“Yvypóra (being human)”: Land, community, and school leadership in rural Paraguay

Abstract

School principals in rural Paraguay face several challenges in administering accessible and equitable educational opportunities to their students. The nationwide education reform effort in Paraguay has not been able to counteract challenges, perpetuating the disproportionate number of rural students dropping out, or being pushed out, of the education system. Moreover, education is often underfunded throughout the country and worsens in poor rural areas. This study provided insights into how these principals’ lived experiences shape their humanity and how this is linked to their school leadership practice. What I came to understand was how school principalship is also about “becoming human”, connected to land and community over time, and how these elements shape their leadership practice. I utilized life histories as the methodology to answer the research question. The concept of humanity is rooted in the Guarani understanding of the word yvypóra, a decolonizing epistemology to study school principals. To do so, I examine the life histories of five school principals in rural Paraguay. Through their narratives, I illustrate through life stories examples of the yvypóra of these five school principals of two agricultural schools in rural Paraguay. When I was analyzing their lived experiences, I identified that their way of being human was informed by their land and their community. Thus, I argue school principals are learners from the land and their community, shaping their humanity as the spirit of the land [yvypóra] to lead their agricultural schools in Paraguay. By having a decolonial approach, the conceptual framework of yvypóra expands how context matters in school leadership, thinking of how the context – land and community- informed their leadership practice in rural Paraguay. Keywords: school leadership; decoloniality; Guarani; agricultural schools; Latin America; Paraguay; narrative inquiry