Language teachers make educational choices and develop identities surrounded by complex ideological and socioeconomic influences. These influences vary around the world; in southern Mexico, current influences include ideological and economic trends associated with globalization and neoliberalism, such as the privatization of education services and reconceptualization of language as an individual skill for mobile employment (Flores, 2013). There is also an increased valorization of Indigenous languages, sometimes in connection with tourism and individual mobility, sometimes in connection with community identification and decoloniality (De Korne, 2017). Taking a social justice perspective on teacher education (Cochran-Smith, 2010) in this context is thus complex, as multiple pressures and opportunities shape the aims and priorities of program participants. Teachers must make moral choices (Kubanyiova & Crookes, 2016) against a background shaped by colonialism, yet where decolonial efforts are gaining ground (López-Gopar, Morales, & Jiménez, 2014)
In this paper I trace the trajectory of a language teacher education program in a region of Mexico characterized by multiple Indigenous languages and an increasing presence and pressure from Spanish and English. Based on participant observation and interviews conducted between 2013 and 2023 as part of a larger ethnographic study, I highlight both socioeconomic influences and personal choices which play a role in whether and how the program has included 'local' as well as 'global' languages. Program coordinators have aimed to provide new language teachers with the capacity to work effectively in their local context, while also aiming to change some of the colonialist power dynamics in that context. The public university environment has generally promoted multilingualism and local Indigenous language knowledge more than the surrounding social context, while the employment market which new language teachers enter is marked by a network of public-private education organizations, the dominance of English, and opportunities linked to mobility. I discuss the decolonial efforts of the program coordinators and young language teachers, arguing that the ideological and socioeconomic pressures they experience influence, but do not define their trajectories.
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Kubanyiova, M., & Crookes, G. (2016). Re-envisioning the roles, tasks, and contributions of language teachers in the multilingual era of language education research and practice. The Modern Language Journal, 100(s1), 117-132
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