private topic within their
(supposedly open) ‘intercultural classroom’.
This study also reveals that participants’ understandings of being Mapuche were diverse,
something which they felt, lived and told in different ways. It was not just about carrying
a Mapuche surname. It also meant to hold history as a family and as Mapuche. This
1
Refers to the yawning gap between official discourse and enacting it at a local level. Literally, there
is a chasm between what is said (or on paper) and what is actually done.
2 Mapuches are one of the major indigenous groups in Chile.
ii
perception of themselves appears to be mediated by cultural and historical practices which
students have incorporated into their minds and ways of seeing the world and others.
Historical and cultural identification patterns may evoke discriminatory practices which
may have a profound and lasting effect on the students’ identity and agency. Finally,
findings revealed decolonial practices present in participant’s experiences which also
enabled undergraduates to negotiate and re-signify certain aspects of the Mapuche culture
and shape their identities while they became teachers.
This research concludes that the increasing interconnectedness between Mapuche and
Chilean students in the university enables them to live diverse and multiple experiences
richly drawn from context and history. Cultural, social, and institutional practices also
contributed to constraining or supporting students’ interactions in an ‘intercultural
classroom’ setting. It is these interactions, which shaped and reshaped their identities and
directed their individual and collective agential power to navigate and negotiate their higher
educational journey. Developing successful intercultural actions and interactions in the
classroom requires an in-depth understanding of all these aspects, especially of students’
changing identities. Bringing students’ existing intercultural practices into university life
also involves a marked cultural change in all agents of the university and the active
involvement of students. This study, then, further demonstrates how institutional practices
and processes influence students’ experiences, identities, and agency. Further research
within institutions with indigenous and Chilean students and at the policy level are urgently
necessary to improve students’ experiences within intercultural classrooms.

Date of Award	7 Dec 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Sally B Barnes (Supervisor) & Sue Timmis (Supervisor)