Volume : VI, Issue : IV, April - 2017

Mexican Indigenous Children and Elementary Bilingual Education

Karla Del Carpio

Abstract :

 Education plays a vital role in today’s society and it is an important tool that can be used to heal and to ing the community together. The truly human society is a learning society where everyone is given the opportunity to learn from each other and to contribute to their community. Education in essence is a social and enriching process where interaction between the individual and other people and the environment are key. Nonetheless, many times the true meaning and the purpose of education has been forgotten. An example of this is the transitional bilingual education that has been implemented in areas inhabited by indigenous peoples in Mexico where indigenous children have been discriminated against and their linguistic and cultural rights have been violated. This has damaged their personality and behavior, for example, children have become shy, quiet and isolated in the classroom due to the education they receive and the way they are treated. Many indigenous children’s voices have been taken away since they have been taught in a language they do not understand. They have been silenced since their human, linguistic and cultural rights have been violated. This situation motivated conducting a qualitative ethnographic research study to explore the elementary indigenous Tsotsil children’s educational experiences in a school located in the Highlands of Chiapas in southeast Mexico. The aim was to analyze the social and academic consequences of using or not children’s native language and culture in their learning process. That is, it was aimed to find to what extent indigenous Tsotsil children are affected when their native language and culture were or were not considered in their elementary education.  Over the course of one semester, children were observed passively and actively and were also interviewed by the main researcher. Students’ teachers were observed passively when teaching and were interviewed during the semester. Also, the school principal participated in this project. The findings give hope that education can contribute to the defense of indigenous children’s cultural and linguistic rights since the results of this project show that it is possible to emace, preserve and promote children’s indigenous language and culture through additive bilingual education. Also, the students especially those who were about to finish their elementary studies showed that the lack of financial resources is not a limitation for bi/multilingualism to take place when hard–work and commitment exist. The same is applicable to the teachers who work at the focus school. They do their best to maintain and promote the indigenous language despite the factors that do not favor the implementation of bilingual education. It is important to recognize that these teachers “perform magic with the little resources they have”, for example, with the few teaching materials they have. Also, they are instructors who care for their students, not only for the success of their academic performance at school, but also for their well–being as children. Teachers at the bilingual school have made significant contributions to the lives of their students and they have also ensured that they are given a voice it is common for extrovert indigenous children to become shy, silent and alienated in the school as the language they are taught in and spoken to is foreign to them. Fortunately, the indigenous children at the focus bilingual school do have a voice and their personality and behavior are positively affirmed as teachers maintain and promote the use of the native language and culture.

 

Keywords :

Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijsr  

Cite This Article:

Karla Del Carpio, Mexican Indigenous Children and Elementary Bilingual Education, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH : VOLUME-6 | ISSUE-4 | APRIL‾2017

Number of Downloads : 408

References :