Decolonising Bolivian education: ideology versus reality

In line with a broader Latin American turn to the left, since 2006, Bolivia’s ‘politics of change’ of president Evo Morales includes a new ‘decolonising’ education reform called Avelino Sinani Elizardo Perez (ASEP). This ‘revolutionary reform’ envisions a radical restructuring of Bolivian society and revaluation of indigenous heritage through education and aims to replace the former ‘imposed’ neo-liberal education reform of 1994. Geared towards broader sociopolitical processes of social justice, Bolivia’s envisaged education transformation is built around four pillars, being (1) decolonisation, (2) intra- and interculturalism together with plurilingualism, (3) productive education and (4) communitarian education. Taking the contemporary Bolivian societal and educational context of tensions and inequalities as a starting point, this chapter analyses how the ‘revolutionary ideal’ of a social justice-oriented education system to ‘vivir bien’ - as laid down in the ASEP reform - is perceived by the different actors involved to be both appropriate and feasible. With this aim, the chapter examines the various challenges and opportunities for the policy discourse of the new ASEP reform for decolonising education and the government’s idea of teachers as the ‘soldiers of transformation’ to translate into an educational reality. In conclusion, there is still a long way to go to bridge the gap between ideological intentions and a complex educational reality.