Cultural artifacts for the development of the academic literacy of indigenous college students

Abstract

Our research work aims to show how the cultural artifacts used in the academic accompaniment of an
indigenous undergraduate student favor the development of literacy, through a case study of an intervention developed in a private university in western Mexico that sought to develop the academic literacy skills of first-year university indigenous students. It is based on concepts such as Zavala’s academic literacy (2009, 2011, 2013), Van Dijk’s analysis of language (2008) and especially the scheme elaborated by Salazar (2015) that states the three dimensions of literacy: 1) linguistic, 2) cognitive and 3) sociocultural, as well as Holland and Cole’s concept of cultural artifact (1995). We concluded that there are important physical cultural artifacts in the development of academic literacy, which are complemented by symbolic artifacts that allow indigenous students to portray their life experiences and significant elements in the academic tradition, and vice versa.