A look at the Mapuche teacher-student relationship in intercultural education in La Araucanía, Chile

The article presents research results that delve into the meaning of the Mapuche teacher-student relationship in the teaching and learning processes of the Mapuche language and culture in the classroom in three schools located in indigenous communities of La Araucanía, Chile. The methodology is qualitative from a school ethnography approach to reveal the implicit and undocumented pedagogical relationships during the development of the learning situation. The results show that the Mapuche teacher-student relationship predominates a hegemonic and violent interaction, prevailing in a power relationship that negatively affects the development of the socio-cultural identity of Mapuche students. We discuss the problems of a Mapuche teacher-student relationship characterized by unidirectional communication with few emotional competencies, which limits learning the indigenous language and culture.