Indigenous Education at the Interface with Technologies from the Narrative Perspective of Indigenous Women

Abstract

Our relationship with information technologies has undergone significant changes since the emergence of the COVID-19 health crisis, which began in 2020. Like all other sectors of society, education had to adapt to the scenario and provide solutions, albeit far from ideal, that minimally met the demand for maintaining educational practices. While urban students faced challenges in adapting to the adopted methodologies, both subjectively and in terms of infrastructure, those who were far from major city centers encountered exponentially greater difficulties. This was especially true for socially vulnerable groups or historically marginalized and excluded populations, such as Indigenous communities. This article aims to discuss the meanings surrounding the relationship between Indigenous education and non-Indigenous and Indigenous technologies, through the transcription, systematization, and analysis of narratives by Indigenous women as articulated in a roundtable dedicated to this issue within the iv Seminar on Knowledge, Languages, and Oralities of the Amazon, held in Belém do Pará, Brazil. To achieve this, we draw on theoretical contributions related to Indigenous education, discussing the impacts caused by the notion of coloniality. The analysis was conducted using grounded theory. Among the results, we emphasize the need to recognize and value Indigenous technologies, as well as to ensure the creation of learning environments that demonstrate how they can contribute to the struggles and symbolic and structural empowerment of indigenous populations across various sectors of Western society.