Chapter Four Ethnic identity formation: language use
6.1 Introduction
Chapter 5 analysed attributes related to ethnic identity other than indigenous language. The main objective of this chapter is to analyse the schooling experiences of indigenous children and explore the influences that habitus (individual and familial/communitarian) has in the way children represent themselves as school agents. When analysing the data, I was mindful of the following questions: What are the schooling experiences of
indigenous children in urban schools? How do they signify their schooling experiences? What do they notice as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ students and teachers in their schooling
experiences? What is school for? What are their aspirations? What influence do families’ educational experiences have on their own schooling experience and,
therefore, on their identity formation processes? In this way, habitus and capital within the field of the school and the influence of the communities of origin came to have great importance when trying to understand the meaning of the schooling experiences of indigenous children.
6.2 ‘A good student makes a lot of effort’: The ‘ideal’ student
Most indigenous children’s views of a ‘good’ student highlight the attributes of the individual effort, auto-regulated work, obedience and respect to authorities, self- motivation and avoiding conflict, as shown in the following table (Table 6.1).
Table 6.1 Indigenous children’s attributes of a ‘good’ student
Indigenous girls Attributes of a
‘Good’ student
Indigenous boys Attributes of a
‘Good’ student Acuamaryn79 (Purepecha, 6th grade) Accomplishes homework Likes studying Juan80 (Purepecha, 3rd grade) Studies a lot Reads Doesn’t stand up
79 Acuamaryn: Un buen estudiante es el que cumple con tareas, le gusta estudiar, le pone atención al
estudio, le llama atención estudiar, que sí quisiera estudiar.
80 Juan: [un buen estudiante] estudia mucho, leer, no levantarse, estar haciendo lo que le dice la maestra,
poner atención, nomás yo digo que nomás eso. [Un mal estudiante] se para mucho, está platicando en clase, no estudia, no hace la tarea y juega cuando está la maestra y está brincando.
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Pays attention Likes to study
Does what the teacher says
Maritza (Totonaca, 6th grade)
Makes effort Takes benefit from studying Pays attention to teachers Respects teachers Is good Is responsible Manuel81 (Purepecha, 3rd grade) Makes effort Studies a lot Doesn’t fail Silvia82 (Purepecha, 3rd grade)
He/she is not lazy Accomplishes homework Studies a lot Diligent Marcos83 (Totonaco, 6th grade) Accomplishes homework
Does the work that the teacher orders
Doesn’t fight S/he isn’t lazy S/he doesn’t copy Luis84 (Nahua, 3rd grade) Is always studying Is always at home studying and reading Doesn’t go out to play
Youdell argues that students’ identities are constructed through ‘dichotomies of good/bad students and acceptable/unacceptable and even ideal/impossible learners’ (Youdell, 2006, p. 30). Those categories are embedded in educational and social discourses that include or exclude certain learner identities. Some students internalise
81 Manuel: [un buen estudiante] le echa muchas ganas a la escuela, estudia mucho [un mal estudiante] no
puede estudiar, lo reprueban muchos de esos si no reprueban los castigan. Si lo castigan mañana no tiene que venir hasta el lunes o si no hasta mañana pasado.
82 Silvia: No es huevón, cumple con las tareas… los buenos estudiantes son muy estudiosos, siempre
hacen la tarea, son aplicados.
83 Marcos: buen estudiante cumple con tareas, hace los trabajos que manda el maestro, hace su tarea, no
pelea, está bien pues. Un mal estudiante no hace nada, solo está de flojo ahí mirando a ver qué hace los demás, copiando…
84 Luis: El mal estudiante es el que casi no estudia y que siempre sale a la calle a jugar y no se pone a
estudiar y nomás anda saliendo a la calle […] un buen estudiante siempre estudia, siempre está en su casa estudiando, leyendo.
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these discourses and, therefore, reinforce the dichotomies, hard-working/lazy, dirty/clean, obedient/disobedient, as shown in Table 6.1.
In addition to this, students seem to be buying in strongly into discourses of meritocracy and individual effort, as shown in Maritza’s and Luis’s quotes:
Maritza: A good student makes a lot of effort, because there are children who wish to go to school, and others go but don’t take benefit from it. In my
[neighbourhood] there are children who don’t go to school, I believe it’s because their parents don’t have money to send them. [In order to be a good student] I should make an effort, be good, pay attention to teachers, respect teachers, be good with the people around me, be responsible with people around me, and be good with my family.85
Totonaca, 6th grade.
Luis: [I would change in my school] that my classmates do not stand up when the teacher is out, that they don’t yell and chat when the teacher is speaking on the phone.86
Nahua, 3rd grade
Maritza’s quote also highlights that indigenous children see education not as a right but as a privilege, noting the difference in opportunities other children have around her neighbourhood. Luis also shows the importance that the school habitus places on self- regulation, where students are expected to behave well even when the teacher is not in the classroom. As argued by Shilling, schooling insists on exercising disciplinary power over children’s bodies:
Yet one has only to think of the attempts of teachers to get young children to dress themselves ‘properly’, ask to go to the toilet in time for accidents
85 Maritza: Un buen estudiante le está echando ganas porque es que hay unos niños que, que también
quisieranir a la escuela y otros van y no aprovechan pues. En [donde yo vivo] hay niños que no van a la escuela, creo que no tienen dinero sus papas para mandarlos. [Para ser buena estudiante] debo echarle ganas, ser Buena, hacer caso a los maestros, respetar a los maestros, ser Buena con los que me rodean, ser responsable con las que me rodean, ser Buena con mi familia.
86 Luis: [Yo cambiaría en la escuela] que mis compañeros no se paren cuando se va la maestra y que ya
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to be avoided, sit still and be quiet during lessons, and respect daily rituals such as morning prayers or saluting the national flag, to realise that the moving, managed and disciplined body, and not just the speaking and listening body, is central to the business of schooling. (Shilling, 2003, p. 19)
Based on these indigenous children’s perceptions, merit and effort is what guarantees academic success, as Skegg points out:
Self-responsibility and self-management, precisely the features identified by Giddens, become the mechanisms by which class inequality is reproduced and refigured, individualized as a marker of personal volition and inclusion, excluding groups from belonging and participating through assumptions about their own take up of a particular form of agency, one to which they do not have access. (Skeggs, 2004, p. 60)
Some indigenous children reported these characteristics of merit and individual effort as a general profile of a ‘good/bad’ student; later on in this chapter, I will present an analysis of their self-perceptions as students.
6.3 ‘Children need more attention’: The ‘ideal’ teacher
For most indigenous children, teachers should have a better temper. It was very common to hear children complaining about teachers getting upset over the lack of discipline within the classroom. Very often, children made reference to physical punishment or irrational consequences if they did not submit the homework on time. For example, some teachers asked students to submit homework the next day even if had not attended or they would take them out of the classroom.
Ana Rosa: Some [teachers] reprimand us out of anything, they are very grumpy. [One teacher] takes children out of the classroom if they don’t do homework.87
Purepecha, 5th grade
87 Ana Rosa: algunos [maestros] nos regañan de la nada y son muy regañones. [Una maestra] saca a los
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Some children complained that they did not have a telephone or the means to go to other children’s houses to find out what the homework was about. Many children described an ideal/good teacher in terms of their way of talking to them: not being grumpy, not yelling and not scolding (Table 6.2).
Table 6.2 Indigenous children’s attributes of a ‘good’ teacher
Indigenous girls Attributes of a
‘Good’ teacher
Indigenous boys Attributes of a
‘Good’ teacher
Acuamaryn88
(Purepecha, 6th grade)
Is not grumpy Doesn’t yell every little time
Should teach us Should motivate us Isn’t selfish Cares about her/his students
Juan89
(Purepecha, 3rd grade)
Explains well Gives time to finish Doesn’t scold you if your finish later Doesn’t go out to chat Doesn’t tell you to do one page without explaining how to do it Maritza (Totonaca,90 6th grade) Doesn’t scold Doesn’t hit Explains until you understand
Diego91
(Purepecha, 4th grade)
Assists and helps Doesn’t scold
Silvia
(Purepecha, 3rd grade)
Responsible Doesn’t hit you Doesn’t go out of the classroom without leaving you
88 Acuamaryn: El maestro ideal… es que no sea regañón, que no estuviera gritando a cada ratito, como el
maestro pues el maestro Efraín, me cae bien, pero a veces no, es muy enojón… Para poder aprender más [me gustaría] que nos enseñaran, pues como ellos saben pero motivándonos para aprender los temas, las lecciones y todo eso… […] A un mal maestro no le importa lo que saquemos, no le importa como vayamos en calificaciones, no sé un maestro que sea egoísta, que no se, que no le importen sus alumnos, solo el que estudie y si lo sacan mal que no le importe, si lo sacan bien no le importa…
89 Juan: [un buen maestro] tiene que explicarles bien a los alumnos, portarse bien en lo que sacan… no sé
mucho de lo que tiene que hacer el maestro… [Mi maestra] nos explica, nos da mucho rato para hacer los exámenes y no nos regaña si terminamos al ultimo y porque dice que si terminamos al último es porque estamos leyendo bien y dice que no son carreritas a ver quien sabe más, por eso no nos dice nada […] [un mal maestro] se sale a platicar y no nos dice nada, dice hagan eso y no nos explica y no nos dice lo que tenemos que hacer, solo dice hagan esa página y no nos explica cómo es y de qué, o nomás dice la tarea y no dice en qué cuaderno y así…
90 Maritza: Un buen maestro no regaña, te explica, te explica si no entiendes y te vuelve a explicar hasta
que entiendas y no pegaba […] Todos los maestros en esta escuela enseñan bien, te explican todo lo que deben aprender en el grupo que van.
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some work Pays attention to you
Doesn’t get angry if you ask him/her something
Some indigenous children complained that some teachers leave the classroom to chat and they just give them some pages of a textbook to complete without further
explanation, as Silvia explains:
Silvia: A bad teacher is irresponsible, s/he throws the eraser at you, s/he pulls your hair, s/he lies down on the desk. S/he goes out of the classroom without giving you some work to do, s/he doesn’t give you a class, and doesn’t tell you what to learn. S/he asks questions and we answer him/her back and s/he
reprimands us. We must tell the teachers, make them see that children need more attention, more discipline, not saying bad words, not fighting in the bathroom…92
Purepecha, 3rd grade
The lack of commitment of some teachers to the right of students to learn is visible through Acuamaryn’s quote:
Acuamaryn: Sometimes, my teacher Efrain says, ‘I come to the school and I still get paid, it doesn’t matter if you fail or not…’93
Purepecha, 6th grade
I asked Acuamaryn who was responsible for getting students to learn and she replied:
92 Silvia: Un mal maestro es irresponsable, te avienta el borrador, te jala de las greñas, se acuesta en la
mesa. Se sale del salón y no nos pone nada… se sale del salón, no da clases, no nos pone atención, nos dice lo que debemos aprender, nos pregunta, le preguntamos algo y nos regaña. Hay que decirles a los maestros, hacerles ver que los niños necesitan más atención, más disciplina, no decir groserías, no pelearse en el baño…
93 Acuamaryn: : mi maestro Efraín a veces así es, dice “yo vengo a la escuela y a mi me siguen pagando,
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Acuamaryn: It is our [responsibility], we are the ones who should study because my mum buys all the materials that we need and if we have everything and we don’t need more, then it is our responsibility94.
The responsibility of the teacher is not embedded in Acuamaryn’s perspective, which highlights the pressure that families and children have on their own educational success. Children know what a good teacher might look like; however, they compare this ideal teacher with a lack of commitment to their learning processes and the lack of
preparation of their lessons. They feel that teachers give them irrelevant activities to complete by themselves but which have no learning purposes.
Marcos: A good teacher does teach you everything well. He/she explains well; and a bad teacher does not [explain], he/she just tells you what you have to do and does not explain more. I had a teacher with whom we only did one thing all day long, one page of the book and we didn’t do anything else. We kept talking, playing and that was it. With the teacher we have now, we have to make an effort, because we don’t know much, we didn’t make an effort in 5th grade, or the teacher didn’t teach us well95.
Totonaca, 6th grade
As Marcos notes, there is an academic lag that children experienced since they started primary school compared to that the curriculum says they should have known by Grade 6. Although this is true for indigenous and Non-indigenous children, indigenous
children who entered school with little linguistic capital face more challenges in their schooling experiences (that is the case of Silvia and Alondra as will be discussed later in this chapter); the first and second grades are crucial for them to learn the social and linguistic skills that are necessary to succeed at school. Marcos explains further:
94 Acuamaryn: Pues de nosotros, porque nosotros debemos de estudiar, porque mi mama nos compra todo
el material que ocupamos y así y ya si tenemos todo y no necesitamos pues ya es nuestra responsabilidad.
95 Un buen maestro sí te enseña todo bien, te explica todo bien, y un mal maestro no, nada más te dice qué
tienes que hacer y no te explica más, así como yo tuve un maestro que teníamos que nomás hacíamos una cosa todo el día, una página del libro y ya no hacíamos nada. Nos estábamos platicando, jugando y ya ahorita con el maestro que tenemos ya hay que echarle ganas porque no sabemos muy bien, porque no le echamos ganas en quinto, no nos enseñó bien el maestro pues (Marcos – Totonaca).
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Marcos: Now the teachers don’t go to chat in other classrooms. When I was in first grade, the teacher used to leave [the classroom] and the children went out and fought. Once a child got injured in the head, but the teacher didn’t notice because he didn’t bleed much and since he used to sit in the corner of the classroom, he got hit and they said that he fall asleep. […] Now, I would say that everybody is studying, it is not like in the old times, and another teacher we had in third grade, he didn’t teach us anything too, he only asked us to do something and other classmates used to chat with him and everybody used to do whatever they wanted, and now it is not like that, we study better in order to be a better person tomorrow. Since we didn’t do anything in first and second grade, in third grade we couldn’t answer things that the teacher asked us and she used to nag us because we didn’t know. So we learnt with that teacher the things from second grade, and third grade when we were at fourth grade, and the teacher used to get mad because we didn’t learn in third grade and that teacher used to pull your hair if you didn’t know. She slapped a girl and threw her notebook and things like that. If they were her children, she wouldn’t treat them like that, but since they weren’t … They can reprimand them, send a note to their homes or punish them, but they shouldn’t hit them; that’s not okay. Nobody said anything to the principal, it made me feel bad to see how another person was hit or mistreated. I think nobody said anything to the principal because they were afraid of the teacher.96
Totonaca, 6th grade
96 Ya los maestros no se van a platicar a otros salones. Cuando iba en primero la maestra se iba y salen
unos y se pelean, hasta una vez un niño descalabró a otro, pero no se dio cuenta la maestra porque no le sangró mucho, nada más se hizo así y le alcanzó a salir sangre y como se sentaba hasta la esquina del salón, ahí se pegó y ya dicen que se quedó dormido […] ahora yo digo que ya no, ya todos están estudiando, no como antes, y otro maestro que teníamos en tercero, ese casi tampoco nos enseñaba, nada más nos ponía hacer algo y otros compañeros se ponían a platicar con el maestro y cada quien estaba haciendo lo que quería y ya pos ahorita ya no, ya nos ponemos a estudiar mejor para ser una persona de provecho el día de mañana. Como casi no hacíamos nada en primero y en segundo, ya entramos a tercero y nos preguntaba cosas así y no sabíamos y nos regañaban que porque no sabíamos y con esa maestra estudiamos lo de segundo y lo de tercero cuando entramos a cuarto nos regañaba la maestra porque no