ComeUnity CAPACITY BUILDING

Indigenous Collaboration
Collaboration in indigenous communities, particularly in the Americas, often involves the
entire community working toward a common goal in a horizontal structure with flexible
leadership. Children in some indigenous American communities collaborate with the
adults. Children can be contributors in the process of meeting objectives by taking on
tasks that suit their skills.
Indigenous learning techniques comprise Learning by Observing and Pitching In. For
example, a study of Mayan fathers and children with traditional Indigenous ways of
learning worked together in collaboration more frequently when building a 3D model
puzzle than Mayan fathers with western schooling. Also, Chillihuani people of the Andes
value work and create work parties in which members of each household in the
community participate. Children from indigenous-heritage communities want to help
around the house voluntarily.
In the Mazahua Indigenous community of Mexico, school children show initiative and
autonomy by contributing in their classroom, completing activities as a whole, assisting
and correcting their teacher during lectures when a mistake is made. Fifth and sixth
graders in the community work with the teacher installing a classroom window; the
installation becomes a class project in which the students participate in the process
alongside the teacher.
They all work together without needing leadership, and their movements are all in sync
and flowing. It is not a process of instruction, but rather a hands-on experience in which
students work together as a synchronous group with the teacher, switching roles and
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