ABSTRACT
Their analysis of the consistency between national policy and regional implementation highlights a series of circumstances and attitudes that hinder the use of the MT as MOI throughout primary schooling. In this chapter we shall draw attention to some similarities and differences with Peru, a South American country which has, together with Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador and Bolivia, the largest population of Indigenous peoples in Latin America. However, the intimate relation between bilingual education and Indigenous peoples’ political organisation throughout this region makes it difficult to separate language and education policies from other aspects of the struggle that have developed during the last decades for the recognition of their collective rights. Among these are the right to self-determination, territory and the demand for new forms of schooling aimed to respond to a long history of colonisation and subjugation. Given this situation, we consider it necessary to approach language and education policies as part of a larger discussion regarding the relation between education, language, culture and power. We believe that this debate can offer new insights regarding how to approach the development of quality education in multilingual and multicultural contexts.
