What’s the Linguistic Variety of Audit Culture? Administering an Indigenous Language Proficiency Exam in Ecuador’s Intercultural Bilingual Education

Abstract

In Ecuador directors of Indigenous education administer a Kichwa proficiency exam as a requirement for employment. This article considers promises and challenges of the exam, such as how standardized language ideologies manifest in it, and what it says about how institutional knowledge is classed, racialized, and urbanized. Furthermore, though research often describes audit culture as hegemonic, almost everyone associated with the intercultural bilingual school system, including examiners, expressed concerns, yielding a pathway to alter or contest such initiatives.

Linguistic Registers and Citizenship Education: Divergent Approaches to Content, Instruction, Kichwa Use, and State Relationships in Ecuador’s Intercultural Bilingual Education

“…We coauthored the book to teach Kichwa in a register more closely resembling how parents speak and to increase awareness for the challenges of standardizing Indigenous languages. My previous research had also found that Unified Kichwa was prolific in the school system's materials (e.g., Limerick, 2018Limerick, , 2020). The total number of hours I have spent at the first school thus far exceeds those at the second school.…”

Espacios ideológicos/de implementación en la planificación y política lingüística de la era COVID

“…Los coordinadores de la educación bilingüe se han encontrado con el desafío de asegurar que los maestros realmente hablen kichwa y han desarrollado pruebas nacionales de competencia lingüística indígena. Sin embargo, al necesitar elaborar una prueba estandarizada, los exámenes manifiestan inevitablemente ideologías lingüísticas monoglósicas y estandarizadas, que son más fáciles para ciertos tipos de personas según líneas racializadas, de clase y urbanizadas, aspectos que no solo molestan a los examinados indígenas, sino también a los diseñadores y administradores de pruebas indígenas (Limerick, 2019b(Limerick, , 2020c). (iii) Notablemente, algunas escuelas ahora enseñan kichwa.…”