Teacher training in intercultural bilingual education in Guatemala: a tool for critical decolonization?

Abstract

This article offers a critical appraisal of the status of intercultural bilingual education in Guatemala, known as Educación Bilingüe Intercultural (EBI). The new national project of 1985 provided hope that Guatemalan socio-cultural diversity would finally be accepted, fostering the creation of a multicultural and multi-linguistic state. In the education sector, the proposal for a renovated curriculum that included a new EBI model represented the possibility of moving away from an assimilationist and colonial EBI and towards interculturalism. However, little has been done in practice to include indigeneity in mainstream culture and education. A gap persists between the rhetoric of what EBI should represent and what is done in the classroom. In this context, the article explores the role of EBI teacher training programmes and the influence these can have on how EBI is intended and implemented. A small-scale qualitative study analysed how EBI is understood among stakeholders, the impact teachers and their training have on EBI, and EBI’s potential role for social transformation. The study acknowledged long-standing challenges impeding the EBI from encouraging social change and transformative interculturalism. However, it has also revealed the beginning of alternative EBI teacher training approaches that foster curriculum decolonization and respect for different identities.