Indigenous people in the basic education schools of Mexico City

Abstract

This article analyzes the double effect caused by intercultural practice in elementary schools in Mexico City, where children of indigenous origin are treated. Where, on the one hand, this practice elaborates alternatives for the implementation of school justice and, thus, allows indigenous students to participate in school decisions and, on the other, segregates and, consequently, reinforces the exclusion of students. The analysis starts from the assumption that the intercultural practice promoted by the EIB triggers a complex process of the a) recognition of indigenous and non-indigenous identity; b) the reinvention of the students' indigenous identity; and c) the construction of a pedagogy of indigenous cultures. It is the result of a collaborative research carried out in 15 elementary schools in Mexico City, whose main objective is to promote bilingualism among indigenous students and interculturality. The reflection leads me to conclude that the approach of bilingual intercultural education promoted by the PEIBDF in these schools, institutes policies of inclusion and, paradoxically, encourages ethnic segregation.