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Sanchez-Cheecham, Stefanie Margarita

Between the 1940s and 1960s, the Mexican government sought to assimilate monolingual Indigenous communities through literacy campaigns. Facilitated by Spanish-based orthographies and bilingual primers, these campaigns inadvertently created an opening for Indigenous political participation through employing Indigenous teachers. This thesis examines the dual role of bilingual primers as tools for assimilation and platforms for Indigenous teachers (and promoters) to assert themselves as educational authorities, tracing the evolution of their contributions. Using bilingual primers, contemporary scholarship, and accounts from Indigenous teachers and state officials, this project cross-examines the authorship, content, and historical context of these primers while highlighting the tensions between state objectives and Indigenous agency. While primers initially prioritized developing Spanish fluency, the involvement of Indigenous teachers created pathways for their integration into leadership positions in state education. These contributions laid the groundwork for the eventual shift toward a pluricultural framework in Indigenous education in Mexico.

Text

University of British Columbia. HIST_O 499

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0448660

Arts and Social Sciences, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan); History and Sociology, Department of (Okanagan)

Undergraduate

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