Academic courses on interculturality have become a rapidly growing discipline in the West, where supranational bodies such as the EU and UNESCO promote intercultural education as a path towards improved global cultural relations. Through interviews with students who completed a university course on interculturality, this essay investigates the tenets of interculturality and problematises whether this discourse merely reproduces a classificatory logic embedded in modernity that insists on differences among cultures. The argument put forward is that in the analysed context, interculturality tends to reproduce the very colonial ideas that it seeks to oppose. In doing so, interculturality reinforces the collective 'we' as the location of modernity by deciding who is culturally different and who is in a position that must be bridged to the mainstream by engaging in intercultural dialogue.

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This article pushes for the possibility of alternative ways of thinking about the concept of interculturality depending on where and by whom it is being articulated (the geopolitics and body politic of knowledge). To illustrate this, the focus is shifted away from the policies of the European Union and UNESCO to the Andean region of Latin America where the notion of interculturalidad is not only a subject on the educational agenda but has also become a core component of indigenous social movements' demands for decolonization. Part of the argument of this article is that interculturalidad, with its roots in the historical experience of colonialism and in the particular, rather than in assertions of universality, offers a perspective on interculturality that relies on other epistemologies. It concludes by arguing that interculturality should be seen as interepistemic rather than simply intercultural.

The present essay focuses on problematizing the European Union's claim that intercultural dialogue constitutes an advocated method of talking through cultural boundaries—inside as well as outside the classroom—based on mutual empathy and non‐domination. More precisely, the aim is to analyze who is being constructed as counterparts of the intercultural dialogue through the discourse produced by the EU in policies on education, culture and intercultural dialogue. Within the Union, Europeans are portrayed as having an a priori historical existence, while the ones excluded from this notion are evoked to demonstrate its difference in comparison to the European one. The results show that subjects not considered as Europeans serve as markers of the multicultural present of the space. Thus, intercultural dialogue seems to consolidate differences between European and Other—the ‘We’ and ‘Them’ in the dialogue—rather than, as in line with its purpose, bringing subjects together.

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ResumenEl presente escrito compara la representación de los indígenas y su cultura en libros escolares en Suecia con sus equivalentes en Colombia. El objetivo es indagar si existen diferencias y similitudes en la reproducción de la comunidad indígena en ambos países. El estudio concluye que aunque los libros escolares de Colombia profundizan en el rendimiento de los hechos, en cuanto a la extensión textual para la descripción y explicación de los hechos, en ambos países es consistente la tendencia a representar a los indígenas como diferentes y considerarlos como inferiores. Específicamente en la forma de explicar su forma de vivir y sus conocimientos, donde encontramos explicaciones de lo que tenían y no tenían, lo que conocían y no conocían: todo hecho desde un punto de vista euro céntrico.palabras clave: Libros escolares, indígenas, eurocentrismo, América Latina, Suecia, Colombia.AbstRAct In this article we compare how the native population of Latin America and their culture is represented in History schoolbooks both in Sweden and in Colombia. The aim was to find out if there are differences and similarities in the reproduction of the native community in both countries. The study shows that Colombian schoolbooks give information more thoroughly, describing and explaining the facts, however, both countries consistently show the trend to represent the natives as being different and inferior, especially when describing their way of living and their knowledge. We find explanations about what they owned and what they did not own, what they knew and did not know, all focused from a Eurocentric perspective.Key words: Schoolbooks, native people, eurocentric, Latin America, Sweden, Colombia.Resumo Este estudo compara a representação dos povos indígenas e sua cultura nos livros escolares na Suécia, com os seus homólogos na Colômbia. O objetivo é investigar se há diferenças e semelhanças na reprodução da comunidade indígena nos dois países. O estudo conclui que os livros escolares da Colômbia dão informação mais detalhada, descrevendo e explicando os fatos, no entanto, os dois países mostram, de maneira consistente, a tendência a representar os povos indígenas como sendo diferentes e inferiores, especificamente na forma de explicar o seu modo de vida e seu conhecimento. Encontramos explicações sobre o que eles possuíam e o que não possuíam, sobre o que sabiam e o que não sabiam: tudo enfocado a partir de uma perspectiva eurocêntrica.palavras-chave: Livros escolares, indígenas, eurocentrismo, América Latina, Suécia, Colômbia.

This essay scrutinises the ways in which students who have completed a university course on interculturality distinguish between sameness and otherness in attempts to integrate, relate to, and build a bridge to those deemed culturally different. It makes use of interviews to analyse the factors that shape the interpretation of otherness and difference in the students' definitions of interculturality, as well as their statements about the relationships between us and them, and descriptions of instances of learning and teaching that have taken place between parties in different parts of the world. Theoretically, the essay is based on a postcolonial framework, highlighting the continuing influence of colonialism and Eurocentric ways of reasoning inside as well as outside the classroom in today's society. One of the main conclusions of the essay is that in the process of transferring knowledge, there is a risk that the history of modern Europe will be sanctioned as the historical trajectory for the rest of the world to follow, with the accompanying supposition that this can only be made possible by extending a helping hand to the Other.