\"I Won't Stay Indian, I'll Keep Studying\": Race, Place, and Discrimination in a Costa Rican High School

While teaching and researching on an indigenous reservation in Costa Rica, Karen Stocker discovered that for Native students who attended the high school outside the reservation, two extreme reactions existed to the predominantly racist high school environment. While some maintained their indigenous identity and did poorly in school, others succeeded academically, but rejected their Indianness and the reservation. Between these two poles lay a whole host of responses. In "I Won't Stay Indian, I'll Keep Studying," Stocker addresses the institutionalized barriers these students faced and explores the interaction between education and identity. She reveals how overt and hidden curricula taught ethnic, racial, and gendered identities and how the dominant ideology of the town, present in school, conveyed racist messages to students. "I Won't Stay Indian, I'll Keep Studying," documents how students from the reservation reacted to, coped with, and resisted discrimination. Her interpretation of the experiences of these students makes a significant contribution to anthropology, Latin American studies, critical race theory, and educational theory. While teaching and researching on an indigenous reservation in Costa Rica, Karen Stocker discovered that for Native students who attended the high school outside the reservation, two extreme reactions existed to the predominantly racist high school environment. While some maintained their indigenous identity and did poorly in school, others succeeded academically, but rejected their Indianness and the reservation. Between these two poles lay a whole host of responses. In "I Won't Stay Indian, I'll Keep Studying," Stocker addresses the institutionalized barriers these students faced and explores the interaction between education and identity. Stocker reveals how overt and hidden curricula taught ethnic, racial, and gendered identities and how the dominant ideology of the town, present in school, conveyed racist messages to students. "I Won't Stay Indian, I'll Keep Studying" documents how students from the reservation reacted to, coped with, and resisted discrimination. Considering the students' experiences in the context of the Costa Rican educational system as a whole, Stocker discusses policy shifts that might reduce institutionalized discrimination. Her interpretation of the experiences of these students makes a significant contribution to anthropology, Latin American studies, critical race theory, and educational theory. Contents......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 11 Introduction: “Mi delito es ser de aquí”: Racism and Placism in Costa Rican Education......Page 15 1. The Husband’s Anthropologist: Positionality of an Unwitting and Unwilling Double Agent......Page 25 2. The Founding Father: An Ethnographic Portrait of Santa Rita......Page 37 3. Ni chicha ni limonada: Identity Politics in and About the Reservation......Page 53 4. “Aquí son cuatro o cinco que valen la pena”: Mechanisms of Boundary Maintenance......Page 101 5. “Nada más de estar usando la lógica”: Curriculum and Teaching Methods in SRHS......Page 135 6. “A qué me va a servir esto en la bananera?”: Teaching Identity and Its Consequences in the Post–High School Realm......Page 155 7. “Para no dar a torcer el brazo”: Strategies of Student Resistance......Page 183 8. “Cuesta escribir algo de que nadie puede decir nada”: Conclusions, Applications, Implications, and the Ethical Dilemmas of Applied Anthropology......Page 215 Appendix 1: Interview Protocols......Page 233 Appendix 2: Teachers’ Affiliations......Page 237 Bibliography......Page 239 Index......Page 257 "While teaching and researching on an indigenous reservation in Costa Rica, Karen Stocker discovered that for Native students who attended the predominantly racist high school outside the reservation, academic success and ethnic identity were inexorably intertwined in complex ways. At two extremes, students who maintained their indigenous identity despite pressures to disavow their culture did poorly in school, while others succeeded academically but rejected their Indianness and the reservation. In between those two poles, however, lay a whole host of multifaceted, less predictable responses. In "I Won't Stay Indian, I'll Keep studying," Stocker addresses the institutionalized barriers these students faced and explores the interaction between education and identity." ""I Won't Stay Indian, I'll Keep studying" documents how students from the reservation reacted to, coped with, and resisted discrimination."--Jacket "While teaching and researching on an indigenous reservation in Costa Rica, Karen Stocker discovered that for Native students who attended the predominantly racist high school outside the reservation, academic success and ethnic identity were inexorably intertwined in complex ways. At two extremes, students who maintained their indigenous identity despite pressures to disavow their culture did poorly in school, while others succeeded academically but rejected their Indianness and the reservation. In between those two poles, however, lay a whole host of multifaceted, less predictable responses. In "I Won't Stay Indian, I'll Keep studying," Stocker addresses the institutionalized barriers these students faced and explores the interaction between education and identity"--Publisher's website