We are PhD students at the University of Texas at Austin in the
Cultural Studies in Education Program. Austin, TX, although many times
unacknowledged, has always been home to many Indigenous communities such
as the Coahuiltecan, Comanche, and Tonkawa, among many others. As
multilingual authors, we recognize that our communication is both in
English and Spanish, two languages that continue to be used as colonial
tools in education. Since colonialism—and the continued settler
colonialities still present today—language, education, and Land have
been manipulated/maneuvered to serve a nation-state building project
with the United States. For example, the deployment of boarding schools
in Indigenous communities, language as a proxy for racialization, the
justification for separating Mexican and Latinx children by language
use, and the continued erasure of Indigenous languages within the
curriculum on stolen sovereign Land.
Our Call to Action
Our call to action interrogates dominant ideologies of
Indigeneity, which includes decentering English as the normative
language that continues to uphold colonial legacies. Such legacies
consist of genocide, displacing of bodies, dehumanization, spiritual
subjugation, and language terrorization. We urge the TESOL community to
critically examine how the teaching of the English language is not
innocent and carries sociopolitical and historical legacies that must be
disrupted. TESOL must also recognize the consequences of English
supremacy and its proliferation within laws and policies that regulate
structures of dominance that uphold the interests of whiteness,
capitalism, and multiple settler colonialities. For example, in Texas
there are 184 detention centers that are incarcerating, most often,
Indigenous peoples to Abya Yala (North & South America;
Garfield, Gal, & Kiersz, 2019). We have witnessed how xenophobic
discourses instill a sense of fear and superiority among “Americans”
that reify the justification for current family separation policies and
the continued construction of child concentration camps.
With this understanding, we position English as a cartographic
colonial power. In other words, English serves as a hegemonic force that
manifests in places such as the Mexico-Texas border. For example,
migrants seeking asylum who do not speak English, or at times Spanish,
are detained for an indefinite period of time because of the lack of
translators who are able to communicate with Indigenous migrants
(Medina, 2019). Even when there are translators who do speak Indigenous
languages, it is often structurally rooted within standards of the
English language. The translator services that are provided to
Indigenous peoples give the illusion that immigration law is an
equitable experience. However, those translation services which are
entrenched in Eurowestern logics are too narrow too fully understand the
complexity of Indigenous languages and thought. An elder reminds us, “I
think we have to keep in mind…we need to express these concepts that
we’re putting together for the kids in Indian thought because what you
see…is we’re really fishing around for the correct English
words to express the Indian thought [emphasis added]” (Bang et
al., 2014, p. 46).
For this reason, we have compiled a list of actionable
possibilities to further unsettle these tensions and center Indigenous
languages and people. We invite the readers and the TESOL community to
consider the following:
- Recognize the Indigenous Land that you are residing on and
make a reciprocal effort to engage with the community. This map is a website to
begin the processes of ethical Land acknowledgements.
- Critical cartography lesson/activity: Map your own migration
stories and investigate how they are interrelated with current
immigration policies and the creation of borders.
- Discussion/writing activity: Deconstruct the purposes of maps
and turn the gaze onto who created and benefits from borders,
boundaries, and vertical colonial impositions.
- Language pedagogical practices: When teaching English, be
intentional about contextualizing and historicizing the use of the
English language as a colonial imposition.
- Beyond standards of language: When focusing on language
revitalization, it is imperative to realize the interdependence between
language, Land, and culture.
- Personal/communal reflection: As a member of the TESOL
community, continue to unpack how the commitments are beyond just
teaching a language.
References
Bang, M., Curley, L., Kessel, A., Marin, A., Suzukovich III, E.
S., & Strack, G. (2014). Muskrat theories, tobacco in the
streets, and living Chicago as Indigenous land. Environmental
Education Research, 20(1), 37–55.
Garfield, L., Gal, S., & Kiersz, A. (2019, July 5).
Migrant detention centers in the US are under fire for their
'horrifying' conditions — and there's at least one in every state. This
map shows which have the most. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/ice-immigrant-families-dhs-detention-centers-2018-6
Medina, J. (2019, March 19). Anyone speak K’iche’ or Mam?
Immigration courts overwhelmed by Indigenous languages. The New
York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/us/translators-border-wall-immigration.html
Judith Landeros is a PhD student at the University
of Texas at Austin. She is the daughter of migrant parents from
Michoacan and Jalisco, Mexico. She taught bilingual preschool and
one-way dual language in a first-grade classroom. Her research interests
include bi/multilingual education, settler colonialism, Indigeneity,
and the arts.
Pablo Montes is a PhD student at the University of
Texas at Austin. He is the son of migrant workers from Guanajuato,
Mexico, and currently works with the Coahuiltecan community in central
Texas. His research interests include the intersection of queer settler
colonialism, Indigeneity, and Land education. |
