In this article the author describes a project in which professors and preservice art educators from Northern Illinois University (NIU) collaborated with teens and members of the DeKalb Latino local community center to create a mural celebrating a traditional Aztec narrative. The mural project involved professors, university students, teenagers…

When it comes to educational challenges, the nation's 12.1 million Hispanic schoolchildren face plenty: language, poverty, lower-than-average graduation rates for high school and college, and, more recently, a wave of laws targeting illegal immigrants that has made school seem like less of a safe haven for Hispanic students in some states. Yet, as…

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…

Two parallel studies were performed with 12 American college students and 12 traditional Itzaj-Mayan adults each to investigate universal and cultural features of folkbiological taxonomies and inductions. Results show cultural consensus among both groups in taxonomies of local mammals. These taxonomies had similar relationships to scientific…

The general goals of the Guatemalan technical institution, the Proyecto Linguistico Francisco Marroquin, are to: create a national technical resource institution in linguistics and Mayan languages; enable Indians to influence programs for their communities; and stimulate the study of Mayan languages and their use as communication medium. (SW)

The history of anthropology among the Maya consists of both the literal exploitation of archaeological finds and the appropriation of Maya culture and history by the Western academic world to construct distorted theories of the Maya past. In the ultimate disgrace, some Mayan priests are training White anthropologists to become shamans themselves…

The articles collected in this book use the testimonial narrative of Rigoberta Menchu, a Mayan-Quiche of Guatemala and winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, to engage students in vital and relevant cross-cultural learning in a variety of disciplines, locations, and levels. The book tells teachers' stories of using Menchu's testimonial in their…

Sponsoring an interdisciplinary program (over 30 lecture hours of geology, ecology, anthropology, ethnology, and agriculture of the Yucatan and Meso-America), Queens College and the University of Connecticut provide expeditions to Mexico and study of local geomorphology, stratigraphy, climate, topography, soils, archeological sites, flora, and…

A University of Yucatan (Mexico) professor who taught a Mayan linguistics course to indigenous teachers in Mayan discusses three issues that are central to understanding how indigenous education interacts with pan-Maya identity: the importance of locally developed Maya literature, the symbols used to define Maya culture, and a conflict over Maya…

States that students often utilize sources from the Internet without evaluating the quality of the information presented. Discusses how to use technology in the history classroom in order to help students think critically. Describes different assignments and the problems that were encountered. (CMK)

Contrasts two models of instruction: building on ideas in shared endeavors; and transmit-and-test formats. Discusses how these contrasting formats may relate to interactional patterns observed in toddlers and caregivers in a Mayan and a middle-class European-American community; and elementary school children in Japan and the United States. (SR)

Guatemala is overhauling its justice system to be more congruent with its indigenous reality. A Rafael Landivar University program trains indigenous legal translators not only in legal and linguistic aspects, but also in strengthening indigenous identity and student commitment to the community. Challenges and future plans are described. A former…

The autobiography "I, Rigoberta Menchu" is a complicated text--the conditions of its production, the complexity of its subject matter, and the wide range of possible responses among North American readers create challenges for composition students and instructors. A week of taped interviews with Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan Indian…

The bulk of this theme issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly consists of a 41-page "focus" section on indigenous peoples' efforts to regain control of their children's education and on the role of indigenous educators as agents of change. Following an introduction by Nimachia Hernandez and Nicole Thornton, the articles in this section are:…