Literacy practices among Quechua-speakers: the case study of a rural community in the Peruvian Andes

The purpose of this research was to understand the literacy practices among Quechua-speaking members of a rural community in the Southern Peruvian Andes. Research findings respond to the need to question and propose answers to educational issues in the context of the efforts of Bilingual Intercultural Education in Peru. The ethnographic approach to literacy practices focused on different domains: the households, the church, the school, and the community. Data were gathered by conducting individual interviews, life history interviews, participant-observations, and videotapes of literacy events in diverse contexts. Findings suggest literacy practices in this Quechua-speaking community were shaped by institutional literacy practices of the school, the state and the Protestant church. The hegemony of the Spanish language and literacy over the oral and written Quechua was noticeable. Literacy practices in the school were imposed on children and lacked meaning in their lives. Literacy instruction was decontextualized, composed of unchallenging activities, and was shaped by teachers’ ethnocentric views about the children, their parents, their culture, and language. Teachers assumed the role of civilizing the children and negated the linguistic and cultural resources the students brought to the classroom. Literacy practices occurred within the normalizing everyday practices at school, in which Quechua literacy was used only as a bridge towards Spanish literacy. Bureaucratic Spanish literacy was imposed in the community. However, it was performed in a particular way. It was practiced as a collective activity and was surrounded by Quechua orality. Orality gave meaning to the texts and constructed the literacy events within activities of interpretation and negotiation. There were few uses of vernacular literacies, which show the particular interests of the writers. Quechua literacy was only used in the context of the Protestant churches in the community. Religious literacy practices were characterized by the memorizing of Bible passages and the copying of religious songs. In conclusion, literacy was imposed by social institutions, however, they were reinterpreted to satisfy the goals of the members of the community and were performed in a particular local way.