This paper describes the collective action institutions of the indigenous education system in the Males territory, located in the Nariño department in southern Colombia. The study was based on the systemic paradigm, the explanatory-level qualitative approach, and grounded ethnography. Sixty-three members of the community participated in the study, with whom observations, conversations, and mingas were carried out as information collection techniques. The data were analyzed through a coding and categorization process, with the support of ATLAS.ti v22 software. The results allow the identification of two educational subsystems: one schooled, permeated by formal rules, and another unschooled (indigenous education), supported by informal institutions such as the stove, the chagra, the minga, and the territory itself. This provides evidence that education can be co-managed by the community under solid rules, as trust has been built on shared attributes.
