Education of Indigenous peoples and its influence on Mexican Indigenous cultural identity

Abstract

Historically, the education of Mexico’s indigenous communities has been fraught with controversies due to its objectives, which initially aimed to create a mestizo population under a common cultural identity. However, over the past fifty years, the focus has shifted towards cultural diversity and the strengthening of pre-colonial roots. Within this historical context, this study seeks to explore how the cultural identity of Indigenous peoples and Indigenous education have been intertwined over the past century, and what outcomes this relationship has produced in the last five years. To this end, the work focuses on three common antinomies present in the conceptions of Indigenous education: monolingual Spanish education / bilingual multicultural education, nation-state / plural-state, and homogeneity / diversity. These are then contrasted with the developments in Indigenous higher education in Mexico over the past five years and its impact on the cultural identity of students from Indigenous communities. Based on the theoretical foundations discussed and the empirical studies consulted, it is concluded that higher education offered by intercultural universities, resulting from new Mexican educational policies, together with the psychological phenomena of resilience and resistance, contributes to the strengthening of Indigenous cultural identity. This identity remains subject to discrimination and inequality, which forces these students to re-signify their cultural value within the conflict.