Resumen de Can Peru's rural schools be agents for Quechua language maintenance?
Formal education is seen as directly linked to sociocultural stratification in Peruvian society. Language is linked to both: Spanish is seen as the major content of formal education and it is the vehicle of acculturation; Quechua has been excluded from the schools and is the vehicle of oppression. In the context of marginalisation of both Quechua and its speakers three policies emerged in the 1970s which saw the use of vernacular languages in the schools as a means to contribute to the revitalisation of the languages and the integration of their speakers into Peruvian society. This paper draws on the sociolinguistic literature and on an ethnographic study of language use and bilingual education in Quechua‐speaking communities of Puno to consider the roles of both language planning and the schools in achieving language maintenance for Quechua.
