Colombia is a multicultural nation with a diverse indigenous and Afro-Colombian population, evidenced by some 80 individual indigenous languages spoken today. Colombia’s history of slavery, together with a prolonged civil war, has made Indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations particularly vulnerable to violence and discrimination. The civil war displaced over 7 million people, with the ethnic populations representing 30% of those displaced, showing that even though Indigenous and Afro-Colombians are a small portion of Colombia’s total population they are disproportionately affected by the violence. While many scholars agree that Colombia has made improvements by adding ethnic, specifically Indigenous, focused education, multilingual language learning, rights and protection to the Colombian Constitution, the policies are not being fully implemented and the government’s main focus is on bilingual education, meaning Spanish-English. This research focuses on the Afro-Colombian curricula and through observation, interviews, and participation in the schools, evaluates how schools are adapting curriculum to better serve the Afro-Colombian population. The qualitative research increases understanding of multicultural education, demonstrates the enforcement of the state-run ethnic-school policies and shows how adaptation t curriculum can help address xenophobia and discrimination of a marginalized population.
