Indigenous School Education Is a Right, But It Has to Be Our Way: A Critical Diagnosis of Indigenous Teacher Education in Amapá and Northern Pará

Abstract

This article analyzes the challenges of indigenous teacher education in the states of Amapá and Northern Pará, within a historical context marked by tensions between assimilationist state policies and the struggles of Indigenous peoples for a differentiated, bilingual, and intercultural education. The 1988 Constitution represented a significant legal milestone by recognizing Indigenous rights and establishing the right to specific education. However, the implementation of these policies remains fragile. A relevant achievement is the creation of the Intercultural Indigenous Teaching Degree at the Federal University of Amapá, resulting from intense political mobilizations and institutional articulations. Nevertheless, the rise of neoliberal ideology has imposed a logic of efficiency and meritocracy on education, leading to the precarization of teaching, fragmentation of training policies, and weakening of Indigenous protagonism. The research, grounded in a bibliographic approach combined with documentary analysis, shows that Indigenous schools constitute strategic spaces of dispute between the reproduction of capitalist logic and the affirmation of ethnic identities. The study concludes that, despite the progress achieved, structural and political obstacles persist, making it essential to ensure continuous public policies and to value traditional knowledge in the construction of a truly emancipatory and intercultural education.