Creating professionals with an intercultural community spirit

By: Neylin Calderón

One of the cross-cutting axes of the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast (URACCAN) and also a philosophy of its institutional life, is Interculturality, which consists of a permanent process of construction, establishment and strengthening of spaces of dialogue, communication and horizontal interaction of two ways.

Therefore, interculturality in URACCAN, over 25 years of work for the identity strengthening of the indigenous, Afro-descendant and mixed peoples of the Caribbean Coast, is one of the ways to comply with institutional philosophy, preparing professionals proud of their cultures, with great capacities, with fundamental principles and values in the implementation of work in their communities.

Thus, URACCAN, in its university campus Bilwi prepares 18 students of the career Educational Sciences, with mention in Mathematics. This race is carried out under the modality by meeting, being of the misquita indigenous communities of Puerto Cabezas; their knowledge gained in classrooms is transferred to their communities' primary and secondary education classrooms.

Intercultural Training

Among the methodological strategies carried out by the teacher Elebe Williams Muller, teacher in the area of mathematics, is that by teaching his subject in the classroom he performs it in Spanish and in the misquita mother tongue, in this way he conceives the agile recruitment of students, in addition to strengthening the teaching-learning within the classroom, "this allows to have with the student a greater communication , confidence and that helps us make the teaching-learning process more fluid, more open for student learning," teacher Williams said.

For students it is a way of contributing to education in the communities that are so lacking, as recounted by Arturo Campos, originally from the community of Layasiksa and student of the 4th year of the mathematics career, commenting that this opportunity provided by the URACCAN allows him to continue to fight professionalize and serve his people , it should be noted that in the misquita indigenous communities of Puerto Cabezas, they require professionals in education sciences because it seeks to implement the knowledge learned in indigenous children.

Education with relevance and quality

For her part, the young Josseling Albizú, originally from the Krukira community and also a student of mathematics, thanks the URACCAN University for opening up this type of higher education careers, and also expressed that the quality and relevance of education in this academy, through bilingual teaching, helps the growth of students.

URACCAN offers careers related to the multicultural context, since this institution is located in a territory surrounded by indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and mestiza population, so it has specific areas of training, which contribute to curriculum strengthening and also helps in the training of new professionals with intercultural community approaches.