Introduction.

The central topic of the study is the influence of the application of a monocultural curriculum on the conceptions of the teaching of visual arts and its impact on learning, the construction of cultural identity, and recognition between Mapuche and non-Mapuche students.

Objective. To reveal teachers’ conceptions concerning the teaching of visual arts, the curriculum for the subject, and the context of cultural diversity in the Pehuenche area.

Methodology.

The methodological approach is qualitative and exploratory. The participants are seven secondary school visual arts teachers in an area populated by the Pehuenche ethnic group in the Araucanía Region of Chile. The data were collected by semi-structured interview and analyzed by axial, selective open coding, with triangulation between the investigators and the teachers to support the validity of the findings.

Results.

The main results show a lack of knowledge among the teachers of the multicultural context, deficiencies in initial teacher training, and the general problem of the relation between a monocultural curriculum and its effect on teachers’ beliefs about teaching visual arts in the context of cultural diversity.

Conclusions.

Visual arts teachers’ beliefs are affected by a monocultural curriculum, which is related to standardization and the negative values that it imposes. Furthermore, the curriculum conditions initial teacher training, standardizing teaching without consideration for contextual variables.