The intergenerational transmission of written and non-written literacy practices between indigenous women and their children in the Peruvian Andes

This ethnographic study will investigate developmental initiatives and literacy
practices in two Quechua communities in the Peruvian Andes, with a focus on
women and their literacy experiences, and how these impact their children.
Women and development have been widely studied (Aikman and Unterhalter
2005; King and Hill 1993; Stromquist 1996; UN Women 2014), as have indigenous
epistemologies (Allen 2002; Canessa 2012; de Ia Cadena 2015); and efforts have
been made to incorporate indigeneity into developmental provision since the early
1990s (UNESCO 1995). This study will examine the tensions arising from
planners' attempts to integrate these approaches in practice, and analyse the
difficulties that persist in this third decade of their implementation. As a
collaborative project with Asociaci6n Servicios Educativos Rura/es- SER (Rural
Education Services Association), this study considers the implications of
reconciling these previously divergent issues for both NGOs and indigenous
communities. The project's specific focus on literacy practices includes not only
alphabetic literacy experiences shown through reading and writing abilities, but
also encompasses a broader definition of literacy, which incorporates non-written
literacy practices as channels of indigenous knowledge dissemination and forms
of inscription (Hill Boone and Mig nolo 1994; Salomon and Nino-Murcia 2011 ). The
overarching question of how successfully the approaches have been brought
together will be specifically examined through women and their literacy practices;
the project will examine how and what women learn and what impact this has on
their children's engagement with alphabetic and non-alphabetic literacy practices.
Findings will be shared with SER and other relevant organisations.