Abstract

HAMEL, Rainer Enrique; HECHT, Ana Carolina; ERAPE BALTAZAR, Ana Elena  and  MARQUEZ ESCAMILLA, Helmith Betzabé. Uandakurhintskua - P’urhepecha teachers and their linguistic biographies. From trauma at school to the making of an alternative model of education. CPU-e. Rev. Investig. Educ [online]. 2018, n.27, pp.90-115.  Epub Sep 07, 2020. ISSN 1870-5308.  https://doi.org/10.25009/cpue.v0i27.2559.

In their narrative autobiographical interviews (Fritz Schütze), the P’urhepecha teachers of the “T’arhexperakua-Growing together” school project in central Mexico construe in retrospect a clear contrast between their own traumatic school experience as pupils based on “Spanish only” instruction, and their professional practice today. Then they did not get an opportunity of learning the “other language” nor the relevant content matters. It was only during their teacher training that they became truly bilingual and developed an ethnic consciousness. Now, they want to offer a better alternative to their indigenous pupils. Mobilizing the enormous potential of their own culture and P’urhepecha as a language of identity and instruction, they have developed a truly intercultural bilingual programme based on mother tongue education over a timespan of twenty years. The study offers a valuable insight into the motivation and the professional ethnolinguistic consciousness of a team whose school project is well respected in Mexico and abroad.

Keywords : Indigenous education; autobiographies; bilingualism.