Expanding the Horizons of Bilingual Elementary Education: La Colaborativa Cuauhtli | LILLAS | Sept. 08, 2022

We are all still savoring our Summer trip to Oaxaca. We are all so grateful to the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) at UT for gifting us this trip via its Title VI grant program. A special shout-out to both Tiffany Guridy and Megan Scarborough to the absolute kindness, professionalism, and support in what was a tedious process of getting 11 of us, the majority of whom are elementary schools teachers, there. Gracias a Patricia Nuñez and Julia Hernandez for assuming a leadership role, as well. Much good is already coming out of this.

We nurtured existing relationships with friends and colleagues there, and established new ones. Thanks to SDSU Professor Margarita Machado-Casas for laying the groundwork for what is today a budding partnership between La Colaborativa Cuauhtli and la Facultad de Idiomas (Language Institute) that is housed at la Universidad de Autónoma Benito Juarez de Oaxaca (Autonomous University of Benito Juarez of Oaxaca).

We are cognizant of the Indigenous people of Oaxaca and so many other places in Latin America that have formed part of the migrant stream and who are now attending our public schools. Many of them solely speak their Indigenous tongues or they are bilinguals, speaking their own tongues and the Spanish language, embarking on trilingualism. We fear that our K-12 schools may not be sufficiently attuned to their identities or potential, possibly reducing them to "Mexican kids" in their classrooms and schools. 

Nothing wrong, of course, with being a Mexican child, but rather to point out how the incredible cultural and linguistic diversity in our community may be invisible, and thusly, not tapped into or at worst, demeaned and viewed from a deficit lens. Moreover, we share in the concern that Mexico's and Latin America's cultural and linguistic diversity is not only overshadowed within those countries, but also within our own.

What has been particularly harmful is migration, reducing the number of native speakers of numerous Indigenous languages and dialects to the threat of extinction.

Most positively, we have a wonderful opportunity to partner with LILLAS and the Austin Independent School District, the Mexican American Cultural Center, and other community entities to co-envision what we might contribute through educator professional and curriculum development and other means, to the recovery, maintenance, and teaching of Indigenous languages, several of which are already taught at LILLAS, including Nahuatl and Zapotec.

Much to ponder and process here. 

I further take this opportunity to publicly welcome LILLAS' new director, la Dra. Adela Pineda Franco, taking the reins of the world-renowned Institute of Latin American Studies at UT. I shared with her yesterday that I, too, am a Pineda with family in Oaxaca and how we might be related. 😊 

Again, gracias a la Dra. Pineda Franco and LILLAS por su apoyo. 

-Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

Educational Leadership and Policy

University of Texas at Austin

@vlnzl

Expanding the Horizons of Bilingual Elementary Education: La Colaborativa Cuauhtli

Thursday, September 08, 2022

Dr. Enrique Francisco Antonio stands before children's mural at Oaxaca school with Zapotec writing

La Colaborativa Cuauhtli is an initiative that brings together bilingual Spanish/English educators to explore ways in which Latin American languages and cultures can transform the curriculum and modes of teaching in the elementary school classroom. The project was conceived and developed by bilingual educators Patricia Núñez and Julia Hernández, both PhD candidates at the University of Texas at Austin College of Education, in collaboration with Professor Angela Valenzuela of the college’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, and Professor Emilio Zamora of the UT Austin Department of History.

In summer 2022, supported by funding from LLILAS Benson’s Title VI grant, the project hosted a series of workshops that brought together a group of Texas-based Latinx educators. One of the highlights was a group trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, for a week of intellectual and cultural exchange involving elementary educators, community, and faculty of two institutions, La Normal Bilingüe e Intercultural de Oaxaca (ENBIO) and Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca.

“Our facilitated sessions provided opportunities to share the vast variety of ways of knowing

in Latin American epistemologies,” Núñez explained, “to view the whole person—physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual—and, as a colaborativa, consider ways they can shape the school experience.” Sessions included an introduction to Indigenous community customs and spiritual practices with Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuauhtli, an Indigenous curandera and clinical social worker/therapist based in central Texas.  

After an initial session in early July at the City of Austin’s Emma Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, the group traveled to Oaxaca for five days of meetings and activities, which included themes such as (a) sustaining and revitalization of language and culture; (b) the use of physical space for learning; (c) the role of Indigenous ways of living; (d) visits to Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca and to ENBIO, the Indigenous teacher-preparation school in Oaxaca, where bilingual education is emphasized. The group also visited an Indigenous musical school that uses music as a means of revitalizing the Zapotec language (del Valle variant) in the community.

“The trip to Oaxaca was amazing,” said Yadi Landaverde, a fifth-grade dual-language teacher at Josephine Houston Elementary School in Austin. “I learned so much, not just geographically, but linguistically and culturally.”

After the group’s return from Oaxaca, Núñez and Hernández led a session titled “Reflexión: Latin American Pedagogy in the U.S. Classroom.” The sessions wrapped up in mid-August with a talk on Latin American Indigenous pedagogy by Professor of Cultural Studies in Education Luis Urrieta, also of the College of Education. Núñez and Hernández followed with a discussion on how Indigenous pedagogies can be used as an alternative, or supplemental, approach to teaching and learning in the United States. The session also included a curriculum-writing component and a discussion on establishing transnational partnerships.

This academic year, La Colaborativa Cuauhtli will continue to work with several partners, including Academia Cuauhtli, a bilingual and cultural revitalization program for fourth and fifth grade students attending Austin Independent School District (AISD) schools.

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La Colaborativa received financial support from the LLILAS Benson Public Engagement Office. As a U.S. Department of Education National Resource Center, LLILAS Benson receives Title VI grant funding that can be used to support a variety of K–12 educational initiatives.