Monocultural character of the diagnostic assessment of special educational needs in the Mapuche context

Abstract

The objective of this work is to critically analyze the diagnosis of Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the Mapuche context. From this perspective, the authors argue that the SEN diagnosis applied to Mapuche students is essentially a monocultural pedagogical practice. The methodology used is a bibliographic review of empirical and theoretical research on the evaluation of SEN in contexts of social and cultural diversity, through a search of scientific articles in the Web of Science, Scielo and Eric databases. The results reveal that Chilean education policy enforces a standardized model of SEN diagnosis, which is applied in the same way in all regions of the country without distinction. It is a legal device that responds to theoretical and practical aspects, but not to the social and cultural diversity present in the territory. The SEN diagnosis applied is monocultural, since it is based on an international classification of disability and health functioning, and on standardized tests designed for the non-indigenous population of Chile. It is concluded that the SEN diagnosis of Mapuche students is a consequence of the epistemological distance between Mapuche knowledge and Western scholarly knowledge, and does not necessarily reveal learning and participation difficulties arising from a disability or disorder.