The Latinization of Indigenous Students: Erasing Linguistic Identity and Restricting Opportunity

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Four
  In Roundtable Session: Challenging Erasure, Symbolic Violence, and Assumptions of Race and Language (Table 3)

Abstract

I interrogate how consequential representations of student characteristics are fashioned by analyzing identification and recording of student and parent language in K-12 school registration by analyzing observation data, school records, interviews, and a language inventory. Language information for some K-12 students and parents (especially Indigenous Mexicans) collected during enrollment are not recorded accurately and undergo transformation from collection to reporting. Students’ parents were Indigenous language speakers 19 times more often than reflected in raw school records. This linguistic re-formation resulted from several factors, including registrars recording languages as others (i.e., Spanish instead of Náhuatl) and differential questioning practices. As discussed, enhanced procedures and updated policy should improve areas affected by inaccurate data.

Author

• Rebecca A. Campbell-Montalvo, University of Connecticut
  Presenting Author