Observation-based pedagogy for Indigenous education: a decolonising framework

This article introduces the Indigenous Observation-Based Learning Framework [IOLF], a pedagogical model developed through interviews with practitioners, Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators in the Orinoquía and Amazon regions of Colombia. The IOLF emerges as a philosophical and practice-based response to how institutions continue to marginalise Indigenous ways of learning. Rather than imposing fixed typologies or cognitive profiles, the IOLF proposes five interconnected ways of learning – kinaesthetic/experiential, visual/observational, oral/narrative, reflective/individual, and relational/environmental. Educators apply the model through real time observation using simple indicators that guide attention to how learning unfolds in primary and secondary Indigenous education settings. This framework supports pedagogical adaptation, curriculum design, and teacher preparation, in contexts where existing models fail to reflect local knowledge systems. In rejecting postcolonial education practices and reconceptualising observation as ethical presence, the IOLF contributes to pedagogical debates on epistemic justice, decoloniality, and the design of education with, rather than for, Indigenous communities.