ETHNOMATHEMATICS AND ALTERNATION IN INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE: PATHWAYS TO INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION

Abstract

This article analyzes the historical impacts of colonization on Indigenous peoples in Brazil, highlighting both physical genocide and epistemicide, understood as the destruction of traditional knowledge systems. From this perspective, it discusses the need for a critical intercultural education capable of valuing Indigenous epistemologies and overcoming the Eurocentric logic that has historically shaped schooling. In this context, Ethnomathematics is presented as a decolonial epistemology that recognizes culturally situated mathematical practices, while the Pedagogy of Alternation is explored as a methodology that articulates times and spaces of learning between school and community. The experience reported in the Indigenous Knowledge at School Program (SIE), developed with Mura and Sateré-Mawé teachers in Amazonas, demonstrates the potential of combining these approaches to strengthen contextualized educational practices, legitimize Indigenous knowledge, and promote curricula that contribute to historical justice and the dignity of Indigenous peoples