Schooling, Blackness and national identity in Esmeraldas, Ecuador

Abstract

In Esmeraldas, Ecuador, students of African descent make sense of racial identity and discrimination in multiple and contradictory ways as they negotiate the dominant discourse of national identity. In Ecuador two simultaneous processes shape the dominant discourse of national identity: racial mixture and the movement towards Whiteness. This study is based primarily on formal interviews and classroom and school site observations. In this article I focus on the relationship between educational practices at the national and local level and the perceptions and negotiations of students of African descent concerning racial identity and discrimination. I show that the racial and spatial topography of the nation of Ecuador is transposed onto the cultural landscape of the city of Esmeraldas. I show that the formal curriculum attempts to erase the significance of Black people and Blackness from the economic and social development of the nation, while racial discrimination is pervasive inside and outside of the classroom at the research site. Finally, I show that students of African descent often attempt to move towards Whiteness as they negotiate the dominant discourse of national identity. I conclude with a summary of my findings and suggest what the implications are for schooling in Esmeraldas, Ecuador and more broadly.

The Representation of Blackness in Murals and Statues in an Afro-Ecuadorian Region

“…Within the same interview, he provides examples of the exclusion of people of African descent, while also diminishing the significance of Blackness. His statements regarding the meaning of racial identity and discrimination reveal how Blackness can be simultaneously salient and negated, which is corroborated by other research in the city of Esmeraldas examining identity practices among people of African descent (Johnson 2007;Rahier 1999). I suggest that by examining other factors besides the large proportion of African-descendant people and the maroon history of the region sheds further light on the ways Afro-Ecuadorians make sense of racial discrimination and identity in the city of Esmeraldas.…”

The lessons of slavery: Discourses of slavery, mestizaje, and blanqueamiento in an elementary school in Puerto Rico

“…Sociologist Edward Telles argues that schools may be the most important site for examining how racial inequalities are produced (Telles 2004:156; see also Lewis 2006). 3 However, as Ethan Johnson has demonstrated, there has been little research conducted on the relationship between racial inequality and education for blacks within the context of Latin America (Johnson 2007). 4 In his own work, Johnson investigates the ways in which students negotiate discourses of national identity and whitening in Ecuador, focusing on issues of exclusion (i.e., the exclusion of black people and their contributions from the history of Ecuador) and student rejections of a black identity.…”

Classroom Research and Child and Adolescent Development in South America

“…Yet the Aymara-speaking teachers observed by Canessa were not such models for their pupils, as they did not identify with their communities and sustained the racist discourse. As regards studies on Afro-descendant population, Johnson (2007) developed a study in Esmeraldas, a region of Ecuador. The author investigated a public school with a majority of Afro-descendant students using participant observation, classroom observation on three grades, and 48 interviews to students, teachers, and parents.…”