Indigenous Languages at Ikoots Schools: Stakeholder Voices

Sumario: The use of Ombeayiüts (also known as ‘Huave’) at schools, is the subject of this study which also includes recollections of the experiences of teachers and students. Research for this study was conducted at four elementary schools of the Ikoots  ‘Huaves’ located in the Istmo of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. This study was conducted from an ethnographic perspective of the school and aims to demonstrate the use and presence of this language at school. Results reveal that there is linguistic heterogeneity of the ombeayiüts language both at local schools and communities. In San Francisco and Santa María del Mar, indigenous languages have been displaced and are not present at all in the classroom. San Dionisio del Mar´s native language ranges between being L1 and L2 in the community. However, this phenomenon is not the case at local schools. In San Mateo del Mar, the native language is still L1 therefore, it is the communication channel in the classroom and in the community. This suggests that teaching is carried out by Spanish in the three communities; San Francisco, Santa María y San Dionisio. Ombeayiüts is only used in San Mateo for communication purposes. Nevertheless, teaching of the language is still limited.