<i>"Speaking little Guarani, knowing a lot"</i>. A collaborative research with children teachers in a bilingual context of Corrientes, Argentina

Abstract

This paper discusses some methodological aspects that are considered key to the knowledge that occurred in a research on the uses of Guarani and Castilian in a rural area of the province of Corrientes, Argentina (2012-2014). The aim of the research was to conduct a sociolinguistic characterization of the area as well as the design of a collaborative methodological approach that was developed in their own development. The research team included children and teachers of rural school in a collaborative process of knowledge production. In an earlier ethnography (2001-2005) we have raised that linguistic uses of Guarani and Castilian are organized from the “discourse of the prohibition of Guarani” and that children would be the main recipients of that prohibition (Gandulfo 2007). In this case, the children in his dual position of native students and researchers have challenged adults on the uses of Guarani and Castilian in their community, being that an unusual questioning in terms of the communication parameters of that context. Hence the results could be produced with the participation of children as researchers and the reflexivity of the researcher, regarding the different types of Guarani-Castilian bilingual families under study.