Chapter 3: Pedagogies of Resistance: Learning From Indigenous Language Teaching

In this chapter we propose a framework of indigenous and decolonial thought to consider the work of teaching language diverse learners. We reflect on two research projects conducted by the authors, a study of the teaching of indigenous language in public schools in the south of Chile, and a study of intercultural bilingual teacher education also in the south of Chile. We consider each study within the ongoing context of land back of Mapuche people and the current process happening in Chile of writing and approving a new constitution which establishes the plurinational and plurilinguistic nature of the state from decolonial and Mapuche knowledge. From this analysis we provide points of reflection for teachers, communities, and policy makers to examine their pedagogical practice with indigenous students. Given the ongoing colonial project of schools across most of the planet, we highlight that these points of reflection are always already pedagogies of resistance and are not easily inscribed into current systems of schooling. However, we take lessons from the survivance of indigenous communities (Vizenor, 2008) and propose hope as a way to build along the centuries of resistance and community building to think about the work ahead.