UCLA

This thesis examines the Universidad Aut�noma Comunal de Oaxaca (UACO) in the Sierra Norte community of Guelatao de Ju�rez. The UACO is a new university that implements communal education methodologies in an attempt to reinvent higher education, to preserve ancestral wisdom, to form new communal leaders, and to systematize communal knowledge. The UACO curriculum examines the living, fluid concept of Comunalidad as a way of life that governs the communities’ relationship with the territory, organizational systems, collective labor activities, and festivities that form the cornerstone of communal life. Additionally, this research analyzes the evolution of the Mexican public education system, investigating the State’s approach to assimilate indigenous communities to a single, nationalized mestizo identity. I examine the historical trajectory from post Mexican Revolution assimilationist curricula to intercultural education methodologies, including the communal education pedagogies that form the base of the UACO’ curriculum. This research demonstrates how the UACO implements pedagogical approaches that systematize communal knowledge and reinforce ethnic pride in Oaxaca.