Schooling Processes and the Indigenous Peoples in Urban Contexts in Mexico

Abstract

It is only recently that the subject of Indians in cities and public schools under the regular public education model in early schooling without an intercultural and bilingual education program –an educational model designed for regions with schools for the indigenous population– has been addressed. This has meant recognizing the presence of Indians and communities living in the cities and coming up with ideas regarding how to better serve this population at school, bearing in mind that they bring with them languages and cultures different from what the school conceives as the proper cultural manifestation to teach and the correct perspective to teach from. In the first part of this chapter, I offer a discussion on the identification of indigenous peoples and communities in urban contexts in Mexico and point out the different aspects that make it a complex situation, for example, migratory Indians and the processes that result from the severe degree of discrimination they have suffered from historically in societies that have defined themselves as mestizo. Then I describe some of the findings of anthropological and educational research about the presence of individuals and communities in public schools and some characteristics of the proposals the system has offered to provide attention for this population. It is important to note that research on the indigenous population in urban contexts in Mexico has only developed over the past 20 years and that there is still much to be discovered and understood. The text concludes by identifying some of the challenges that present-day societies are facing, particularly the educational initiatives in Mexico that claim to be multicultural and plurilingual.