Indigenous Cultures Institute launches new teacher training

The Indigenous Cultures Institute recently launched a new teacher training based on Xinachtli pedagogy, which is based on Mesoamerican philosophy developed by Maestro Carlos Aceves who has 30 years of elementary education experience.

The new teacher training transforms the current way of teaching by using the natural way of Indigenous learning, the Indigenous Cultures Institute said.

“The training is for educators to learn how to engage their students’ cultural heritage and existing knowledge base by building a natural understanding of the world,” said Xinachtli Coordinator Marial Quezada, who led development of this training for the Institute.

Fifteen educators and professionals participated in the historic training designed to assist teachers in incorporating culturally sustaining practices in the learning environment and helping students to improve their academic achievement. The course also provides 10 hours of state certified Continuing Professional Education credit and is TEKS aligned.

Xinachtli  — pronounced Sheen-ach-tlee — draws on mathematics, sciences, astronomy, languages, and the arts across K-12 levels. The pedagogy stimulates the learner to construct knowledge, develop positive identity, foster academic performance, creativity, and self-understanding as participants in the world, the Indigenous Cultures Institute said. Aceves helped found Raices del Saber Xinachtli Community School in Las Cruces, N.M. and continues to teach there.

“Andy Groove, former chairman of Intel Corporation, said on the Charlie Rose show that the future belongs to those who understand and apply the non-linear formation of structure to institutions,” Aceves said. “His words describe what occurs when we use Xinachtli in the classroom. I look forward to sharing this exciting curriculum with all those who are interested in a bold new approach to public education.”

Diana Guizado, Programs Coordinator for the Institute said training evaluations were very positive

“Some of the participants stated: ‘This pedagogy is incredibly useful in deepening the connection my students have to the Earth they steward and the spaces we share’; ‘I work predominantly with ‘Hispanic’ and African American students and I feel this training helped better prepare me to engage with Native topics, especially those who engage with and are reconnecting with their Native cultures’; ‘[This training will be beneficial to my students] in every way, spiritual, ancestral... They will love themselves and their people, what they represent and how much THEY BELONG’," Guizado said.

The Institute uses the Xinachtli method of teaching during its annual Indigenous Arts Summer Encounter, a weeklong cultural immersion camp for San Marcos CISD students. The evaluations of each year’s Encounter, along with documented comments from participants and their families, indicate that the Encounter has a high success rate in raising the self-esteem of the students, strengthening academic achievement, and fostering an interest in pursuing higher education.

“This method of teaching will help teachers to access ancestral knowledge and ways to contribute towards a transformational process for their students,” said Dr. Mario Garza, the Institute’s board of elders chair and strong proponent of this Indigenous way of teaching.  “This is an incredible asset for the teachers in our Texas public school system.”

The Institute plans to launch an online training program that provides the same instruction as the live sessions. The Indigenous Cultures Institute website will feature this offering sometime at the end of the year. Both the live sessions and the online course will offer continuing professional education credit. For more information, visit https://indigenouscultures.org or contact Marial Quezada at Marial@indigenouscultures.org.

Information provided by Indigenous Cultures Institute