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.Curriculum and Instructio
