- Email: [email protected]
Challenges of Intercultural Mediation from Decolonized and Collaborative work Through Experiences in Spain and MesoAmerica
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
7th International Conference on Intercultural Education “Education, Health and ICT for a Transcultural World”, EDUHEM 2016, 15-17 June 2016, Almeria, Spain
Challenges of intercultural mediation from decolonized and collaborative work through experiences in Spain and MesoAmerica Práxedes Muñoz Sánchezª* & Almudena Iniesta Martínezb ª Departamento de Educación , Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia, UCAM, Guadalupe, 30107 Guadalupe - Murcia (España b Departamento de Psicología, Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia, UCAM, Guadalupe, 30107 Guadalupe - Murcia (España)
Abstract This space will be exploited to make a compendium of relations on different cultures on how mediation takes place in Spain as well as in some of the countries from which participants (Mexico, Guatemala, Morocco, Algeria and Senegal). From difficult realities to compare we can approach features of mediators that endure today as examples of prophets of otherness, and yet become visible what is favoring the realization of active processes in formal and non-formal educational spaces, where we priority to meeting and community development. The research is based in an ethnography in-depth interviews and participant observation mediators officially named and who have the same function of mediators. © 2016 The Elsevier Ltd. article under the CC BY-NC-ND license Published byAuthors. ElsevierPublished Ltd. This by is an open access Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. Keywords: mediation, culture, education, otherness, multiculturalism, community developmen
1. Introduction To work cultural competence, we place ourselves in the recognition to the other person and at a meeting of relationships, from the support that ethnography allows visible in the structures created between participants in multiple spaces of diversity, students, teachers, teachers in training as socio-educational community and belonging the native people. The objective of this research is focused on the experiences and strategies in intercultural mediation, as well as identities, symbols, current reality and future proposals for the role of mediator acquires a community and emancipatory sense. We have been interested in to seek people who are committed to this cause, cultural relations and community development, and we believe in a collaborative community development, in order to bring about improvements in the socio-educational realities, with a major concern in the junior participants, women and immigrants or social exclusion in two realities, Spain and Mesoamerica. But we have not yet found answers about processes from multiculturalism, such as: What can we do when the students of North African origin in Spain, in Murcia (some children carry both nationalities), they haven't got relations outside the classroom with Spanish children?, and What happens when the students’ mothers, parents or guardians don’t share in the communities?, or What happens when mothers, parents or guardians of different culture live in meetings, in parks or in birthday parties?, What happens when there aren`t unofficial strategies for optimal development of cultural competence (gender, living, education, health, judicial system, etc.)?, What is intended to mediate if the mediator is a subject to the State’s control and to the community structure? or When professionals from diverse cultural backgrounds can be in government structures to decide ?, etc.
* Corresponding author.E-mail address: [email protected]
1877-0428 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2017.02.019
Práxedes Muñoz Sánchez and Almudena Iniesta Martínez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
This study was supported in an active reflexive ethnography, it has been an analysis real since a culture self-critical of our own commitment, and ethics of academic obligations (Carr & Kemmis, 1988) and in the work linked to communities where is involved (Muñoz, 2012). The analysis comes from qualitative research using in-depth interviews, meetings and discussion groups on socio-educational community spaces that were carried out with a total of 18 Intercultural Mediators, 6 Maghrebi and 1 Senegalese in Murcia and community leaders, 8 in Mexico (indigenous-Yokot'an and mestizos) y 10 indigenous in Guatemala. The active Ethnography gives us a greater understanding of the realities and to make visible the difficulties of integration and the challenges that expand the understanding of different scenarios (private-public, school, house, street, square and the new transnational spaces), accompanied with action research workshops on empowerment and the construction of knowledge of these mediators. The drafted interviews were categorized and codified. The main categories drawn inductively from the interviews are the following points: x The symbolism about De-colonization by power from the cultural competence x The best practices and “dialogue of knowledge” x Intercultural spaces - coexistence, democracy and the struggle by the citizenship x Emancipatory development 2. Etnography in different cultural scenarios of the research This research is the result of an unfinished project on community co-development strategies since decolonization of cultural identities and from resistance, such as feminism and subaltern groups, both are as the ruling structures of NGOs, of governmental and non-governmental institutions. The scenarios are presented in different countries, these actions aren’t needed to compare but are interesting their meanings and symbols about the Mediator. 2.1. Ethnography of the Intercultural Mediation The process of ethnography can collect and describe a way of life that every day faces the challenge of multiculturalism. In presenting scenarios in Mesoamerica and Spain, with mediators from different nationalities and cultures, they need to know the realities beginning with the conscience the otherness, with an importance in the culture, their everyday life in house and in the community “house and street” (Da Matta, 2002). This study of the knowledge obtained about ethnographies and action research projects linked to a co-development and decoloniality commitment to cultural aspects of assimilation, we think the research should be conceived as a tool at the service of social transformation and it should have a firm than ideological commitment as militant of the development (Hale, 2008) and to be firmly committed to promoting and training future social educators. (Muñoz, 2012, 2014a 2014b; Vitón, 2012; Leyva, Burguete & Speed, 2008 y Masson, 2011). We believe in the importance of creating spaces for reflection of how culture works, by whom and where they are recognized from their responsibility to understand and respect the differences and diversities. These research is unfinished because is a constant reflection about its metacultural nature and it should be adapted to the realities of each participant, and it's important knows intimately the scenarios and the capacity of adaptation with the hassles of daily life in addition to the emotional values. (Muñoz & Álvarez, 2015) In this table there are the different social spaces where there are intercultural processes; they are categories about difficulties and potentials: Table 1. Categories of analysis to improve intercultural encounters and exchanges. Scenarios
Difficulties
Potential
Education
- Cultural stigmatization - Segregative legislation - special educational need = Interculturality - Empowerment-neo-Indigenous-post-coloniality - Waiting for inclusive policies - Resource needs - cultural stigmatization - Where is the common ground? - NO Recognize cultural diversity (gynecology, nutrition, habits, etc.)
- Alterity, solidarity and social responsibility, etc. - Innovation for citizen participation = Inclusive education - Reflection for new challenges - Empowerment of subaltern persons
Religion
-To know What Is important for today's citizens. -View In the new state and municipality of identity needs.
- Know Various care - Dialogue Community - of-colonialism - education inclusive - Reflection for new challenges. - Keep Identities and interests in the future. - To Open new own spaces.
Public
- Closed spaces? - Threats assimilation of dominant cultures. - Difficulties in communication.
- Expressions Relations - Cultural identities in an expression of movement (Time Bank) - Autorías.
Health
355
356
Práxedes Muñoz Sánchez and Almudena Iniesta Martínez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
Private
- Invisibility - Failure to protect public - Unawareness
- Empowerment From "home" - Identity Resistance from self
3. Intercultural Mediators and intercultural competences The definition we have of intercultural mediator is included in the perspective of cultural identity and intercultural education. We move in spaces with multicultural realities, but with an important difference, equating migrant interculturality Ethnogenesis against native, or in the words of Gunther Dietz (2003, p. 174): "hegemonic" common sense "imposed by institutions majority society, but internalized as a kind of compromise or 'arrangement' by minority groups.” The intercultural process is immersed in a hegemony of the existing cultural competence in the community of the host or the majority, which tends to dilute or to make invisible the authenticities of cultures, and that is created as a cultural hybridization. Is built an identity of resistance who is a "cultural hybridization", it is where all factors converge "intracultural" "extracultural" (García Canclini, 1989) The mediator is perceived as an active person in the process of integration of migrant or minority culture. It is a sensitive and concerned person on the threat of cultural assimilation, in most cases, that creates cultural ethnogenesis processes of resistance in cultural hybridization (Muñoz, 2014a). The mediators say: "Improve the quality of life of immigrants, favoring the integrity and possibilities of employment; help them to acquire social skills, providing information and advice on social resources of the municipality where they reside. Waking up in each new knowledge about new concepts" (Women Maghreb Mediator, Murcia 2016) “It is a project of normalization of schooling (of immigrants) but is a patch, because the guilt of non-integration is the cast immigrants, because there is a hierarchy (...) life is an unequal race, children would develop if we shared the details of everyday life” (Man Maghreb mediator, Murcia, 2015) “Interpreting the work of the family and the child to attract the different cultures to the teachers, thus, prejudice would disappear, it’s not a rejection, you see only different, shortcuts it the conflict, because when they come to the country they have no idea of the problem and the mediator is an example for the teachers” (Man Maghreb mediator, Murcia 2014) “Initially there were two Maghreb students per class, now there are classes almost in its entirety of Maghreb origin, now it is not so much a problem, there is an evaluation, we have gone from answers to a project on complaints of "not knowing what to do with a foreign student in my class," where he was the mediator which helped in the compensatory, and right now the mediator goes to support registration and perform a plan of reception (...) In addition, our function becomes awareness around all the teachers” (Man Maghreb mediator, Murcia 2016) “They have exploited us, the indigenous peoples, political parties and Governments, "(...) they gave us a training course, we wake up from is the policy of the Government, and through manipulation, took advantage of the humility of the people", "the interesting is to function as a link between the communities and the government in the decision-making”. (Man, Member of the Indian Council México 2011) "I would like to know more about the Government to know where they are able to help to defend ourselves, I'd like to know about laws, what it is or why, what should be a Government, which functions for the people" (Indigenous Woman yokot’an Community Tapotzingo, México 2009) In a lot of times, the mediators have been at today a "compensatory education" (Spanish for foreigners classes) to a manager of interculturalism, to create a network between the society, family and school. The mediators are social educators, which we classify into three types: x x x x
Cultural visibilizador = sensitizer of identities and cultural practices. Cross-cultural social researchers. Gestores intercultural development (Dietz, 2009), in México. Community lideres that support the visibility and participation from cultural integration. Mediators and conciliators in the resolution of conflicts, as it is function of the specialized assistance to victims of gender violence.
In these categories of mediators, we include those who hold an official perception and who add contrary to this speech. The characteristics of the mediator may be subject to the domain of power "delegation and political fetishism" (Bourdieu, 1988), but in Ethnography all the mediators in a personal involvement and sense of otherness, many have participated in political parties or Government structures but have now moved away by their community values.
Práxedes Muñoz Sánchez and Almudena Iniesta Martínez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
Traditionally, men have occupied these positions of political power and spaces where women have been excluded from the public sphere and they are concerned with the development of the private and family space (Seidler, 2000). This cultural aspect of exclusion of women as a mediator is present in the reality of Mexico, there are communities where his mediation has been enabled when you have already created your family, but as women in their private space and in collective, create empowerment processes in their daily practices, which many are women drove to feminism in resistance (Muñoz, 2014a). Mediation needs differentiation of gender, which is to take over the violence in not only private, if not public as the violence in the classroom, it’s a meaning of female subordination through access of positions of public authority (Iniesta & Invernón, 2015). It is required to decolonize created gender roles as in other dimensions: "violence is part of structures that support the assumption of gender identities, as the perpetuation of the roles by society as determinants for the operation in the male and female" (Iniesta, 2015, p. 9). 4. Decolonization processes: cultural and intercultural In the term of Descolonization in the scope of the study of culture, discourse approaches identity traits. Mohamed Chamseddine (2015) recognizes in the construction of identity to the school as a master strategist, but at the same time if we turn to literature, an assimilative cultural construction of the powers that be has been evident (Dietz, 2003). Speeches to promote the knowledge of the culture of welcome and the commitment of the entire teaching community are perceived from the school (Oller & Colomé, 2010), and remembering Bordieu (1997), school teachers judge social individuals and "the reason changes with history," interesting to suit each teaching chronologically. Below are some urgencies to be decolonized and strategies or practices that are perceived from the actions of mediators and some of his proposals: Table 2. Proposals for decolonization of cultural dive To decolonize the knowledges
Strategies / best practices *Crítical y and reflection colaborativ
The structural and patriarchal empowerment?
Recognize practical daily support
Appropriateness and violence (De Sousa, 2014)
Dialogue of knowledges (Viton, 2012, Dietz, 2003) and knowledge of values
Common sense from the care and love (feminism or patriarchy?)
Talks of self-knowledge for decolonization of feminism and learn about the patriarchal diversity today.
Prejudices
Cultures in favour of relate (learn and share from the colabor) meetings between women in cultural diversity away from the current reality (exclusion of different women) (supported by civil society and educational institutions
Collaborative intervention and not from a directed developmen.
Active listening and relational care.
Autonomy and emancipation.
Recognition of different strategies for autonomy.
Creation of development agents with academic training from different cultures (advocacy, psychology, pedagogy, etc.)
Authorship from the collective in community development
All proposals are transnational in nature (Ruiz, 2009), and we can see it at distances between the actions of mediators in their host countries as when they return to their countries of origin, or even transfers within the same country but in different realities. All proposals respond to a collaborative work with participants to translate it into cultural competencies, and will give its fruit if there is citizen participation in their own emancipation development. We present about the transnational and perspective of the world system (Wallerstein, 2004). We believe the process of co-labor review of these knowledge areas must be reviewed in the context from the mediator, of the woman or man, of indigenous or mixed race, etc., for example: "We need to show how our religion is and that there are misunderstandings, my daughter wear the hiyab and a child took it and laughed at her in class. We should go to the schools and show how we are" (Arabic woman, Murcia 2015). "We are more than henna and hiyab" (girl 13 years old, student Muslim, Murcia 2015) This knowledge is a necessity of being visible, naturalized and respected. How make easy these channels? How to create the intercultural far from social interventions with create more State dependence? Although, sometimes we are faced with an absolute detachment from the official reality: “Moroccans are cheaters, they steal electricity and water from neighbours, they don´t want any help, whereas Senegalese population is not like that, the neighbors do not want to rent their homes to them” (Platform Affected by Mortgage volunteers, Murcia 2014) It is the same about the concept of gender and social Intervention:
357
358
Práxedes Muñoz Sánchez and Almudena Iniesta Martínez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
“The other conclusion is about the concept of gender in its space location; economic conditions are not the same in the capital than in villages (...). Women suffer a lot; they have many children, because they want to maintain their form of life. This is the essence of their lives, I contradict myself about the concept of gender and feminism (colonial);the real conditions from the Indigenous women in Guatemala depend on its geographical situation, living conditions and cultural part" (Women indigenous Mediator-leader, Guatemala 2009). This is an example of the difficult of various meanings of the categories, and the Mediator need to know the different knowledge about values, geographic areas, temporariness and culture. This intercultural competence is not learned, so it is urgent to teach teachers and public officials about this. For example: “Is There is Gender perspective in the feast of the neighborhood? Of course, the women would bring only sweets" (Volunteer of NOG Murcia 2015) “Okay, fine, that's fine, whenever the poster of the financing bank can be viewed clearly (Responsible's enterprise social project, Murcia 2015) This shows a distancing to reality, but also the urgency of an ethical, interdisciplinary and consistent training people for whom the Mediators Intercultural works. 5. Conclusions: The Intercultural Mediator helps to decolonize the prejudice cultural this research wants to visualize some aspects that we consider relevant in the construction of cultural competence, and without distance ourselves from perceptions and realities of people who create mediation for community development, starts from understanding other as participation in citizenship, with a deconstruction of the structural subalternity, which is possible in emancipatory processes. It’s very interesting to create spaces for reflection to democratize public life if we recognize the dialogue of knowledges and the ecology of knowledge, in a complete and complex analysis of reality. Only to decolonize is possible if there is work collaboratively with the community. This requires learning from the educational field; create an awareness of citizenship under construction from Community aspects, such as these: x Recognition of the difference x Metacultural reflection process to (Jiménez, 2009) x Incorporation into the educational curriculum, the culture, the Decolonization and Postcoloniality. x Build a curriculum of multicultural social tools away from folklore and attentive to everyday life. x Build cultural equity (gender, ethnic, religious) in community involvement (associations, house and street / privatepublic, places of worship and entertainment) And finally, in this area to multiculturalism, it is necessary to recontextualise everything what is heard, what was observed and the processes that we can experience, it’s necessary not to conserve the assimilation to the homogeneity of cultural competencies, and it’s very important to know the ledges about the different cultures, feminisms and emancipatory development to make an optimal mediation. Acknowledgements We thank the people who showed us their homes, schools and communities, the community of San Pedro, Tapotzingo and Tamulté de la Sabana in Mexico, Primavera del Ixcán in Guatemala, women of AMAFRICA of Torres de Cotillas in Murcia, Mediator in Murcia and to the college of Roldan, Hernandez Ardieta, they have contributed with their experiences and knowledge. References Bourdieu, P. (1997). Capital cultural, escuela y espacio social. México: Siglo xxi. Bourdieu, P. (1988). La delegación o el fetichismo político. Buenos Aires: Gedisa. Oller, C. & Colomé, E. (2010). Alumnado de otras culturas: acogida y escolarización. Barcelona: Graó. Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (1988). Teoría crítica de la enseñanza. Barcelona: Martínez Roca. Chamsedine, M. (2015). La construcción de identidad compartida en un aula intercultural. Revista electrónica interuniversitaria de formación del profesorado, 18(3), 69-81. Da Matta, R. (2002). Carnavales, malandros y héroes. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica. De Sousa Santos, B. (2014). Más allá del pensamiento abismal: de las líneas globales a una ecología de saberes. In B. De Sousa Santos & M. P. Meneses (Eds.) Epistemologías del Sur (Perspectivas), (pp. 21-107). Madrid: Akal. Dietz, G. (2003). Multiculturalismo, Interculturalidad y Educación: Una aproximación antropológica. Granada: Universidad de Granada, CIESAS. Dietz, G. (2009). Los actores indígenas ante la interculturalización de la educación superior en México:¿empoderamiento o neo indigenismo?. Revista Latinoamericana de Educación Inclusiva, 3(2), 55-75. García Canclini, N. (1989). Culturas híbridas: estrategias para entrar y salir de la modernidad. México: Grijalbo.
Práxedes Muñoz Sánchez and Almudena Iniesta Martínez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
359
Hale, C. R. (2008). Reflexiones sobre la práctica de una investigación descolonizada. In A. Köhler (Coord.), Anuario 2007 (pp. 297-313), Tuxtla Gutiérrez, CESMECA-Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas. Iniesta, A (2015). Introducción. Violencia escolar y Género. Feminismo/s, 25, 9-12. Iniesta, A & Invernón, A (2015) Violencia escolar y relaciones de género. Violencia escolar y Género, Feminismo/s, 25, pp. 71-87. Jiménez Naranjo, Y. (2009). Cultura comunitaria y escuela intercultural, más allá de un contenido escolar. México: Coordinación Nacional de Educación Intercultural y Bilingüe. Leyva, X., Buguete, A. & Speed, Sh. (Coords.) (2008). Gobernar (en) la diversidad: experiencias indígenas desde América Latina. Hacia la investigación de colabor. México: Publicaciones de la Casa Chata, Ciesas, Flacso. Masson, S. (2011). Sexo/género, clase, raza: feminismo descolonial frente a la globalización: Reflexiones inspiradas a partir de la lucha de las mujeres indígenas en Chiapas. Andamios, 8(17), 145-177. Muñoz, P. (2012). Dilemas de una antropología comprometida: entre autores y experiencias etnográficas. In B. Peña (Eds), Desarrollo Humano (pp. 247-281). Madrid: Visión Libros. Muñoz, P. (2014a). Experiencias de construcción de resistencias e identidades de género en colectivos de mujeres en Tabasco. Dilemas de la antropología comprometida. ¿Cambios posibles?. In L. Rodríguez, S. E. Hernández y M. C. Ventura (Coords.), Democracia, cultura política y ciudadanía en el México de hoy, (pp. 175-197), México: UNAM. Muñoz, P. (2014b). Investigaciones experienciales, una apuesta para descubrir la interculturalidad desde la educación política y la simbología comunitaria. In A. Mendieta y C. J. Santos (Coords.) Líneas emergentes en la investigación de vanguardia, (pp. 449-459). Madrid: McGraw-Hill. Muñoz, P. & Álvarez, M. (2015). La escucha etnográfica en la violencia de género desde espacios educativos culturales. Reflexión para descolonizar el feminismo. Feminismo/s 25, pp. 133-157. Ruiz, S. (2009). La perspectiva transnacional de las migraciones: desafíos e implicaciones prácticas. Cuadernos Bakeaz, 93, 1-12. Seidler, V. J. (2000). La sin razón masculina. Masculinidad y teoría social. Barcelona: Paidos. Vitón, M. J. (2012). Diálogos con Raquel. Praxis Pedagógicas y reflexión de saberes para el desarrollo educativo en la diversidad cultural. Madrid: Editorial Popular. Wallerstein, I. M. (2004). Capitalismo histórico y movimientos antisistémicos: un análisis de sistemas-mundo (Vol. 24). Madrid: Akal.
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
7th International Conference on Intercultural Education “Education, Health and ICT for a Transcultural World”, EDUHEM 2016, 15-17 June 2016, Almeria, Spain
Challenges of intercultural mediation from decolonized and collaborative work through experiences in Spain and MesoAmerica Práxedes Muñoz Sánchezª* & Almudena Iniesta Martínezb ª Departamento de Educación , Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia, UCAM, Guadalupe, 30107 Guadalupe - Murcia (España b Departamento de Psicología, Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia, UCAM, Guadalupe, 30107 Guadalupe - Murcia (España)
Abstract This space will be exploited to make a compendium of relations on different cultures on how mediation takes place in Spain as well as in some of the countries from which participants (Mexico, Guatemala, Morocco, Algeria and Senegal). From difficult realities to compare we can approach features of mediators that endure today as examples of prophets of otherness, and yet become visible what is favoring the realization of active processes in formal and non-formal educational spaces, where we priority to meeting and community development. The research is based in an ethnography in-depth interviews and participant observation mediators officially named and who have the same function of mediators. © 2016 The Elsevier Ltd. article under the CC BY-NC-ND license Published byAuthors. ElsevierPublished Ltd. This by is an open access Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. Keywords: mediation, culture, education, otherness, multiculturalism, community developmen
1. Introduction To work cultural competence, we place ourselves in the recognition to the other person and at a meeting of relationships, from the support that ethnography allows visible in the structures created between participants in multiple spaces of diversity, students, teachers, teachers in training as socio-educational community and belonging the native people. The objective of this research is focused on the experiences and strategies in intercultural mediation, as well as identities, symbols, current reality and future proposals for the role of mediator acquires a community and emancipatory sense. We have been interested in to seek people who are committed to this cause, cultural relations and community development, and we believe in a collaborative community development, in order to bring about improvements in the socio-educational realities, with a major concern in the junior participants, women and immigrants or social exclusion in two realities, Spain and Mesoamerica. But we have not yet found answers about processes from multiculturalism, such as: What can we do when the students of North African origin in Spain, in Murcia (some children carry both nationalities), they haven't got relations outside the classroom with Spanish children?, and What happens when the students’ mothers, parents or guardians don’t share in the communities?, or What happens when mothers, parents or guardians of different culture live in meetings, in parks or in birthday parties?, What happens when there aren`t unofficial strategies for optimal development of cultural competence (gender, living, education, health, judicial system, etc.)?, What is intended to mediate if the mediator is a subject to the State’s control and to the community structure? or When professionals from diverse cultural backgrounds can be in government structures to decide ?, etc.
* Corresponding author.E-mail address: [email protected]
1877-0428 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2017.02.019
Práxedes Muñoz Sánchez and Almudena Iniesta Martínez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
This study was supported in an active reflexive ethnography, it has been an analysis real since a culture self-critical of our own commitment, and ethics of academic obligations (Carr & Kemmis, 1988) and in the work linked to communities where is involved (Muñoz, 2012). The analysis comes from qualitative research using in-depth interviews, meetings and discussion groups on socio-educational community spaces that were carried out with a total of 18 Intercultural Mediators, 6 Maghrebi and 1 Senegalese in Murcia and community leaders, 8 in Mexico (indigenous-Yokot'an and mestizos) y 10 indigenous in Guatemala. The active Ethnography gives us a greater understanding of the realities and to make visible the difficulties of integration and the challenges that expand the understanding of different scenarios (private-public, school, house, street, square and the new transnational spaces), accompanied with action research workshops on empowerment and the construction of knowledge of these mediators. The drafted interviews were categorized and codified. The main categories drawn inductively from the interviews are the following points: x The symbolism about De-colonization by power from the cultural competence x The best practices and “dialogue of knowledge” x Intercultural spaces - coexistence, democracy and the struggle by the citizenship x Emancipatory development 2. Etnography in different cultural scenarios of the research This research is the result of an unfinished project on community co-development strategies since decolonization of cultural identities and from resistance, such as feminism and subaltern groups, both are as the ruling structures of NGOs, of governmental and non-governmental institutions. The scenarios are presented in different countries, these actions aren’t needed to compare but are interesting their meanings and symbols about the Mediator. 2.1. Ethnography of the Intercultural Mediation The process of ethnography can collect and describe a way of life that every day faces the challenge of multiculturalism. In presenting scenarios in Mesoamerica and Spain, with mediators from different nationalities and cultures, they need to know the realities beginning with the conscience the otherness, with an importance in the culture, their everyday life in house and in the community “house and street” (Da Matta, 2002). This study of the knowledge obtained about ethnographies and action research projects linked to a co-development and decoloniality commitment to cultural aspects of assimilation, we think the research should be conceived as a tool at the service of social transformation and it should have a firm than ideological commitment as militant of the development (Hale, 2008) and to be firmly committed to promoting and training future social educators. (Muñoz, 2012, 2014a 2014b; Vitón, 2012; Leyva, Burguete & Speed, 2008 y Masson, 2011). We believe in the importance of creating spaces for reflection of how culture works, by whom and where they are recognized from their responsibility to understand and respect the differences and diversities. These research is unfinished because is a constant reflection about its metacultural nature and it should be adapted to the realities of each participant, and it's important knows intimately the scenarios and the capacity of adaptation with the hassles of daily life in addition to the emotional values. (Muñoz & Álvarez, 2015) In this table there are the different social spaces where there are intercultural processes; they are categories about difficulties and potentials: Table 1. Categories of analysis to improve intercultural encounters and exchanges. Scenarios
Difficulties
Potential
Education
- Cultural stigmatization - Segregative legislation - special educational need = Interculturality - Empowerment-neo-Indigenous-post-coloniality - Waiting for inclusive policies - Resource needs - cultural stigmatization - Where is the common ground? - NO Recognize cultural diversity (gynecology, nutrition, habits, etc.)
- Alterity, solidarity and social responsibility, etc. - Innovation for citizen participation = Inclusive education - Reflection for new challenges - Empowerment of subaltern persons
Religion
-To know What Is important for today's citizens. -View In the new state and municipality of identity needs.
- Know Various care - Dialogue Community - of-colonialism - education inclusive - Reflection for new challenges. - Keep Identities and interests in the future. - To Open new own spaces.
Public
- Closed spaces? - Threats assimilation of dominant cultures. - Difficulties in communication.
- Expressions Relations - Cultural identities in an expression of movement (Time Bank) - Autorías.
Health
355
356
Práxedes Muñoz Sánchez and Almudena Iniesta Martínez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
Private
- Invisibility - Failure to protect public - Unawareness
- Empowerment From "home" - Identity Resistance from self
3. Intercultural Mediators and intercultural competences The definition we have of intercultural mediator is included in the perspective of cultural identity and intercultural education. We move in spaces with multicultural realities, but with an important difference, equating migrant interculturality Ethnogenesis against native, or in the words of Gunther Dietz (2003, p. 174): "hegemonic" common sense "imposed by institutions majority society, but internalized as a kind of compromise or 'arrangement' by minority groups.” The intercultural process is immersed in a hegemony of the existing cultural competence in the community of the host or the majority, which tends to dilute or to make invisible the authenticities of cultures, and that is created as a cultural hybridization. Is built an identity of resistance who is a "cultural hybridization", it is where all factors converge "intracultural" "extracultural" (García Canclini, 1989) The mediator is perceived as an active person in the process of integration of migrant or minority culture. It is a sensitive and concerned person on the threat of cultural assimilation, in most cases, that creates cultural ethnogenesis processes of resistance in cultural hybridization (Muñoz, 2014a). The mediators say: "Improve the quality of life of immigrants, favoring the integrity and possibilities of employment; help them to acquire social skills, providing information and advice on social resources of the municipality where they reside. Waking up in each new knowledge about new concepts" (Women Maghreb Mediator, Murcia 2016) “It is a project of normalization of schooling (of immigrants) but is a patch, because the guilt of non-integration is the cast immigrants, because there is a hierarchy (...) life is an unequal race, children would develop if we shared the details of everyday life” (Man Maghreb mediator, Murcia, 2015) “Interpreting the work of the family and the child to attract the different cultures to the teachers, thus, prejudice would disappear, it’s not a rejection, you see only different, shortcuts it the conflict, because when they come to the country they have no idea of the problem and the mediator is an example for the teachers” (Man Maghreb mediator, Murcia 2014) “Initially there were two Maghreb students per class, now there are classes almost in its entirety of Maghreb origin, now it is not so much a problem, there is an evaluation, we have gone from answers to a project on complaints of "not knowing what to do with a foreign student in my class," where he was the mediator which helped in the compensatory, and right now the mediator goes to support registration and perform a plan of reception (...) In addition, our function becomes awareness around all the teachers” (Man Maghreb mediator, Murcia 2016) “They have exploited us, the indigenous peoples, political parties and Governments, "(...) they gave us a training course, we wake up from is the policy of the Government, and through manipulation, took advantage of the humility of the people", "the interesting is to function as a link between the communities and the government in the decision-making”. (Man, Member of the Indian Council México 2011) "I would like to know more about the Government to know where they are able to help to defend ourselves, I'd like to know about laws, what it is or why, what should be a Government, which functions for the people" (Indigenous Woman yokot’an Community Tapotzingo, México 2009) In a lot of times, the mediators have been at today a "compensatory education" (Spanish for foreigners classes) to a manager of interculturalism, to create a network between the society, family and school. The mediators are social educators, which we classify into three types: x x x x
Cultural visibilizador = sensitizer of identities and cultural practices. Cross-cultural social researchers. Gestores intercultural development (Dietz, 2009), in México. Community lideres that support the visibility and participation from cultural integration. Mediators and conciliators in the resolution of conflicts, as it is function of the specialized assistance to victims of gender violence.
In these categories of mediators, we include those who hold an official perception and who add contrary to this speech. The characteristics of the mediator may be subject to the domain of power "delegation and political fetishism" (Bourdieu, 1988), but in Ethnography all the mediators in a personal involvement and sense of otherness, many have participated in political parties or Government structures but have now moved away by their community values.
Práxedes Muñoz Sánchez and Almudena Iniesta Martínez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
Traditionally, men have occupied these positions of political power and spaces where women have been excluded from the public sphere and they are concerned with the development of the private and family space (Seidler, 2000). This cultural aspect of exclusion of women as a mediator is present in the reality of Mexico, there are communities where his mediation has been enabled when you have already created your family, but as women in their private space and in collective, create empowerment processes in their daily practices, which many are women drove to feminism in resistance (Muñoz, 2014a). Mediation needs differentiation of gender, which is to take over the violence in not only private, if not public as the violence in the classroom, it’s a meaning of female subordination through access of positions of public authority (Iniesta & Invernón, 2015). It is required to decolonize created gender roles as in other dimensions: "violence is part of structures that support the assumption of gender identities, as the perpetuation of the roles by society as determinants for the operation in the male and female" (Iniesta, 2015, p. 9). 4. Decolonization processes: cultural and intercultural In the term of Descolonization in the scope of the study of culture, discourse approaches identity traits. Mohamed Chamseddine (2015) recognizes in the construction of identity to the school as a master strategist, but at the same time if we turn to literature, an assimilative cultural construction of the powers that be has been evident (Dietz, 2003). Speeches to promote the knowledge of the culture of welcome and the commitment of the entire teaching community are perceived from the school (Oller & Colomé, 2010), and remembering Bordieu (1997), school teachers judge social individuals and "the reason changes with history," interesting to suit each teaching chronologically. Below are some urgencies to be decolonized and strategies or practices that are perceived from the actions of mediators and some of his proposals: Table 2. Proposals for decolonization of cultural dive To decolonize the knowledges
Strategies / best practices *Crítical y and reflection colaborativ
The structural and patriarchal empowerment?
Recognize practical daily support
Appropriateness and violence (De Sousa, 2014)
Dialogue of knowledges (Viton, 2012, Dietz, 2003) and knowledge of values
Common sense from the care and love (feminism or patriarchy?)
Talks of self-knowledge for decolonization of feminism and learn about the patriarchal diversity today.
Prejudices
Cultures in favour of relate (learn and share from the colabor) meetings between women in cultural diversity away from the current reality (exclusion of different women) (supported by civil society and educational institutions
Collaborative intervention and not from a directed developmen.
Active listening and relational care.
Autonomy and emancipation.
Recognition of different strategies for autonomy.
Creation of development agents with academic training from different cultures (advocacy, psychology, pedagogy, etc.)
Authorship from the collective in community development
All proposals are transnational in nature (Ruiz, 2009), and we can see it at distances between the actions of mediators in their host countries as when they return to their countries of origin, or even transfers within the same country but in different realities. All proposals respond to a collaborative work with participants to translate it into cultural competencies, and will give its fruit if there is citizen participation in their own emancipation development. We present about the transnational and perspective of the world system (Wallerstein, 2004). We believe the process of co-labor review of these knowledge areas must be reviewed in the context from the mediator, of the woman or man, of indigenous or mixed race, etc., for example: "We need to show how our religion is and that there are misunderstandings, my daughter wear the hiyab and a child took it and laughed at her in class. We should go to the schools and show how we are" (Arabic woman, Murcia 2015). "We are more than henna and hiyab" (girl 13 years old, student Muslim, Murcia 2015) This knowledge is a necessity of being visible, naturalized and respected. How make easy these channels? How to create the intercultural far from social interventions with create more State dependence? Although, sometimes we are faced with an absolute detachment from the official reality: “Moroccans are cheaters, they steal electricity and water from neighbours, they don´t want any help, whereas Senegalese population is not like that, the neighbors do not want to rent their homes to them” (Platform Affected by Mortgage volunteers, Murcia 2014) It is the same about the concept of gender and social Intervention:
357
358
Práxedes Muñoz Sánchez and Almudena Iniesta Martínez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
“The other conclusion is about the concept of gender in its space location; economic conditions are not the same in the capital than in villages (...). Women suffer a lot; they have many children, because they want to maintain their form of life. This is the essence of their lives, I contradict myself about the concept of gender and feminism (colonial);the real conditions from the Indigenous women in Guatemala depend on its geographical situation, living conditions and cultural part" (Women indigenous Mediator-leader, Guatemala 2009). This is an example of the difficult of various meanings of the categories, and the Mediator need to know the different knowledge about values, geographic areas, temporariness and culture. This intercultural competence is not learned, so it is urgent to teach teachers and public officials about this. For example: “Is There is Gender perspective in the feast of the neighborhood? Of course, the women would bring only sweets" (Volunteer of NOG Murcia 2015) “Okay, fine, that's fine, whenever the poster of the financing bank can be viewed clearly (Responsible's enterprise social project, Murcia 2015) This shows a distancing to reality, but also the urgency of an ethical, interdisciplinary and consistent training people for whom the Mediators Intercultural works. 5. Conclusions: The Intercultural Mediator helps to decolonize the prejudice cultural this research wants to visualize some aspects that we consider relevant in the construction of cultural competence, and without distance ourselves from perceptions and realities of people who create mediation for community development, starts from understanding other as participation in citizenship, with a deconstruction of the structural subalternity, which is possible in emancipatory processes. It’s very interesting to create spaces for reflection to democratize public life if we recognize the dialogue of knowledges and the ecology of knowledge, in a complete and complex analysis of reality. Only to decolonize is possible if there is work collaboratively with the community. This requires learning from the educational field; create an awareness of citizenship under construction from Community aspects, such as these: x Recognition of the difference x Metacultural reflection process to (Jiménez, 2009) x Incorporation into the educational curriculum, the culture, the Decolonization and Postcoloniality. x Build a curriculum of multicultural social tools away from folklore and attentive to everyday life. x Build cultural equity (gender, ethnic, religious) in community involvement (associations, house and street / privatepublic, places of worship and entertainment) And finally, in this area to multiculturalism, it is necessary to recontextualise everything what is heard, what was observed and the processes that we can experience, it’s necessary not to conserve the assimilation to the homogeneity of cultural competencies, and it’s very important to know the ledges about the different cultures, feminisms and emancipatory development to make an optimal mediation. Acknowledgements We thank the people who showed us their homes, schools and communities, the community of San Pedro, Tapotzingo and Tamulté de la Sabana in Mexico, Primavera del Ixcán in Guatemala, women of AMAFRICA of Torres de Cotillas in Murcia, Mediator in Murcia and to the college of Roldan, Hernandez Ardieta, they have contributed with their experiences and knowledge. References Bourdieu, P. (1997). Capital cultural, escuela y espacio social. México: Siglo xxi. Bourdieu, P. (1988). La delegación o el fetichismo político. Buenos Aires: Gedisa. Oller, C. & Colomé, E. (2010). Alumnado de otras culturas: acogida y escolarización. Barcelona: Graó. Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (1988). Teoría crítica de la enseñanza. Barcelona: Martínez Roca. Chamsedine, M. (2015). La construcción de identidad compartida en un aula intercultural. Revista electrónica interuniversitaria de formación del profesorado, 18(3), 69-81. Da Matta, R. (2002). Carnavales, malandros y héroes. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica. De Sousa Santos, B. (2014). Más allá del pensamiento abismal: de las líneas globales a una ecología de saberes. In B. De Sousa Santos & M. P. Meneses (Eds.) Epistemologías del Sur (Perspectivas), (pp. 21-107). Madrid: Akal. Dietz, G. (2003). Multiculturalismo, Interculturalidad y Educación: Una aproximación antropológica. Granada: Universidad de Granada, CIESAS. Dietz, G. (2009). Los actores indígenas ante la interculturalización de la educación superior en México:¿empoderamiento o neo indigenismo?. Revista Latinoamericana de Educación Inclusiva, 3(2), 55-75. García Canclini, N. (1989). Culturas híbridas: estrategias para entrar y salir de la modernidad. México: Grijalbo.
Práxedes Muñoz Sánchez and Almudena Iniesta Martínez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 354 – 359
359
Hale, C. R. (2008). Reflexiones sobre la práctica de una investigación descolonizada. In A. Köhler (Coord.), Anuario 2007 (pp. 297-313), Tuxtla Gutiérrez, CESMECA-Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas. Iniesta, A (2015). Introducción. Violencia escolar y Género. Feminismo/s, 25, 9-12. Iniesta, A & Invernón, A (2015) Violencia escolar y relaciones de género. Violencia escolar y Género, Feminismo/s, 25, pp. 71-87. Jiménez Naranjo, Y. (2009). Cultura comunitaria y escuela intercultural, más allá de un contenido escolar. México: Coordinación Nacional de Educación Intercultural y Bilingüe. Leyva, X., Buguete, A. & Speed, Sh. (Coords.) (2008). Gobernar (en) la diversidad: experiencias indígenas desde América Latina. Hacia la investigación de colabor. México: Publicaciones de la Casa Chata, Ciesas, Flacso. Masson, S. (2011). Sexo/género, clase, raza: feminismo descolonial frente a la globalización: Reflexiones inspiradas a partir de la lucha de las mujeres indígenas en Chiapas. Andamios, 8(17), 145-177. Muñoz, P. (2012). Dilemas de una antropología comprometida: entre autores y experiencias etnográficas. In B. Peña (Eds), Desarrollo Humano (pp. 247-281). Madrid: Visión Libros. Muñoz, P. (2014a). Experiencias de construcción de resistencias e identidades de género en colectivos de mujeres en Tabasco. Dilemas de la antropología comprometida. ¿Cambios posibles?. In L. Rodríguez, S. E. Hernández y M. C. Ventura (Coords.), Democracia, cultura política y ciudadanía en el México de hoy, (pp. 175-197), México: UNAM. Muñoz, P. (2014b). Investigaciones experienciales, una apuesta para descubrir la interculturalidad desde la educación política y la simbología comunitaria. In A. Mendieta y C. J. Santos (Coords.) Líneas emergentes en la investigación de vanguardia, (pp. 449-459). Madrid: McGraw-Hill. Muñoz, P. & Álvarez, M. (2015). La escucha etnográfica en la violencia de género desde espacios educativos culturales. Reflexión para descolonizar el feminismo. Feminismo/s 25, pp. 133-157. Ruiz, S. (2009). La perspectiva transnacional de las migraciones: desafíos e implicaciones prácticas. Cuadernos Bakeaz, 93, 1-12. Seidler, V. J. (2000). La sin razón masculina. Masculinidad y teoría social. Barcelona: Paidos. Vitón, M. J. (2012). Diálogos con Raquel. Praxis Pedagógicas y reflexión de saberes para el desarrollo educativo en la diversidad cultural. Madrid: Editorial Popular. Wallerstein, I. M. (2004). Capitalismo histórico y movimientos antisistémicos: un análisis de sistemas-mundo (Vol. 24). Madrid: Akal.