This article examines perceptions of indigenous women of the "Bilingual Indigenous Education Model for Life and Work" (MIB) programme which the Mexican Government initiated a decade ago as an alternative route for indigenous youth and adults into basic education. Programme objectives include the promotion of equal access to quality basic…

The Seri people, of Sonora state (Mexico), have traditionally fished and hunted turtles in the Gulf of California and gathered plants in the Sonoran Desert. Intergenerational transmission of the intricate environmental knowledge needed for these activities was accomplished through storytelling and observational learning, but is now threatened by…

This paper reviews factors contributing to the loss of language and culture of the Tarahumara people of Mexico and describes a program aimed at preserving Tarahumara language and culture. The Tarahumara people reside in the Sierra Tarahumara in the northern state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Although the Tarahumara people successfully avoided…

Educational reforms in Mexico to preserve indigenous linguistic and cultural rights often originate in Mexico City and lack grassroots support. Although native language instruction improves literacy development and preserves culture, Native parents may reject it because Spanish is the language of status. However, some indigenous communities in…

A University of Yucatan (Mexico) professor who taught a Mayan linguistics course to indigenous teachers in Mayan discusses three issues that are central to understanding how indigenous education interacts with pan-Maya identity: the importance of locally developed Maya literature, the symbols used to define Maya culture, and a conflict over Maya…

In Chiapas (Mexico), the public schools call themselves bilingual, but in reality they consider traditional languages inferior and teach only in Spanish. Sna Jtz'ibajom, a Chiapas group that preserves Mayan culture through oral and written literature, founded a community school that has taught over 2,000 men, women, and children to read and write…

Describes how indigenous students in a remote Mexican village learned ways to document their culture and history; how teachers in this same village learned to teach reading and writing in Ayuuk, their native language; and what a Foxfire teacher learned as an instructor in the teacher workshop. Includes the Foxfire "core practices" in…

Reviews the history of the Yaqui, first in Mexico, and then in Guadalupe (Arizona). Discusses the use of Yaqui, Spanish, and English within the community; community legal action against the school district over disproportionate special-education placements; resistance to school desegregation; a trilingual community school; and internal and…