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The discourse of interculturality and its transnational migration: towards a comparative analysis of its appropriation by academic and political actors in the state of Veracruz

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 20; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14675980802700706

1469-8439

Laura Selene Mateos Cortés,

Indigenous Cultures and Socio-Education

Abstract This paper analyses the ways in which social and educational networks are being configured around the actors participating in the increasingly transnational field of intercultural education both at the Universidad Veracruzana Intercultural and the Veracruz State Ministry of Education. It starts by defining the notion of discursive migration as conceptual transformations that occur when particular discourses cross certain national as well as disciplinary frontiers, such as the constant exchange of the heterogeneous notions of multi‐ and interculturality in the case of the field of ‘intercultural studies’, which stem from different Anglo‐Saxon as well as continental European and Latin American origins, but which are currently applied to the post‐indigenista situation of ‘indigenous education’ in Mexico. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two different institutions in the state of Veracruz, the appropriation and reinterpretation of, as well as the resistance against, the discourse of interculturality are studied by comparing the training of ‘intercultural and bilingual’ teachers through the state educational authorities and the notion of intercultural education, as applied within the so‐called ‘Intercultural University of Veracruz’. En este trabajo se analiza la forma en que se compone y transforma la noción de interculturalidad, lo cual es analizado a través del trabajo etnográfico realizado en dos instituciones educativas del estado mexicano de Veracruz: en la Secretaría de Educación estatal, por un lado, y en la Universidad Veracruzana Intercultural, por otro. El estudio cobra importancia debido a que en la actualidad la interculturalidad se ha convertido en el eje central de diversos procesos formativos. Las interrogantes que guían el trabajo son: ¿Cuál es el significado que adquiere en los diferentes contextos la interculturalidad? ¿Cómo se significa o resignifica la interculturalidad en los actores académicos y políticos? ¿Y qué sucede con el discurso sobre la interculturalidad cuando ‘migra’? Para responder a lo anterior, en un primer momento mostramos la problemática a estudiar, la forma en la que los discursos cambian de sentido. Posteriormente, presentamos la manera en que el discurso intercultural es transferido a través de la adaptación de categorías relacionadas con el análisis de transferencia de conocimientos. Finalmente, distinguimos el carácter ‘migratorio’ de este. Keywords: intercultural discoursetransnational migrationhigher educationMexicoVeracruz Notes 1. The UVI was created in November 2004; an agreement was signed between the Federal Ministry of Education (SEP) and the Universidad Veracruzana (UV). It was initiated for SEP by the General Coordination of Intercultural and Bilingual Education (CGEIyB) and for the UV by the Seminar on Multicultural Education in Veracruz (SEMV) at the Research Institute of Education. It has been the first and only institution to date within a programme of intercultural universities initiated by the federal government through the CGEIyB, and was created as part of an autonomous public university, the UV, and is organized in four regional centres: Huasteca, Totonacapan, Grandes Montañas and Selvas, located throughout the state of Veracruz in regions that are mainly characterized by high levels of marginalization among the mostly indigenous populations. See: http://www.uv.mx/uvi/universidad/sedes.html (accessed March 7, 2008) 2. The SEMV was founded in 1996 by Sergio Téllez Galván, who was at the time a research professor at the UV Research Institute of Education in the field of ‘Multi and Intercultural Education’. The SEMV was created as a space for reflection, education, research and promotion in this field of multicultural and intercultural education, where a bridge between indigenous discourse and the intercultural discourse has been achieved. SEMV is also the predecessor of the project to create the Department of the UVI. See: www.uv.mx/uvi/ (accessed February 19, 2008). 3. The following quotes are taken from my ethnographic fieldwork and are identified with codes corresponding to the type of actor interviewed (e.g. ‘E‐teacher’). 4. This heterogeneous group is composed of persons from the SEMV, the SEV and the UVI; however, it is distinguished from the other institutions because it has acquired its own distinctive character.