Sawinakas: Epistemic Seeds for the Educational Pachakuti

Abstract

Teacher education in Bolivia faces the challenge of reversing colonial epistemicide that still silences Aymara indigenous knowledge in classrooms by imposing an extractivist and anthropocentric rationality. This study aimed to analyze how sawinakas (Aymara sayings), understood as epistemic seeds, can operationalize a decolonizing pedagogy that activates an educational Pachakuti through the application of the 4 little steps (listening, systematizing, socializing, applying). A qualitative approach with an autoethnographic design was used in the community of Corque Marka, with the participation of eight elders (jach’a jaqi) and the researcher as autoinformant. Data collection techniques were uñakipawi (observing with heart and spirit), parlakipawi (heart-to-heart dialogue), and amuykipawi (collective reflection), applied over ten months of fieldwork. Results show the compilation of 64 valid sawinakas, distributed across the four dimensions of uywawi (integral nurturing): spiritual (21.9%), cognitive (17.2%), political (20.3%), productive (18.7%), and transversal (21.9%). Community validation through amuykipawi confirmed that sawinakas are not folkloric sayings but living uywaña kamachinaka (principles of nurturing) operating as knots in the relational network of Jiwasa. It is concluded that sawinakas constitute biocentric units of thought capable of decolonizing education through the 4 little steps, transforming the school into a space of integral nurturing (uywawi) oriented toward Suma Qamaña, as evidenced by the decolonization of school time, reconfiguration of classroom space, and community evaluation.