Intercultural Bilingual Education in La Esperanza, Jujuy Province, Argentina: A Case Study of Its Impact on the Teaching Role

Abstract

This article presents an exploratory study focused on Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) in the locality of La Esperanza, province of Jujuy, a multicultural, multiethnic, and plurilingual region in Northwestern Argentina. The general objective of the research was to analyze how this modality impacts the teacher’s role. The specific objectives were: to analyze how a multicultural society affects teacher training and practice; to describe how the regular teacher and the idónea teacher—the native teacher—articulate their views of the educational act; to identify which contents of Guaraní culture are transmitted together with the language; and to describe how the teaching of the Guaraní language is developed.

To fulfill these objectives, an instrumental case study was implemented, centered on School No. 230 “Antártida Argentina” in Lote San Antonio, using qualitative techniques such as semi-structured interviews, observation, and document analysis.

The results of the fieldwork reveal bewilderment among the different institutional levels interviewed regarding how to carry out their work after the implementation of IBE, although the view from ministerial supervision is more optimistic. The difficulties are attributed to a lack of teacher training, insufficient communication among members of the school, incipient coordinated action between the idónea teacher and the regular teachers, and disagreements in the way the teaching role is assumed with respect to the place assigned to writing and planning.

The conclusions point to tensions in teachers’ cultural and professional identity, and between teachers’ professional identity and students’ ethnic identity.