Opening Doors in Northern Chile: The International School of Arica

Abstract

In the northern Chilean city of Arica, Abigail Uribe had a dream of inviting the country’s youngest citizens to learn English in the region’s first bilingual school. The International School of Arica, referred to locally as TISA, opened its doors in 2007 with 43 students, toddlers through age 6. By the second year the number of students had doubled, and the school now houses a 2nd-grade class, with the expectation that grades would be added as the students continue to progress. A native of Santiago, Uribe moved to Arica, a city just 9 miles from the border with Peru, and was initially looking for a way to ensure that her own young children could have a quality bilingual learning experience. Her desire was timely, as Chile’s “English Opens Doors” program had begun in 2003 as the Ministry of Education’s endeavor to improve English as a foreign language teaching and guarantee that all Chilean students have access to English instruction at school. Even in this era of change, opening “a bilingual school in the desert,” as Uribe calls it, was not without its challenges. Large cosmopolitan cities such as Santiago have much greater access to English-speaking staff, resources, and families who are seeking to provide their children with education in two languages. This chapter presents a case study of the International School of Arica, based on observations and interviews during the author’s 3-month stay in the city, with the hope that TISA may serve as a model for those in other remote areas who seek to promote and develop bilingual programs. In particular, the chapter examines the school’s creation, including recruitment of students and teachers; the school’s structure and curriculum; parents’ reasons for placing children in TISA and response to their children’s bilingual development; the community’s response to the school’s opening; and the state of TISA today.