Investigación cualitativa indigena para el progreso comunitario: Caso Peguche Ecuador

Abstract

This research responds to the need to systematize shared and legitimized Andean community knowledge, in order to give continuity to the social ethnic processes developed by the researcher for more than a decade of having participated and built local experiences and knowledge through qualitative research., and in turn promote sustainable community tourism in the Fakcha Llakta community, Otavalo Canton, Ecuador. The purpose was to capture the historical reconstruction that emerged from the Otavaleña Kichwa indigenous community experience, based on the practice of environmental, cultural and ecotourism educational knowledge, carried out in the “Cascada de Peguche” Protected Forest. The research work is based on the socio-constructionist qualitative paradigm, with an ethnographic approach, of an interpretive type, supported by a descriptive and documentary field study, through participant observation. Information was obtained through in-depth interviews with key informants from the indigenous community selected according to specific criteria: leadership, social commitment, willingness to participate, trust and empathy, among others. The findings or results are based on the construction of environmental educational milestones such as: Fakcha Llakta Birdwatching, Ecotourism and Cultural Tourism; Consolidated-Significant Learning in Community Ecotourism; Socioeconomic, Educational-Environmental Learning; Social Values, Motivation, Self-esteem and Local Capacities; and La Minga as Ancestral Wisdom for Socio-Productive Development. Milestones or dimensions emerged and implemented to promote community tourism, immersed in everyday knowledge, Andean wisdom and ancestral orality expressed in their actions in the continuous projection, improvement and incorporation of new knowledge with a local vision of the future for their generations.