Quando os falantes nativos são os professores, os professores são pesquisadores, e os linguistas são parceiros

Abstract

In recent decades I have participated, as a linguist, in several actions related to indigenous teacher training and consultancy in indigenous education programs, directly with their teachers. I have worked especially in programs and schools of the Kaingang nation. I have experienced the practice of collaborative research with native speakers of the language in all these actions, and at the same time I have tried to promote the training of indigenous teachers as native researchers. Indeed, this training includes not only teachers, once in the workshops we do is crucial the presence of older native speakers, so that some of them, as genuine indigenous intellectuals, take full advantage from such moments of study. In this text, I put emphasis on ethical and scientific achievements obtained with this type of collaboration (which is exemplified by the “discovery” of a grammatical category of gender in the Kaingang language), with easily deducible consequences regarding the quality of school education in indigenous communities, especially as a contribution to strengthening and revitalizing their languages.