School literary canon and cultural diversity in literature teaching.

Abstract

The cultural diversity of Ecuador contrasts with a school literary canon that continues to privilege a limited repertoire and an unequal representation of authors and traditions. The study aimed to analyze the relationship between the configuration of the school literary canon and the representation of cultural diversity in the teaching of literature in the Ecuadorian Unified General Baccalaureate. A qualitative, documentary, non-experimental, and descriptive-interpretive approach was employed, thru thematic analysis of curricula, school texts, pedagogical guides, and editorial catalogs. The results showed a curricular sequence focused on Spanish, Latin American, and Ecuadorian literature, accompanied by the predominance of male and mestizo authors, a reduced presence of female and Afro-descendant authors, the absence of indigenous authors, and the recurrence of a few works. Likewise, the reading mediation maintained a structure of pre-reading, reading, and post-reading, with a predominance of literal activities over inferential and critical ones. These findings show that the diversity recognized in the curriculum does not materialize equivalently in the materials or in the pedagogical strategies. It is concluded that it is necessary to build a dynamic, plural, and intercultural canon that articulates literary heritage, cultural representativity, and critical reading.