Intercultural and Decolonial Experiences at the Takinahakỹ Center of the Federal University of Goiás: Accounts Written by Non-Indigenous Mathematics Teachers

Abstract

This article is the result of reflections developed within the scope of the course “Critical Interculturality, Epistemic Pluralities, and Dialogical and Decolonial Methodological Approaches,” offered by the Graduate Program in History at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), taken in 2023. The article presents a documentary analysis which, from a decolonial perspective, aims to understand how the Bachelor’s Degree in Intercultural Education at UFG, linked to the Takinahakỹ Center for Indigenous Higher Education (NTFSI), has contributed to decolonizing the personal and formative trajectories of non-Indigenous mathematics teachers, in their role as graduate students who acted as monitors in contextual themes and complementary studies of this program. To this end, excerpts (accounts) from written records were analyzed, drawn from research results that have been published in articles, dissertations, and theses by graduates of the Graduate Program in Science and Mathematics Education at UFG, who experienced this context and developed their work from this perspective. As a result, we infer that the existence of the aforementioned Bachelor’s Degree in Intercultural Education stems from the organization and contribution of Indigenous peoples in the inter-epistemic and intercultural training process of non-Indigenous teachers who participate in it. It also represents an opportunity for higher education institutions to reflect on the need to foster actions aimed at interculturality, in order to value other cultures and other ways of knowing.