The uses of indigenous language and the school experience in urban schools in the Metropolitan Zone of Guadalajara. Views and attitudes of teachers.

Abstract

The insertion of groups of indigenous peoples of Mexico into the cities offers them the possibility of schooling, but they face several difficulties to achieve it. The incorporation of migrants from these peoples into city schools takes place in a framework of inequality because ethnic diversity is not taken into account. Factors such as segregation, discrimination, or lack of knowledge of Spanish influence the schooling of students of indigenous origin. Some teachers consider that reading and writing in Spanish is a determining factor for the school development of migrant students to the detriment of the use of the indigenous language. Thus, the indigenous language plays a relevant role in the schooling of these students, in their school achievement and in the ways in which they are perceived and represented.

This article describes the role that teachers assign to the indigenous language in the schooling processes of migrants of ethnic origin in schools in the Metropolitan Zone of Guadalajara (ZMG). The perceptions of teachers collected during an ethnographic research conducted in an elementary school in the city are presented. The conditions of schooling of students of indigenous origin were followed up, including the opinions of the teaching staff. Through observations and interviews with the teaching staff, we identified the various dimensions of indigenous language in the schooling process, such as a marker  of ethnic belonging, national pride. The study identified the various dimensions of indigenous language in the schooling process, such as a marker of ethnic belonging, national pride, an obstacle to school development, a factor of discrimination or a limiting factor for learning Spanish, among others.