Synergies between interculturality and education: a critical approach based on theoretical reflection

Abstract

This article offers a critical theoretical reflection on the synergistic relationships between interculturality and education in multicultural contexts. Methodologically, it draws on a documentary review of specialized databases and international organizations, applying the theoretical methods of analytical-synthetic, historical-logical, and inductive-deductive reasoning to explore the conceptual and practical tensions underlying these fields. A distinction is established between multiculturalism (as a description of cultural diversity) and interculturality (as a relational, political, and reparative process) with particular attention to critical interculturality. Three synergistic forms emerge as main findings: intercultural education as a curricular-pedagogical approach; intercultural communicative competence as a set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (an individual capacity); and, as the study's central contribution, interculturality as an intentional, programmed, and reparative socio-educational process. The analysis reveals that most documented experiences in Latin America focus on bilingual intercultural education and indigenous reclamation, whereas in Europe the emphasis lies on migration and school coexistence. The article concludes that the synergy achieves its highest potential when education embraces interculturality as a planned process with a decolonial and solidarity-based commitment, going beyond the mere descriptive acknowledgment of diversity.