Intercultural dialogues in education in East Timor: insurgencies from ancestral knowledge and pedagogies

Abstract

Education in East Timor after its independence, officially recognized in 2002, faces one of its main challenges in the adoption of the Portuguese language in its educational systems; a process that is ongoing and fraught with colonial impositions. In this context, the objective of this article is to map the Brazilian academic production on Timorese education, aiming to understand how the research addresses critical interculturality, how the studies engage in dialogue with one another, and how their challenges, aligned with Freirean dialectic of denunciation-announcement, point toward ancestral knowledge and pedagogies. The methodology employed is bibliographic mapping, based on the analysis of articles published since 2005, the year that marks the officialization of Brazilian cooperation in the country. A few articles and academic works relate the themes of education, interculturality, and East Timor – a scarcity that underscores the emergence of a new field of investigation. By criticizing traditional pedagogical models that perpetuate inequalities, the findings propose the development of educational practices that value local cultural richness. They also indicate that education in East Timor must transcend the mere transmission of content, seeking instead to promote dialogue among different ways of knowing in respect for its cultural diversity. The mapping further suggests that interculturality should serve as a tool for resistance and transformation in education, enabling both teachers and students to recognize and value the multiple identities that compose Timorese society.