Literacy Practices of Mexican Indigenous Children

• In Event: Translanguaging for Critical Literacy: An Expansive, Ecological View of Language

Abstract

Objectives
This paper presents findings of a qualitative study documenting the non-school and school related literacy practices of Indigenous children whose parents are alphabetically illiterate or have low levels of formal education. Indigenous children's education in Mexico is reported to be in a critical state. The lowest level of literacy and the highest level of retention and dropout rates are concentrated among the Indigenous population (López-Gopar, 2016). This is the case, however, only if school-valued literacy practices and standardized tests are taken as the norm. It has also been argued that a “Eurocentric” (Menezes de Souza, 2003), neocolonial (Hernández-Zamora, 2009) and “alphabetic-only” view of literacy (López-Gopar, 2007) places indigenous peoples, especially alphabetic “illiterate” parents, in a deficit model without acknowledging the different literacies they have designed and re-designed on a daily basis. Even though there has been research on Indigenous students (Mena, Muñoz & Ruíz, 2000; Ogulnick, 2006; Paccioto, 2004), this research has been conducted in rural communities and with little emphasis on literacy issues despite their connection to school “success”. Hence, this study sheds light on how Indigenous students engage in literacy practices in urban centers and how these practices connect with their formal schooling and daily life.

Theoretical framework
This study draws on theories that view literacy as a socially-, culturally- and historically-framed practice (Barton, 1994; The New London Group, 2006; Street, 2003). The study also utilizes decolonizing literacy theories (Hernández-Zamora, 2010), which argue that traditional concepts of “illiteracy” fail to describe the full landscape of literacy practices present in Mexican people. A decolonizing view of literacy holds that the social fields of literacy activities are cultural constructions within historically-specific hegemonic terrains of power and authority stemming from Mexico’s colonial past (Hernández-Zamora, 2009; López-Gopar, 2007). Connecting translanguaging (García, 2009) to decolonizing theories, this study views the “trans” in translanguaging as Indigenous children’s transgressions of their colonial past.

Data source and analysis
The data collection consisted of three semi-structured interviews with ten indigenous children from two different schools in urban neighborhoods in Oaxaca, Mexico. The data was complemented by classroom observations, teachers’ interviews, students’ grades and work samples, and informal conversations with these children over one academic year. Based on the triangulation and iterative analysis of the data, this presentation focuses on three emergent themes involving the Indigenous children’s (1) challenging of colonial authority, (2) embodied literacy practices, and (3) role as literacy brokers in their families.

Results and scholarly significance of the study
This presentation concludes that in order for indigenous children to succeed in schools and standardized tests, their home and street literacy practices must be acknowledged and built upon in schools. The results of this study will speak to policy makers, administrators, researchers and teachers inviting them to learn about Indigenous children’s “real” literacy practices, if we are to prepare students for the “real” world. It will finally argue that in order to cultivate equitable education systems, educators must engage in decolonizing pedagogical practices which challenge historical relationships present in schools.

Author

• Mario E. Lopez-Gopar, Universityersidad Autonoma Benito Juarez de Oaxaca