Challenges of Indigenous education within Ecuador’s constitutional framework of plurinational rights

Indigenous education — institutionalised by the Ecuadorian State as intercultural bilingual education (IBE) — has been a constant source of dispute in the defence of individual and collective human rights. Despite regulatory, political, and institutional changes, there are still pedagogical, ethical, and epistemic challenges involved. This article addresses three challenges to IBE in Ecuador identified in the literature: educational autonomy; the training of Indigenous teachers; and the reformulation of the intercultural curriculum. The analysis suggests that, although discourses on inclusion have opened up the possibility of an education based on plurinationality, they lack a critical foundation to implement an education with a focus on rights and social justice. The article concludes that interculturality is a field in constant state of development and requires specific negotiations and policies to strengthen Indigenous education in the country.