Abstract

This study analyzes the conceptions and practices of rural teachers in Chile's Araucanía region regarding intercultural geography education in diverse school contexts. Through a qualitative approach and a multiple case design, we collected the experiences of 15 teachers from schools with an intercultural and environmental focus. The results reveal an expanded understanding of geography as a formative discipline that is linked to territory, identity, and local knowledge. Likewise, teachers show an orientation towards critical interculturality, understood as the recognition and articulation of diverse cultures and epistemologies. Significant efforts have been made to integrate the intercultural approach into the curriculum through contextualized pedagogical practices and the recovery of the Mapuche language and worldview. However, tensions persist with the national curriculum, the scarce training in interculturality, and institutional limitations. This research concludes that, although rural teachers are willing to move towards an intercultural approach to geography education, a structural transformation of the education system is needed to legitimize territorial knowledge, strengthen intercultural teacher training, and promote education policies that are consistent with the cultural diversity of the territories.