Taking
One's Place:
A Classroom Study of Education for Indegenous Teachers
in Chiapas, Mexico
Honors Thesis for the B.A. in Social Science/Anthropology
with Honors in Anthropology and Education
Departments of Anthropology and Education, Stanford University
Thesis advisor: George A. Collier
Namino Glantz, 1991
I
didn’t want to be in the field, in the sun, in the
heat, working with a machete…. It is my own strength
that has gotten me to where I am now…. I don’t
want to be fired, and someday, I want to teach at a higher
level, so I have to get a teaching certificate. Also, I
want to expand my knowledge and help my indigenous community.
There is no other work that helps us more…. There
is nothing better than an education – than knowing
something good for the future.
(Mayan
schoolteacher interviewed August 3, 1990, surveyed August
6, 1990)
So
remarked a Mayan schoolteacher enrolled in a continuing
education course I studied during the summer of 1990.
The program, El Curso de Bachillerato Pedagógico,
took place in a small city in the rural highlands of Chiapas,
Mexico’s southernmost state. The Department of Indigenous
Education in the state of Chiapas runs the program for
the Mexican Secretary of Public Education (SEP). According
to the government, the purpose of this program was to
provide further education in standard subject matter,
such as math, social science, and chemistry, for indigenous
teachers whose education level had fallen behind newly-elevated
qualification standards. I argue that the teachers I studied
in Chiapas did not learn the formal curriculum mandated
by the government. Instead, they learned how to maneuver
more skillfully within the highly stratified Mexican structure
and, as a reward, earned the official certificate that
allowed them to enter that realm.
Complete
Honors Thesis
Available upon request. ContactNaminoGlantz
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