Higher-education classroom practices in Chile have historically followed the Eurocentric model in which the student is an 'empty vessel' and the instructor the one who fills it. This has led to the perpetuation of a specific model of knowledge creation and transmission that has historically ignored both non-Western cultures and knowledges but has also neglected attempts at developing practices that might foster greater critical thinking skills or that view education as a way of increasing consciousness, advocating social changes and challenging inequalities present in the classroom. Drawing on a number of different perspectives, from Orientalism, Critical Pedagogy and indigenous knowledge, this paper is written as a way to challenge existing systems and methods, in order to suggest a framework of action anchored in non-Eurocentric approaches and that are further rooted in participatory action research.