Exploring the Definitions of Intercultural Education for the Borderlands

• In Event: Educating for Sovereignty: A K-12 Recovery Framework for Indigenous and Latinx Students

Abstract

This study contributes to ongoing conversations about the role of intercultural bilingual education within transnational Indigenous communities that reside in the US Southwest and are part of the active economies in the state of New Mexico. Drawing from a phenomenological investigation at the Preparatoria Indígena Intercultural de Santa Fe de la Laguna in Michoacán, México, we explored how community-rooted education can serve as both resistance and reclamation in the face of displacement and structural marginalization.

A central finding highlights how the Purépecha community navigates transnationalism—not only as a condition of economic necessity but also as a space of agency. The high school, grounded in values such as Jarhoapekua (service), Sési Irékani (well-being), Kaxúmbekua (teachings and honor), and Pindékuecha (traditions), functions as a third space (Anzaldúa, 1987; Bhabha, 1994), where community members redefine educational goals in relation to cultural continuity, linguistic vitality, and youth retention.

This work holds significant implications for educational policy and practice in New Mexico, particularly in the context of Yazzie/Martinez v. State of New Mexico, where the courts ruled that the state had failed to meet its constitutional obligations to Native American, English learner, and low-income students. The demands articulated in Yazzie/Martinez—for culturally and linguistically sustaining education, locally rooted curriculum, and community engagement—mirror the grassroots efforts we document in Santa Fe de la Laguna.

In both contexts, we see Indigenous communities confronting the limitations of state-sponsored education by reimagining learning as a communal and intergenerational practice. This research offers a transnational lens for understanding how educational sovereignty can be enacted—not just as a legal right, but as a cultural and spatial practice that bridges Mexico and the U.S. borderlands. It also invites us to consider how policy remedies like those mandated in Yazzie/Martinez might be informed by Indigenous models beyond national boundaries.

Author

• Minea Armijo Romero, New Mexico State University