“Carrying on The Word That I Know”

Abstract

Indigenous language revitalization and culture-sustaining educational efforts by activist, unionized teachers and their rural communities in the Mexican state of Oaxaca comprise today a vital, though fragile, network of projects touching all ages and grade levels in diverse regions of Mexico´s most ethnically and linguistically diverse state. Many of the revitalization efforts described here have been initiated by Plan Piloto—CMPIO, a coalition of over 1400 Indigenous teachers whose work alongside their communities in defense of Indigenous rights and cultural practices ( comunalidad in Oaxaca), including language revitalization, is characterized by intensive professional development, including bilingual pedagogies and qualitative research skills. The future of these revitalization efforts, though uncertain due to disinterest or overt repression by Mexican education authorities and federal and state school reforms, is a personal commitment of many Oaxacan Indigenous teachers, whose identity as community members and original language speakers impassions their professional status as teachers.

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