dc.description.abstract | This study explores the implementation of local knowledges in the Cuban Primary
Educational System under the paradigm of qualitative research. Hence, we attempt to
comprehend how the Cuban socialist government tried to de-alienate their Primary Educational
System through the process of nationalization. Thus, we attempt to balance the knowledge
production by exploring the Cuban perspective on local knowledges. Likewise, we explore to
what extent are local knowledges introduced in the Cuban primary system A) Referred to as
something exotic only, or B) As an alternative epistemological orientation. Finally, we discuss to
what extent the Cuban Primary Educational System departs from GAE1. After analyzing our
findings, we first came across that the Cuban educational authorities implemented the local
knowledges as a supplement to the existing epistemology. Second, we found out that Cuban
educational specialists do not recognize the implementation of local knowledges in the local Primary Educational System as an element belonging to a non-Western epistemology, rather they
understand that local knowledges come from or are generated from the existing cubanized school
subjects such as Spanish Language2 History of Cuba, Labor Education, Civic Education, Music
Education, and Artistic Education. Third, we also found out that the Cuban Primary Educational
System, represented by the local State, is able to promote a sort of schooling that provides the
Cuban primary pupils the embodied state of cultural capital understood by Bourdieu (1997, p.
47/48) as the knowledge and cultural background owned by the parents and family and therefore
transmitted to the next generations. Finally, we perceived that the nationalization process of the
Cuban educational curriculum did not manage to include the plurality of the Afro-Indigenous knowledges. For this reason, we wonder whether the Cuban Revolution was actually a popular
revolution that represented the values of the whole population, since great part of the Afro-
Indigenous knowledges has not been embraced in the creation of a new national culture.
“Quem não brinca junto, não luta junto”
This an old proverb from the Tupinambá nation in Brazil that means “who does not play
together, never fight together”, this idea is well known among individuals from traditional
communities such as indigenous tribes and maroon communities also known as quilombos in
Brazil. | en |