Indigenous Education and Knowledge - a de-legitimised Concept in the Education for All Strategies

In this paper the attempt is made to emphasize the differences between indigenous education practices and concepts and the Western imposed cultural ethnocentrism in the South East Asian Region. It is my hope that the discussions in the paper will be of interest to scholars and students engaged in development processes in pluri-ethnic societies. The action plans presented in the “Education for All” conferences in 1990 and 2000 are used to illustrate the differences in the concept of education. The plans show that the Western education concept still dominates in the development discourse. These conferences are important as “Education for All” strategies seem to be the main beacon of future development within education, as well as it is significant that other concepts of education than the Western are hardly given any attention in the two declarations. The point is further made that it is not a purely academic discussion, as the West has the institutional power to impose its hegemony in theory and practice. This notwithstanding, a new discourse is emerging within the research community which shows sensitivity to the problems of indigenous communities in the context of Third World development discourse.