Instruments, procedures, and criteria for the screening of Mayan students in Yucatan, Mexico are depicted and evaluated by analyzing the results of their use on 242 students in five different regions of Yucatan. These 242, 8th grade students were selected from a pool of 1,530 potentially gifted students. Participants responded to a variety of…

Women's schooling has been lauded as having a large, important impact on child socialization. Although there may be positive effects of schooling, there may also be effects from concomitant cultural changes that come with modernization. In this article we examine the findings that changes in textile production among the Zinacantec Maya over the…

This study investigated differences in attention and learning among Guatemalan Mayan and European American children, ages 5-11 years, who were present but not addressed while their sibling was shown how to construct a novel toy. Each child waited with a distracter toy for her or his turn to make a different toy. Nonaddressed children from Mayan…

This study examined the social organization of Guatemalan Mayan fathers' engagement with school-age children in a group problem-solving task. Twenty-nine groups of Mayan fathers varying in extent of Western schooling and 3 related school-age children (ages 6-12 years) constructed a puzzle together. Groups with fathers with 0 to 3 grades more often…

The Guatemalan educational system has been the most unequal system in the Latin American region ever since the 1950s. The indigenous Maya people, who constitute around half of the population, experienced the state mainly through repression, exploitative labour relationships and exclusion from education. The return to democracy and the peace…

In this article the authors tell the story of their separate but related journeys toward "coming of age in methodology," journeys that brought them, as non-indigenous women, into relationships with indigenous peoples, who challenged them to unlearn their taken-for-granted notions about research. The first study highlights the pervasive…

In this paper we present our study of the use of Mayan and Spanish in nine groups of pupils in bilingual elementary schools in the Mayan area of the Yucatan State, Mexico. Michael Cole's, as well as Guillermo Bonfil's, perspectives were used for the data analysis, in the sense of considering language as a cultural artifact, and an element of…

In this article, we apply tools from cultural historical theory to an analysis of a series of meetings between a group of linguists and one of Mayan women. The article describes a journey from the two groups' initial acquaintance to the formation of a shared object--a literacy project--thereby providing an analysis of six visits to Nebaj,…

Causes for lack of participation of Mayan adults in literacy programs were investigated in ethnographic interviews. Emic deterrents at the individual, family, community, and national levels included personal needs, self-perception, rigid moral values, machismo, ethnic and cultural identity, community loyalty, and teaching formats. Successful…

This paper is grounded on the premise that research, as a colonising practice, needs constant reconceptualisation and rethinking. I propose a methodology based on some of the values, visions and stories from my own Maya Indigenous culture and knowledge in addition to other Indigenous cultures across the world. I argue that researchers need to…

This study investigated how two groups of Guatemalan Mayan mothers varying in schooling experience organized children's participation in a problem-solving discussion. Twenty-eight foursomes of mothers and three children (ages 6-12 years) were videotaped discussing how to solve the shortage of drinking water in their town. Mayan mothers with no or…

This article describes an exploration activity involving Mayan numerals, which can be adapted by teachers at various levels to help students better understand the concept of place value and appreciate contributions to mathematics made by an indigenous Central American culture.

Examines the appropriateness of Rigoberta Menchu's book, "I, Rigoberta: An Indian Woman in Guatemala," which examines the Mayan civil rights struggle, for high school and college classes studying multicultural experiences, explaining that teachers who understand the various challenges to the book will be prepared to lead thoughtful…

Discusses social, economic, and political conditions that influence the growth and health of children of Guatemalan Maya immigrants to the United States. As of 2000, Maya-American children age 6-12 years were, on average, 11 centimeters taller, and also heavier, than their Guatemalan peers. The heaviness is probably due to sedentary lifestyles.…

Interviews with five Mayans in Guatemalan villages identified deterrents to participation in literacy programs at four levels: (1) individual (personal history, self-perception); (2) family (values, machismo); (3) community (ethnic identity, economic system); and (4) national (funding, policies, culturally inappropriate formats). (SK)