Honors Theses
Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Croft Institute for International Studies
First Advisor
Jeffery Jackson
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Indigenous education became prevalent in the ideology of the Mexican government after the Revolution on 1911. The leading school of thought about how to integrate Mexico’s indigenous population was led by anthropologists. Through indigenismo, the government adopted policies that would explore indigenous communities and promote them into the national identity. Bilingual education became one of the most important instruments of the movement under the direction of the Instituto Nacional Indigenista. I collected my data from a wealth of resources. One source of information the historical texts written on Mexican history. Anthropological texts also aided in the discussion of indigenous people and the people studying them in English and Spanish. I used governmental texts and reports that were written in Spanish. Sociological texts on the subject of bilingual education were integral in my research, in Spanish and English. One of the most important resources was the internet and the information the governmental agencies advertise, which was in Spanish as well. The Mexican government led the charge of indigenismo which led to the development of the INI. The motive of the organization was to assimilate Mexico’s indigenous population. However, there was much discussion on how this should take place. One of the underlying debates was the idea of assimilation versus autonomy. While there were disagreements among those who wanted assimilation on how to go was IV about it, there was also a movement for autonomy of indigenous communities. Nevertheless, contact was made and there were successes and failures. Through the development of bilingual education, it seemed as though assimilation would be an eventual reality. However, the quality of schools varied as the program saw its ups and downs. Eventually better funding was made available, and the number of bilingual indigenous people increased. It seemed as though the program was achieving the goals of the INI. However, bilingual education also lent itself to bicultural education that reaffirms and stresses the importance the indigenous identity. The program is succeeding in its quest to castilianize the indigenous population, but opens the indigenous population to reaffirm their identity.
Recommended Citation
Gent, Gordon Lee, "Assimilation versus Autonomy: Indigenous Education in Mexico" (2003). Honors Theses. 2010.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2010
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