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Bilingualism and bilingual education in a complex context

2010; Routledge; Volume: 23; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/07908318.2010.515996

1747-7573

Lázaro Moreno Herrera, Åsa Wedin,

Immigration and Intercultural Education

Abstract This article is based on results from a baseline study for an intended intervention project in bilingual-intercultural education in the Municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, in the Department of San Marcos, Guatemala. To a great extent the article deals with issues of bilingual education from the perspective of social justice. It analyses the various components underpinning attempts to develop comprehensive bilingual and intercultural education in this specific context. The article is exploratory in character, as it intends to develop lines of analysis useful in discussing challenges faced by bilingualism and multilingualism in contexts where the factors involved are complex and of an extremely varied nature. Central to the analysis is the assumption that historical factors and social justice have a key role in bilingual and intercultural education. Keywords: bilingualismbilingual educationintercultural educationsocio-economic factors Acknowledgements We would like to express our sincere thanks to the teachers, parents, and school authorities in Guatemala. We also express our gratitude to IM and Janusz Lipinski and to Clark Taylor, and to Christer Åström and Jose Luis Crisostomo for their valuable sharing of ideas. Notes Time pressures and related factors obliged us to limit the work with this group to just one interview. This was conducted with the Priest of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, who has had a very significant role as cultural promoter.