Ethnic equity, Mapudungun, and CLIL: A case study from southern Argentina
Abstract
Since 2006, the Argentinian system of education has included intercultural bilingual education, a type of education across kindergarten, primary, and secondary education that guarantees the indigenous peoples’ right to receive quality and equitable education which preserves and strengthens their cultural practices, language, cosmovision, and ethnic identity in a multicultural society. In the province of Chubut, southern Argentina, the Ministry of Education launched a professional development program targeted at primary school teachers working in small town and rural areas with students ethnically associated to the Mapuche peoples and their language, Mapudungun. The aim of this paper is to examine how a group of four teachers understood and implemented CLIL in relation to ethnic equity and socially just education in a semi-rural area of Chubut. Framed as a case study, data were collected in 2021 and 2022 through group discussions, journal diaries, and arts-based methods. Data came from four primary school teachers as well as the program facilitator. By means of quality content analysis, the findings show teachers’ understanding of CLIL as an inclusive and equitable approach that can help promote ethnic identity and ethnolinguistic vitality.
Keywords:
Publication history
Table of contents
As an approach to bilingual education, content and language integrated learning, henceforth CLIL, has found fertile ground across contexts. Given the heterogeneous and context-responsive nature of CLIL practice, scholars (e.g., Hemmi & Banegas, 2021; Cenoz, 2015; Sylvén & Tsuchiya, 2023) agree that CLIL models can be placed along a continuum which ranges from content-driven CLIL (e.g., a school subject delivered through an additional language) to language-driven CLIL (e.g., language lessons contextualised in disciplinary content such as social studies). Regardless of models, in a special issue on attention to diversity in bilingual education, Pérez Cañado (2022) asserts that research demonstrates that CLIL can be a potential lever for change as it promotes social inclusion and egalitarianism.
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