Inclusive educational practices in rural communities of the Yucatan Peninsula

In southeast Mexico, Maya girls have to memorize and repeat without fully understanding the subjects taught, practices commonly seen in rural villages due to the lack of acceptance of multilingualism in the classroom and failure in incorporating indigenous knowledge in the pedagogical practices. Additionally, gender norms limit even more their participation in school. Therefore, this research aims to analyze inclusive educational practices from the experience of rural teachers who favored the educational advancement of girls in Maya communities. For this purpose, this study was developed under a variety of mixed research methods that included a quantitative data from institutions dedicated to the promotion of the educational rights of women and indigenous peoples in Mexico and the world. These were used to sketch the context of the educational practices. The use and implementation of the educational practices themselves was studies by a qualitative methodology with semi-structured interviews revealing the narrative of the work and educational experiences of rural teachers. It was found that indigenous education policies promote gender and ethnocultural equality by integrating knowledge, cultural practices and the valuing of linguistic diversity in the rural classroom; however, in practice, the teaching of Spanish prevails over the Mayan language. In addition, poverty, gender norms and the lack of basic services that still prevail in rural communities hinder both girls and boys to achieve higher levels of education.