The Yucatec Maya language has a highly complex deictic system with interesting typological differences that in addition to demonstratives and locative adverbs also includes ostensive evidentials and modal adverbs. Given that deictic words are among the first that children produce, the aim of this study is to identify the early acquisition that…

In most cultures, but particularly among Indigenous communities of the Americas, children help extensively with household work. However, less is known about the role of maternal ethnotheories as cultural organizers of the family environment and children's helping. We explored Maya maternal ethnotheories about children's learning to help in two…

This paper analyzes, and discusses Maya family narratives as they pertain to the educational perspectives and values they shared about their relatives in East Oakland, California. These were on display in ethnographic interview contexts conducted with families of Maya youth on their ancestral lands in the Guatemalan departments of Huehuetenango…

Parents' conceptions of assessment are important as they have a key role in supporting their child's educational goals. Through two focus group interviews conducted in Spanish, Mayan mothers (N = 8) discussed their experiences acquiring assessment knowledge. The results suggest that the parents held basic conceptions of assessment, and described…

This article describes the journey I embarked on as a teacher-researcher to better understand the realities of two of my Maya English learners (ELs) in our learning environment. This yearlong (2018-2019) study took the form of a qualitative case study inquiry whose purpose was to explore how two Maya migrant youth from Guatemala experienced and…

Changes in family life related to globalization may include reduction in the collaborativeness observed in many Indigenous American communities. The present study examined longitudinal changes and continuities in collaboration in a Guatemalan Maya community experiencing rapid globalization. Fluid collaboration was widespread 3 decades ago among…

Across the United States, there are many elementary aged students whose parents or themselves are from Mexico, Guatemala, and Central America having Mayan heritage. In alignment with instructional concepts that build a positive classroom culture encouraging higher level learning for all students, the authors designed and implemented a curriculum…

This study investigates the role of a family literacy program in facilitating critical literacy among Maya immigrant parents as evident in their ability to navigate inhospitable institutional structures, re-writing their role as advocates for their children in school decision making. The study highlights the conscientization that emerged among…

This study provides a broad, macro-analysis of how the home literacy environment (HLE) manifests among Mayan families with preschool-aged children in Yucatan, Mexico. Despite a substantial body of work showing the significant contribution of the HLE to children's reading achievement in the U.S., little work examines the HLE and children's learning…

This article provides an account of a recent research study that investigated an international service learning internship for in-service teachers. Relying upon what we know to be the advantages and benefits of somewhat similar experiences (i.e., international internships for preservice teachers, internships for in-service teachers, and service…

Bilingual education can promote a sense of school belonging for students through a shared valuing of students' home languages and cultures. This article explores how bilingual education contributes to sense of belonging for students who have more than one home language and are becoming trilingual in school. This qualitative study examines how a…

Relatively little research has focused on the experiences of students and families of Yucatec-Maya origin in the U.S., and even less has focused on Yucatec-Maya youth and resilience, a normative process of positive adaptation despite exposure to adversity. Using Critical Latinx Indigeneities, which centers on Indigeneity across multi-national…

One highly significant yet under-investigated source of variation within the Latinx Education scholarship are Indigenous immigrants from Latin America. This study investigates how Maya and other Indigenous recent immigrant youth from Guatemala and Mexico, respectively, understand indigeneity. Using a Critical Latinx Indigeneities analytic, along…

English language teaching (ELT) as a second or foreign language is a worldwide practice for Educational Systems in elementary schools. Educational reforms in Mexico have aimed at addressing English language learning within the elementary schools' curricula, however, there have been shortcomings when implementing the teaching of English as a…

This study serves as an initial inquiry regarding the early print knowledge of emergent bilingual preschool-age children living in an Indigenous community in Mexico. In this research, we examine various dimensions of print knowledge with Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children for whom one of their languages (Yucatec Maya) is seldom seen in print…