Nasa Own Education, Buen Vivir, and Resistance to Armed Conflict in Cauca

Abstract

This article examined Nasa own education in Cauca as a pedagogical construction linked to autonomy, language, memory, territory and the defense of life, located in contexts of persistent armed pressure, institutional dispute and community resistance. The general objective was to synthesize the literature published between 2020 and 2025 in order to establish how this education operated in the construction of buen vivir and in resistance to armed conflict. A qualitative thematic review was conducted using fifty-five sources, including peer-reviewed articles, theses, institutional reports and community documents, selected according to thematic relevance, time frame, bibliographic traceability and public availability. The analysis was organized around four axes: political-pedagogical project, buen vivir and territoriality, linguistic revitalization and memory, and community responses to war. The findings showed that own education functioned as a political-pedagogical project, articulated the revitalization of Nasa Yuwe, self-government, territorial care and intergenerational training, and strengthened community repertoires such as the Indigenous Guard, own justice and collective protection practices. Persistent tensions with the state model were also identified, especially insufficient funding, partial recognition of the Indigenous Own Educational System and administrative schemes that restricted autonomy. The review concluded that, in the Nasa case, education constituted a collective infrastructure for cultural continuity, territorial protection and peacebuilding from below.