New Languages of the State

Indigenous Resurgence and the Politics of Knowledge in Bolivia

Autor: Gustafson, Bret; Lomawaima, K. Tsianina; Mallon, Florencia E.; Ramos, Alcida Rita; Rappaport, Joanne
Editor: Duke University Press
Col·lecció: Narrating native histories
ISBN: 9780822345299
eISBN Pdf: 9780822391173
Lloc de publicació: Durham , United States
Any de publicació digital: 2009
Mes: Juliol
Pàgines: 352
DDC: 370.117/50984
Idioma: Anglés

Descripció

During the mid-1990s, a bilingual intercultural education initiative was launched to promote the introduction of indigenous languages alongside Spanish in public elementary schools in Bolivia’s indigenous regions. Bret Gustafson spent fourteen years studying and working in southeastern Bolivia with the Guarani, who were at the vanguard of the movement for bilingual education. Drawing on his collaborative work with indigenous organizations and bilingual-education activists as well as more traditional ethnographic research, Gustafson traces two decades of indigenous resurgence and education politics in Bolivia, from the 1980s through the election of Evo Morales in 2005. Bilingual education was a component of education reform linked to foreign-aid development mandates, and foreign aid workers figure in New Languages of the State, as do teachers and their unions, transnational intellectual networks, and assertive indigenous political and intellectual movements across the Andes.

Gustafson shows that bilingual education is an issue that extends far beyond the classroom. Public schools are at the center of a broader battle over territory, power, and knowledge as indigenous movements across Latin America actively defend their languages and knowledge systems. In attempting to decolonize nation-states, the indigenous movements are challenging deep-rooted colonial racism and neoliberal reforms intended to mold public education to serve the market. Meanwhile, market reformers nominally embrace cultural pluralism while implementing political and economic policies that exacerbate inequality. Juxtaposing Guarani life, language, and activism with intimate portraits of reform politics among academics, bureaucrats, and others in and beyond La Paz, Gustafson illuminates the issues, strategic dilemmas, and imperfect alliances behind bilingual intercultural education.

Contents
About the Series
Acknowledgments
Acronyms
On Languages and Labels
Introduction Ethnographic Articulations in an Age of Pachakuti
Part 1 resurgent knowledge
- 1. Soldiers, Priests, and Schools: State Buildingin the Andes and the Guarani Frontier
- Interlude To Camiri
- 2. Guarani Scribes: Bilingual Education asIndigenous Resurgence
- Interlude To Itavera
- 3. Guarani Katui: Schooling, Knowledge, andMovement in Itavera
Part 2 transnational articulations
- Interlude To La Paz, via Thailand
- 4. Network Articulations: eib from Project to Policy
- Interlude Bolivia or Yugoslavia?
- 5. Prodding Nerves: Intercultural Disruptionand Managerial Control
- Interlude La Indiada, como para Dar Miedo
- 6. Insurgent Citizenship: Interculturalismbeyond the School
- Interlude Interculturalism to Decolonization
- 7. Shifting States
Notes
Glossary
References
Index