Access to elementary education for Indigenous girls

• Published in: Resources for feminist research Vol. 34; no. 1-2; pp. 127 - 138
• Main Authors: de Guevara, Lourdes C. Pacheco Ladron, Hernandez, Maria del Refugio Navarro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Toronto O.I.S.E 22.03.2012; Resources for Feminist Research
• Subjects: Access to education; Animals; Cultural groups; Demographic aspects; Education; Education of women; Education, Elementary; Elementary education; Families & family life; Girls education; Indigenous peoples; Mathematics; Men; Native North Americans; Occupations; Second language teachers; Siblings; Social aspects; Space; Spanish language; Women; Mexico
• ISSN: 0707-8412

As can be seen in Table 1, the higher the grade level the larger the lag in women's education. In 2005, 636,720 Indigenous women were monolingual, while the number of monolingual men was almost half: 371,083 (Fernández, 2005). This is due to the fact that Indigenous women are forced to quit school at very early ages, reinforcing their monoligualism. Furthermore, their introduction into biological reproduction from very early ages (in the State of Jalisco, in western Mexico, the percentage of Indigenous women ages fifteen to nineteen who are married is 46.2 percent), definitively keeps them away from school. Without the advantage of a second language that permits them a direct relationship with Mestizo society and without information or formal education, the Indigenous women lack access to their rights and the possibility to transform their own condition. These factors disadvantage the girls' access to resources and minimize the possibility for women to make decisions and take action. In contrast to girls' experiences, all these factors favour men in the community, offering boys greater opportunities to finish basic education. Their fate as family providers will motivate their parents to allow the boys to stay longer in basic education. Men have to learn Spanish and mathematics to be able to communicate with the Mestizo employers who offer seasonal jobs in the agricultural sector. Being a rural and Indigenous girl becomes synonymous with low access to education. This is not because of lack of availability of schools or teachers in Indigenous areas, but rather because the gender roles in which the rural girls live are a cultural obstacle. Indigenous girls from large areas in Mexico are expected to perform various domestic activities before school starts. For instance, Wirrárika girls must help with domestic chores, being assigned work according to their ages. These activities include, among other things, carrying water from the nearby fountains, caring for and carrying the small siblings, collaborating in the making of tortillas, and feeding the animals. Occasionally, six-year-old girls prepare the meals for the family group. This happens when the women of the family leave the community during sugar cane harvest to work for pay. For instance, in the Indigenous community of Zitakua in Tepic, Nayarit, in western Mexico, Uzama, a seven-year-old girl, stayed in the community to cook the food and tend to her father while her mother and the rest of the children went to pick peanuts in a nearby municipality. Her father had to stay in the community because he was an officer within the community's organization. Uzama told us that her father "was sacred and talked with the gods." If the teachers who have been assigned to the Indigenous communities wish to stay there for a significant amount of time and seek to make a difference in the lives of the students in the long run, they must consider the cultural characteristics of the community. Yet, teachers tend to lack information about the basic characteristics of the Indigenous communities, such as their organization, structure, and dynamic. They do not receive specific training to work in such communities. Furthermore, they lack the preparation to carry out an education that includes gender equality. Flence, their passage through the community takes place without clear awareness of the impact of their activities on the Indigenous cultural group. Sometimes, the mestiza women teachers have their first contact with the Indigenous world through their first job as teachers. In most cases, such a step is assumed as a necessary step to acquire a permanent appointment in an urban location, or at least, a less isolated place. Therefore, most teachers in these communities have low or no work experience and are sent to their first employment to these isolated communities where they confront culturally different communities, and lack the necessary theoretical, conceptual, methodological, and practical tools to do a more effective job with Indigenous girls.