Positive discrimination as discourse: A methodological approach for studying Australian and Chilean indigenous educational experiences

This essay proposes a methodological approach based on a Foucaultian discourse analysis and also on Nakata's cultural interface, to study higher education institutions and their relationship with their indigenous students. The paper is divided into the following sections: the archeology of knowledge and statements; subjects and objects of knowledge; knowledge, power and subjectivity; truth and 'claims to know' indigenous subject; cultural interface; Australian indigenous higher education; and lessons for Chile. From the description of the concept of positive discrimination, treated here as discourse, the Australian case is analyzed and possible lessons are proposed for the context of indigenous students in Chilean higher education.