Philosophical and anthropological contributions of Sumak Kawsay for the pedagogies of the arts in Ecuadorian Higher Education

Abstract

This article aims to critically reflect on the construction of the professional profile of arts and humanities teachers in Higher Education in Ecuador, in order to improve their employability in schools, colleges and institutes. For this reason, the research uses a qualitative, with an exploratory and descriptive nature, that promotes a philosophical and anthropological review to propose a reconceptualization of teaching-learning processes that occur in the subject ‘Cultural and Artistic Education’ (CAE) of the General Basic Education (GBE) curriculum. As a result, the pedagogical trends of the pre-Hispanic era, the colonial era and from the Republic of the 19th century to the present are described. The statistical estimates published by the Ministry of Education (2021) on the number of Ecuadorian educational institutions that train students in subjects related to the arts in both Basic Education and Unified General Baccalaureate, as well as in specialized institutions and that need teachers are shown. From a complex, transdisciplinary, decolonial and intercultural educational vision, the research proposes eight philosophical and anthropological principles derived from the Sumak Kawsay indigenous Quechua worldview, aimed at building an educational philosophy of teacher training that improves their pedagogical and artistic skills. To conclude, public policies and higher education curricula that guide the professional profile of students who will work as teachers are discussed.