Independent Study Project

The most exciting thing that happened to me over the past two weeks in Buenos Aires, more exciting even than taking tango lessons, more exciting even than escaping to Uruguay for the day, was that my Independent Study Project (ISP) was approved! I'll be going back to Temuco on Friday, and will be there for a little over two weeks.

ISP PROPOSAL: In Their Words: The Mapuche Woman in the Past, Present, and Future

Description of the Problem
In light of the strong antifeminist sentiment in the community of Chapod, I plan on examining and investigating the attitudes of high school students toward Mapuche women. I plan on going to two different schools: one high school in the rural area of Temuco, and a technical high school in urban Temuco that focuses on Mapuche culture. In these schools, I will be assigning creative writing assignments and guiding discussions to examine the students’ attitudes toward women and gender roles in different generations. My lesson plan is as follows:

Day 1:

Observations in class
Discussion: What are some stereotypes of being a Mapuche man/woman?
HW: Write a portrait of your grandmother, or a woman of the same generation,—either through a specific story or a “life history” project. This can be in prose or poetry form.

Day 2:

3-4 students share their work (at least one male and one female)
Discussion: How have things changed in Mapuche society since the time of our grandmothers? For people in general? For women?
Observations in class
HW: Write a portrait of your mother, or a woman of the same generation—either through a specific story or a “life history” project. This can be in prose or poetry form.

Day 3:

3-4 students share their work (at least one male and one female)
Discussion: (still working on these questions)
Observations in class
HW: Write a portrait of yourself—either through a specific story or a “life history” project. This can be in prose or poetry form.

Day 4:

3-4 students share their work (at least one male and one female)
Discussion: What does it mean to be a Mapuche man/woman today?
Observations in class
HW: Write a portrait of your future daughter(s) (or your daughter(s), if you have a daughter or daughters now)—either through a specific story or a “life history” project. This can be in prose or poetry form.

Day 5:

3-4 students share their work (at least one male and one female)
Discussion: What changes do we want to see in the future in terms of Mapuche gender realities? What changes do we think will realistically occur?
Observations in class

Additionally, I would also like to investigate how the educational system in these regions reinforces gender binaries, and how boys and girls act differently in the classroom. I plan on conducting interviews with students, teachers, and other school officials, as well as observing in the classrooms every day. I will also be researching traditional Mapuche education, which is very family-based, and seeing how these standards are present in the education of Mapuche youth today.

Hypothesis
1) The students from the rural school will have more traditional thoughts on gender and more rigid gender biases than the students from the urban school.
2) Boys and girls will write differently about the women in their lives—and boys will write about women in more stereotypical gender roles than girls.

Questions
1) What is the importance of gender in Mapuche culture today?
2) What are gender stereotypes in Mapuche society? Where do they come from?
3) How do students see the situation of the present-day Mapuche woman?
4) How have stereotypes and roles of women changed in the recent history of Mapuche society? What are hopes for change in the future? Are these hopes realistic?
5) What is the difference between the ways male and female students write about women?

Objectives:
1) To introduce the students to creative writing as an art form and as a way of examining their own history and their current lives.
2) To see what students know and think about the realities of gender binaries/stereotypes in the past and present.
3) To help students begin to think about the changes in these roles that will occur in the future, and that they begin to think about their importance in making these changes possible.