Influences of Modernity and Eurocentrism in Latin American education: a path towards decolonizing pedagogies

Abstract

Modernity was characterized by the ideals of the Enlightenment, whose features include rationalism, confidence in the power of reason, the dissemination of knowledge and faith in the progress of knowledge. Through the school experience, it was intended to endow individuals with rationality and train citizens tending to the homogeneity of the subjects. The modern enlightened project involved the development of hegemonic or Eurocentric epistemology based on the character and universal validity of European forms and models of knowledge, which was established in Latin America due to the prevailing colonialism. This article studies the influence of Eurocentrism in Latin America in relation to the educational field in the framework of colonial domination relations, decolonization processes and the emergence of decolonizing pedagogies as a way of overcoming hegemonic colonial impositions, focusing on popular education of youth and adults.