Should Indigenous Languages Be Written at School?: An Ethnographic Approach to the Toba/Qom Language in Intercultural Bilingual Education in the Chaco (Argentina)

Abstract

Argentina is a multilingual and multiethnic country with over 950,000 people identifying as indigenous. Despite constitutional recognition of indigenous rights, including bilingual education, indigenous peoples still face extreme poverty, social exclusion, and limited access to basic services. Although Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) policies aim to include indigenous languages in schools, their actual implementation often undermines the vitality of these languages. This chapter explores such contradictions through an ethnographic study of the Toba/Qom language in an indigenous school in the Argentine Chaco. With a focus on the Toba/Qom—Argentina’s second-largest indigenous group—the research analyzes the gap between educational discourse and practice, showing how hegemonic schooling models persist. Interviews and participant observation reveal that inclusion policies frequently fail to support language maintenance, exacerbating educational inequality. The chapter argues that while IBE represents progress, without addressing structural inequalities and engaging with indigenous perspectives, policies risk reproducing the very exclusion they aim to dismantle.