Fearing Linguistic and Cultural Loss: Curriculum of Urgency in a Predominantly Indigenous School in Guatemala

• In Event: Place, Pathways, Persistence, and Protection in Schooling

Abstract

This qualitative research study analyzes the curriculum of an Escuela Normal Bilingüe Intercultural, ENBI, in the Western Highland of Guatemala, which is a predominantly indigenous school site. ENBIs were created as an attempt to restore human rights to Guatemala by training and recruiting indigenous teachers using a culturally relevant curriculum. Through participant observation and interviews, the speaker observes a curriculum of urgency. Curriculum of urgency is rooted in the political context and in the hopes by the predominantly indigenous faculty and administration for a continued collective and indigenous future. The curriculum of urgency is further defined as the explicit practice from faculty, staff, and administration that urged the indigenous students to rescue the community’s culture and language before it dies.

Author

• Lydia A Saravia, University of Illinois at Chicago