Abstract

This groundbreaking volume describes unprecedented changes in education across Latin America, resulting from the endorsement of Indigenous peoples' rights through the development of intercultural bilingual education. The chapters evaluate the ways in which cultural and language differences are being used to create national policies that affirm the presence of Indigenous peoples and their cultures within Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Guatemala. Describing the collaboration between grassroots movements and transnational networks, the authors analyze how social change is taking place at the local and regional levels, and they present case studies that illuminate the expansion of intercultural bilingual education. This book is both a call to action for researchers, teachers, policy-makers and Indigenous leaders, and a primer for practitioners seeking to provide better learning opportunities for a diverse student body.

A must-read for scholars, students, and others interested in issues of social justice. An engaging collection of papers on the rising political voice of Indigenous movements in Latin America, their struggle against forced assimilation, and their demand for recognition of their unique ways of knowing and being.

The present publication provides a highly relevant and up-to-date overview on the contemporary trends that are shaping intercultural and bilingual education for Latin American indigenous peoples. Both well established and experienced researchers and emerging young academics guide us through a landscape of very diverse contexts, but which are inter-related through the transnationally disseminated discourse of interculturality – a discourse which still faces the challenge of being appropriated and re-signified by local and regional educational actors and institutions.

Few, if any, English-language surveys of indigenous and intercultural education have ever offered scholars and students the historical and national depth that is evident in this wonderful collection, while also presenting such a wide vista on the international and local political actors in this field. Regina Cortina has assembled an invaluable resource not only for those concerned with Latin America, but for anyone wishing to understand how national-level and global movements are being reshaped, and frequently contested, by the actualized demands of indigenous leaders and movements.

Regina Cortina is Associate Professor of Education in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her current research explores European aid to education in Latin America and its strategic importance for the field of international and comparative education. Dr Cortina studies the role of education in international development and poverty reduction, particularly focusing on ways in which greater opportunities can be created for marginalized groups.