The Education of Indigenous Citizens in Latin America
Regina Cortina, Regina Cortina
- 224 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Education of Indigenous Citizens in Latin America
Regina Cortina, Regina Cortina
About This Book
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.
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Table 1.1 Indigenous peoples, populations and languages in Latin America | ||||||
Country and date of National Census | Total national population | Indigenous peoples | Indigenous population | Indigenous languages | Political status of Indigenous languages | |
# | % | |||||
Argentina (2001) | 36.260.160 | 30 | 600.329 | 1.6 | 15 | Languages of education |
Belize (2000) | 232.111 | 4 | 38.562 | 16.6 | 4 | No recognition |
Bolivia (2001) | 8.090.732 | 36 | 5.358.107 | 66.2 | 33 | Co-official with Spanish |
Brazil (2000) | 169.872.856 | 241 | 734.127 | 0.4 | 186 | Languages of education |
Chile (2002) | 15.116.435 | 9 | 692.192 | 4.6 | 6 | Languages of education |
Colombia (2005) | 41.468.384 | 83 | 1.392.623 | 3.3 | 65 | Co-official with Spanish |
Costa Rica (2000) | 3.810.179 | 8 | 65.548 | 1.7 | 7 | Languages to be preserved |
Ecuador (2001) | 12.156.608 | 12 | 830.418 | 6.8 | 12 | Of official regional use |
El Salvador (2007) | 5.744.113 | 3 | 13.310 | 0.2 | 1 | No recognition |
French Guiana (1999) | 201.996 | 6 | 3.900 | 1.9 | 6 | Languages of education |
Guatemala (2002) | 11.237.196 | 24 | 4.487.026 | 39.9 | 24 | National languages |
Guyana (2001) | 751.223 | 9 | 68.819 | 9.1 | 9 | Languages of education |
Honduras (2001) | 6.076.885 | 7 | 440.313 | 7.2 | 6 | Languages of education |
Mexico (2000) | 100.638.078 | 67 | 9.504.184 | 9.4 | 64 | Co-official with Spanish |
Nicaragua (2005) | 5.142.098 | 9 | 292.244 | 5.7 | 6 | Of official regional use |
Panama (2000) | 2.839.177 | 8 | 285.231 | 10.0 | 8 | Languages of education |
Paraguay (2002) | 5.163.198 | 20 | 108.308 | 2.0 | 20 | Guarani as co-official |
Peru (2008) | 28.220.764 | 43 | 3.919.314 | 13.9 | 43 | Of official regional use |
Surinam (2006) | 436.935 | 5 | 6.601 | 1.5 | 5 | No recognition |
Uruguay (2004) | 3.241.003 | 0 | 115.118 | 3.5 | 0 | No recognition |
Venezuela (2001) | 23.054.210 | 37 | 534.816 | 2.3 | 37 | Co-official with Spanish |
Latin America | 479.754.341 | 661 | 29.491.090 | 6.1% | 557 | |
Sources: Adapted from Tables 3 and 6 in LĂłpez (2009). Notes: Although official, this information must be considered with caution since many technical and sociological problems persist in census data collection. Due to the subaltern condition of Indigenous societies, and also as part of a resistance strategy, many Indigenous individuals deny their ethnic affiliation and even the language they speak in order to present themselves as mestizos or Spanish or Portuguese speaking. In other cases, data collectors themselves, on the basis of their own perceptions and prejudices, decide who is to be registered as Indigenous or even as an Indigenous language speaker. Other sources based on estimates and on nonofficial data refer to 40 or even 50 million Indigenous inhabitants in Latin America (10% of the total population) (see LĂłpez, 2009). |