User:Marb1198/sandbox

Area: Education in Guatemala
I will be working in Rabinal which consists of a dominantly indigenous population so I am interested to learn more about the dynamics of this community within a broader non-indigenous Guatemalan community. To do this, I want to explore the history of colonization in Guatemala and how that affects indigenous communities, especially that which I'll be working with, today.


 * Colonization in Guatemala: In learning about Rabinal, I need to understand the power dynamics established since colonization and how that affected the native people of Guatemala. These two articles speak to the history of Guatemala and its past and current relationship with Spain, it's colonizer -- how is this relationship affecting Guatemalan and most importantly, indigenous Guatemalans?
 * Spanish conquest of Guatemala
 * Guatemala–Spain relations
 * Indigenous communities in Rabinal : Guatemalans are a diverse group of people but I want to focus on the individual culture that exists in Rabinal which is predominantly indigenous and rural. As part of this, I want to look at the language that pevails in this area and explore how and if it is being erased or neglected by general Guatemalan politics.
 * Rabinal
 * Rabinal Achí language
 * Education in Guatemala  This is a very underdeveloped article which I think I'm going to focus on because there is a lot I need to learn about education in Guatemala and this page doesn't have much so I will contribute more content with the information I find

Sector: Culturally relevant teaching
The organization I am working with started because indigenous youth were not receiving a good education due to language barriers and lack of recognition of indigenous culture and values by the general Guatemalan education system. I want to learn more about what that education system is actually like, how that forces indigenous students to assimilate, and how would recognizing indigenous culture and values actually look like in an educational setting -- would that be in a classroom or not?


 * education policies in Guatemala: In order to understand how the education system in Guatemala fails indigenous students, I need to know what education looks like in Guatemala. These articles talk about education in Latin American countries, Guatemala in particular, laying out the values and general curriculum of a typical school.
 * Education in Guatemala
 * Education in Latin America
 * cultural indigenous educational practices: My program claims that the education system fails indigenous youth because it doesn't acknowledge their culture or values so I want to know what those values look like for indigenous youth in terms of education-- how can these be incorporated in the education system? These two articles focus on indigenous education and then more generally about incorporating culture into teaching.
 * Indigenous education
 * Culturally relevant teaching: Voces y Manos was founded to be a supplement to the regular schooling system which neglects indigenous culture and language in its practice. It's meant to serve indigenous youth so it must do so in a way that the regular schools do not -- take into account their unique culture and practices in the way they are being educated.I chose to add to this wiki article to learn more about what that would look like in practice. Looking at this article; however, there is not much focus on indigenous students so in adding to it, I want to bring in the perspective of indigenous youth into culturally relevant teaching.
 * assimilation in the education system: I might not use this article because it's more general and not specific to my area or sector per say but I think it's important to read up on cultural assimilation in general to understand how indigenous youth are forced, by the education system, to assimilate to a culture that is not their own and may be very different from what they practice at home.
 * Cultural assimilation

Evaluating Content
This is a very underdeveloped article. This article only covers issues of education in Guatemala and even those are limited since they only consider resources, attendance, and gender inequality. Within each of those, there is also very little information although it all seems to be up to date except for maybe one fact referring to the average years of schooling per student in 2011.

There is so much more that could be added such as colonial-era education and pre-colonization education as it is likely to correlate with why indigenous students do not have as much access to education. The article definitely mentions indigenous students as a subordinate group in the education system but in a more generalized way -- we could add information how indigenous students are accommodated in the schooling system, if they even are. The article also states that most poor people will rather send their sons, rather then their daughters to school if they had the money to send at least one. However, gender inequality in education is a huge subject and deserved it's own section in this article with factual information about gender inequality in schools and how it's being addressed, if at all. In addition, it needs more information on why most kids stop going to school after a certain age. This would also be a much more powerful article if it had numbers and statistics as quantitative data. If focusing on education in Guatemala specifically, it could use statistics about literacy rates and ranks compared to the rest of Central America and the world.

Other important things missing include higher education not just primary and secondary education. Educational integration would also be interesting to note and inform readers if students with disabilities are considered in the Guatemalan education system and in which ways. More importantly, to really understand education in Guatemala, this article needs to includes the basics which are the general curriculum or common core across Guatemala laid out by grade level. In addition, it would make sense to include information about the Ministry of Education in Guatemala and what efforts and policies they have placed, what has changed, and what is its current state as it affects all schools. Since it's education as a whole, I would also like to know about public vs. private schools and their similarities and differences in terms of student body, teachers, and curriculum. Finally, it's important to include the distribution of schools across the country.

There are many sections missing but the ones that are already there should be developed more as well. The two subsections are “education resources” and “school attendance” but they don’t have more than a short paragraph as part of them. This article has several generalizations. For example saying "The current state of education in Guatemala is significantly under-funded" but with no further evidence to support it. More information could include numbers. Is it funded by the government? How much money oes the government allocate to public education? The article also mentions teachers receiving "meager pay" but there is no mention of the average amount that teachers get paid and if it changes based on location- do urban teachers get paid more than rural teachers?

Evaluating Tone
It seems that the information itself is neutral but the tonality of it suggests subjectivity as it gives a tone of opinion rather than fact. One statement: “... exacerbated by the fact that, for poorer students, time spent in school could be time better spent working to sustain the family.” presents this tonality. It's not clear which of the sources refer to this but explicitly saying that it's a "fact" does not make it a fact. This statement, without maybe seeing actual proof from resources which would be harder to objectively state, does not sound like a fact, but rather an opinion or assumption of the effects of not being able to afford going to school. It assumes that all poor students think schooling is not worthwhile and they must use their time better by working and supporting their family.

Evaluating Sources
All the links work and support the claims that are being made in the article but it may have a possible biased perspective as it cites UNESCO's own website which includes a lot of the work that they are doing. Most sources are from UNESCO and while it seems like a reliable source and one I would reference in a paper, I am not sure if it's suitable for Wikipedia since it is not an academic journal but rather an organization's website. Is this a reliable source? In addition, not all the facts included in this article are referenced. "Most drop out due to the lack of access and largely inadequate facilities" for example, does not have any sources linked to it not does it go more in depth.

Talk Page
There isn't much on this article so it needs a lot of work. It appears that there has only been one Wikipedian working on this article so there is no discussion or conversation on the Talk Page. However, this article is part of WikiProject Guatemala and rated as start-class and of top-importance.

McEwan, Patrick J. Trowbridge, Marisol. "The Achievement of Indigenous Students in Guatemalan Primary Schools." International Journal of Educational Development, vol. 27, no. 1, 2007, pp.61-76
https://ac-els-cdn-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/S0738059306000502/1-s2.0-S0738059306000502-main.pdf?_tid=01f79b41-2e9e-484b-8d6b-824a3f82129b&acdnat=1550708933_284094d5b50079037ba1cff9c2fb8782

This article focuses on data collected from Guatemala's 2001 PRONERE survey in a sample of rural primary schools in Guatemala. It looks at the achievement gaps between indigenous and non indigenous students and offers possible explanations for such disparities including having low teacher expectations of indigenous school communities as well as using monolingual instruction focused on Spanish when most indigenous students have a dominant MAYAN indigenous language. I can definitely use this article to speak on the demographics of education systems in Guatemala and specifically those in rural areas where I will be doing my PE in. This way I can better understand, along with the researchers involved in this article, the reasons for the achievement gap between indigenous and non indigenous students in Guatemala.

==== "Community-Managed Schools and the Decentralization of Educatiohn in Guatemala: The Experience of PRONADE." Economic Growth, Biodiversity, and the Formation of Human Capital in a Developing Country: The Case of Guatemala, by Ludger J. Loning, NED - New edition ed., Peter Lang AG, Frankfurt Am Main, 2004, pp. 167-204. JSTOR,==== https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctv9hj6tx.9.pdf?ab_segments=0%252Ftbsub-1%252Frelevance_config_with_defaults&refreqid=excelsior%3A95b683c5d32dc0646c3d0c150771d88a

This article talks about Guatemala's efforts to decentralize their education system with a program called PRONADE (Programa Nacional de Autogestión Educativa). The wikipedia page that I want to add to on Education in Guatemala has no mention about these efforts so it would be interesting to do an analysis on the history of PRONADE, where it is being implemented, and how it has affected (both positively and negatively) students including those of indigenous communities in rural Guatemala.

=== “The Education of Indigenous Citizens in Latin America.” Google Books, books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ogdVAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA19&dq=indigenous students in guatemalan education system&ots=4vQCC7I9jl&sig=XcRrGBLX0SvxUE0YD2JtsToKvgI#v=onepage&q&f=false. === This article speaks on several efforts that have been implemented across Latin America to include Indigenous language pedagogy. It focuses on Intercultural Bilingual Education (EIB) as the model to be used and gives examples of it's implementation in Guatemala. Along with PRONADE, I can add to my article using this source to give another example of programs that have been implemented in Guatemala and look at the effectiveness of each.

** There are other articles that I will look into now that I know I have access to everything on google scholar. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=indigenous+students+in+guatemalan+education+system&btnG=

==== Poppema, Margriet. “Guatemala, the Peace Accords and Education: a Post-Colonial Struggle for Equal Opportunities. Cultural Recognition and Participation in Education.” Globalisation, Societies and Education. Vol. 7, no.4 2009. Pp.383-408. Doi: 10.1080/14767720903412218 ==== http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.851.6265&rep=rep1&type=pdf

This article really goes into PRONADE and how it has failed the demands that people had in the Peace Accords. While it has brought more accessibility to school in rural and indigenous areas, PRONADE fails at encouraging true participation and bilingual education. Being funded by the Ministry of Education and the World Bank, PRONADE takes a top-down approach which does the people a disservice. The wiki article I am working on has no mention of PRONADE so I would use this article to give background and history behind the program and state the things it has accomplished or not.

Decentralizing Education in Guatemala: School Management by Local Communities

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/10340/328590GU0EduNotes01public1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

This is a report from the World Bank describing PRONADE. It states it's purpose and implementation as a program of self-managed schools by communities which has increased enrollment rates and access to education for more students especially in remote areas of Guatemala. It outlines the program's features such as finances and the process i takes for a community to build a PRONADE schools. It provides a section for it's achievements, evaluations, and challenges. I can use this source because it's straight from the World Bank and gives a good description of what the program is meant to be doing which my wiki article has nothing on.

Helmberger, Janet L. “Language and Ethnicity: Multiple Literacies in Context, Language Education in Guatemala.” Bilingual Research Journal, vol. 30, no. 1, 2006, pp. 65–86., doi:10.1080/15235882.2006.10162866.

http://prolades.com/cra/regions/cam/gte/mayan_literacy_guate.pdf

This scholarly source gets into the history of colonization and ccastellinizacion which forces indigenous people to assimilate to Spanish culture through language and education. It states several efforts placed by the government that engage Mayan languages but only as a gateway to then be able to learn Spanish which became the official language of Guatemala and the official langugae declared by the Education Law. It also talks about the demands placed in the peace accords that were agreed upon b/w the government and civilian groups who siffered consequences of the civil war but that have not been fully met. My wiki article lacks information of the history of colonization and its effects on the education system today. I think this article can help me create a historical context or history of language section in my area wiki page. Testing for block.

Hallman, Kelly, et al. “Multiple Disadvantages of Mayan Females: The Effects of Gender, Ethnicity, Poverty, and Residence on Education in Guatemala.” 2006, doi:10.31899/pgy2.1029.
This article explores inequalities in education based on several factors and determines that Mayan females are by far the most disadvantaged group in Guatemala. Even though enrollment rates are increasing, educational attainment is still among the lowest in all of Latin America. Low attainment is due to late entry, grade repetition, and early drop out which is mainly caused by lack of financial opportunity followed by age and lack of interest. The article concludes by calling for the need if better target scholarships and other educational incentive programs. Indigenous students have less access to education which is why my PE does what these authors suggest -- they provide scholarships and educational incentives so that students pursue higher education. However, gender inequality is common throughout Guatemala and even among these indigenous communities which makes me wonder who is given those scholarships and how is it determined? I use this article to explore the work of my own PE and to include an important section that is missing in my wiki article -- gender inequality in education.

Bellino, Michelle J. “So That We Do Not Fall Again.” Comparative Education Review, vol. 60, no. 1, 2016, pp. 58–79., doi:10.1086/684361.
Michelle Bellino explores how war and civic unrest in Guatemala history is depicted to students in rural versus urban areas. The purpose of this article is thus to describe how students are presented with knowledge and attitudes about historical injustice and how they are positioned in postwar era. A shocking but not surprising fact presented in this article is that when communities have come together with the ministry of education to create a curriculum that teaches the realities of the past, it gets rejected by the state. Bellino then raises questions about how much autonomy schools and communities have and “whose political agenda has the power to render injustice visible in schools” (Bellino, 67). My PE or focuses half of it’s programing to teaching students about the civil unrest and massacres of indigenous people that caused the lives of their direct relatives. Keeping in mind that my org and the school it works with is not supported at all by the government, it makes sense that most young people are not taught about this past in schools and if they are, it is through the lens of the government and not the victims. This concealment of reality is another addition of educational injustice and inequality that is not mentioned in my wiki article, Education in Guatemala, but which I hope to add as I continue to further analyze the structure of basic schooling in Guatemala.

Marshall, Jeffery H. “School Quality and Learning Gains in Rural Guatemala.” Economics of Education Review, vol. 28, no. 2, 2009, pp. 207–216., doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2007.10.009.
This article uses longitudinal data on student achievement to explore the difference in student achievement in PRONADE community schools versus regular public schools. Researchers find that things like total school days and teacher knowledge have an influence on student achievement. One key finding in their research was that math scores were higher for indigenous students when they were paired with an indigenous teacher rather than a ladino teacher. This finding makes me think of the importance of representation in schools and communities and it is no surprise that students did better when taught and guided by someone of a similar background who they can relate to more. This is an especially important finding because My PE is run by community members themselves and instructors and staff are mostly alumni of the program. It’s evident that a reason for the huge impact that this program has on the local community is having instruction from people who are also of an indigenous background. Thus, I will use this article in my essay and wiki page to advocate for more indigenous involvement in education -- as students and as teachers and instructors.

==== Hernandez-Zavala, Martha, et al. “Quality Of Schooling And Quality Of Schools For Indigenous Students In Guatemala, Mexico, And Peru.” Policy Research Working Papers, 2006, doi:10.1596/1813-9450-3982. ==== In this article, researchers explore the causes for the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous student test scores by having 3rd and 4th grade students from Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru complete math and reading exams. A key finding from their research is that family background factors have the largest impact on student learning. This finding explains why indigenous students tend to score lower -- they come from poorer families, they study under less experienced teachers, attend school with poor infrastructure, and have access to fewer learning materials at home. Most data proves and recognizes that indigenous students are at a disadvantage but this article digs deeper into exploring inequalities that go beyond the schooling system and affect student learning. This article is especially useful in this essay and in the wikipedia page about education in Guatemala because it highlights systemic issues that contribute to the disparities among indigenous versus non indigenous students.

Sector: Indigenous Education
==== '''Castagno, Angelina E., and Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy. “Culturally Responsive Schooling for Indigenous Youth: A Review of the Literature.” Review of Educational Research, vol. 78, no. 4, 2008, pp. 941–993. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40071151.''' ==== https://www.jstor.org/stable/40071151?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A5a4ab089eee337e65e80be3ced743a1e&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

This article reviews the literature focused on culturally responsive schooling in context with Indigenous youth to advocate for systemic and institutional changes to schooling systems which serve indigenous students given that while CRS has been talked of, it has been merely reduced to generalizations. I will be adding to wikipedia’s culturally relevant teaching page which outlines the history and characteristics of CRS but not in the context of indigenous youth which I will be adding using this and other sources. Within that context, I can also add to the list of characteristics as well as examples of successful CRS implementations given that many times, indigenous youth still get left behind when CRS is not implemented effectively.

==== Mccarty, Teresa, and Tiffany Lee. “Critical Culturally Sustaining/Revitalizing Pedagogy and Indigenous Education Sovereignty.” Harvard Educational Review, vol. 84, no. 1, 2014, pp. 101–124., doi:10.17763/haer.84.1.q83746nl5pj34216. ==== https://nau.edu/uploadedFiles/Academic/COE/Dine_Project/McCarty%20Lee%20Critical%20Culturally%20Sustaining%20Pedagogy.pdf

This article focuses on Native American students in the U.S. so I need to be careful speaking about indigenous youth in different contexts. However, I found this article useful for my sector because it challenges culturally relevant pedagogy and introduces culturally sustaining and revitalizing pedagogy (CSRP). Throughout the article, they give examples of showing what CSRP looks like in practice and even expand on it's constraints. I think this article can be useful when adding to the wiki article because it offers an extension of culturally relevant teaching as well as the cons or disadvantageous that may come with it.

Lim, Leonel, et al. “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Developing Principles of Description and Analysis.” Teaching and Teacher Education, vol. 77, 2019, pp. 43–52., doi:10.1016/j.tate.2018.09.011.
https://ac-els-cdn-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/S0742051X17320723/1-s2.0-S0742051X17320723-main.pdf?_tid=a04d854f-ea1e-4b3e-b92c-e07104ea3594&acdnat=1551675387_b21d18ab051d29612a87585a51df1839

This article puts Culturally relevant pedagogy into action by providing a case study from teachers in Singapore who bring such practices to their classrooms. This paper talks about challenges and possibilities that teachers go through, lays out what culturally relevant pedagogies involve, and speaks on struggles of recognitiona nd redistribution. This is important in understanding the basis of culturally relevant teaching and having an example of how it works in action. I can use this to add to my wiki article information about tactics and characteristics -- what it consists of and how to make it happen.

==== Garcia, Jeremy, and Valerie Shirley. “Performing Decolonization: Lessons Learned from Indigenous Youth, Teachers and Leaders' Engagement with Critical Indigenous Pedagogy.” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/366. ==== This article introduces a framework that expands on culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogy -- Critical Indigenous Pedagogy which “is concerned with disrupting social injustices and transforming inequitable and oppressive power relations through a pedagogical process that empowers students and teachers to create social change in their communities” (Garcia, 80). In this framework, educators engage students in the decolonization process as they examine injustices and reclaim indigenous knowledge systems and sovereignty. A concept I found interested in this framework is the idea that schools should be considered sacred landscapes unlike western or modern schools where students learn in structured closed-off classrooms. Critical Indigenous Pedagogy relates directly to Indigenous Education, yet it is not included or mentioned in the wikipedia article. I use this article to define CIP on wikipedia and to explore how my PE org already practices these form of pedagogy by engaging students in workshops that breakdown colonizations and oppression and by engaging students in youth-led community projects where students themselves identify an issue in their community and work together to create change.

Wildcat, Matthew, et al. View of Learning from the Land: Indigenous Land Based Pedagogy and Decolonization, jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/22248/18062.
This article contrasts colonization and efforts of decolonization through what they introduce as land-based education. Wildcat et al. claim that pairing colonial domination with western education has devastating effects on Indigenous students and thus it is no surprise that indigenous students achieve less than non indigenous students. They framework of Indigenous land-based knowledge is that it is rooted in spiritual values and demonstrating respect and reciprocity to the land. As someone who has been educated in a very western setting, this idea of land-based knowledge is new to me but something my PE org tries to instill with their indigenous students. This is a really interesting form of teaching that engages something so central to the indigenous culture which is that of spirituality. While spiritual values are mentioned as important to indigenous education in the wikipedia article, I use this source to actually introduce this notion of a land-based education.

==== Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. “Land as pedagogy: Nishnaabeg intelligence and rebellious transformation.” ''Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. http://www.adivasiresurgence.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Leanne-Betasamosake-Simpson-Land-as-pedagogy.pdf '' ==== This article introduces the notion of land as pedagogy. They share the importance of community building and education as a consensual engagement that youth agree to be a part of as opposed to our systems of education that are focused on forcing students to learn in order to have a job. A key concept is that Indigenous education through land as pedagogy does not thrive under capitalism because rather than focusing on labor and profit, ti focuses on kindness and community building so this form of pedagogy encourages youth to come up with alternatives to capitalism. I found this article very radical and hopeful so I plan to pair it with the previous article about land-based education to introduce a framework of land as pedagogy as a form of Indigenous Education. Furthermore, this is very relevant to the approach that my PE org takes -- more than encouraging youth to stay in school to get a job and career, they emphasize community building and encourage students to come back to help their communities even if they do succeed in the labor market.

==== Ford, Tara, et al. “Being Useful: Achieving Indigenous Youth Involvement in a Community-Based Participatory Research Project in Alaska.” International Journal of Circumpolar Health, vol. 71, no. 1, 2012, p. 18413., doi:10.3402/ijch.v71i0.18413. ==== This source focuses on community-based participatory research (CBPR) with indigenous community members in western Alaska. Three important strategies of community-based participatory research are (1) having local steering committees made up of youth, tribal leaders, and elders, (2) having youth-researcher partnerships, and (3) creating youth action-groups. An example of how CBPR played out in the Alaskan indigenous community was youth coming together to form action-groups to paint over the graffiti that infiltrated their community. I find this CBPR case study extremely relevant because it’s based on youth empowerment and community engagement in terms of bringing health and wellness to their own communities which is exactly what my org, Voces y Manos focuses on with the indigenous community of Rabinal, Guatemala. Thus, I use this article to outline what CBPR is and requires in the Indigenous Education wikipedia page and also to parallel these youth action-groups in Alaska to the youth led community projects that my org runs in Guatemala.

==== Mcnally, Michael David. “Indigenous Pedagogy in the Classroom: A Service Learning Model for Discussion.” The American Indian Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 3, 2004, pp. 604–617., doi:10.1353/aiq.2004.0102. ==== In this article, Michael Mcnally examines the education practices of the Ojibwe tribe and pairs his students in a service learning project where they serve among a native community and reflect on it. Ojibwe culture, tradition, and pedagogy is very new to Mcnally’s western students but they identify 4 principles of Ojibwe pedagogy. Ojibwe pedagogy (1) privileges knowledge rooted in oral traditions, (2) couples the knowledge taught and learned about tradition which is used on behalf of community well-being, (3) has students learning at the direction but not the determination of an elder, and (4) makes room for holistic reflection. In relation to my other articles about community-based education and land as pedagogy, this article provides a real example by observing the Ojibwe tribe and how education is not different from community-building. Therefore, I use this article to reinforce the sections about indigenous pedagogy in action.

==== May, Stephen Ed. Indigenous Community-Based Education. https://books.google.de/books?hl=de&lr=&id=WmUSPSLxlPQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=indigenous+education&ots=G8ejzJ0Y6t&sig=O_EHQDIY9V10OMHd5PT4PEynBSk#v=onepage&q=indigenous%20education&f=false ==== This volume is a collaboration between indigenous educational practitioners involved in community-based education and academics associated w/ the study of indigenous education. In several segments, they break down that community-based education looks like and how it is essential to the revival and retention of indigenous languages and cultures. There are 4 values at the core of community-based education which include: (1) difference is never equated to deficiency, (2) cooperation (not competition) is fostered, (3) cultural respect is essential, and (4) school’s function is directed towards increasing a child’s options rather than changing them. Indigenous Education I on Wikipedia has a section on “active participation” but no structured pedagogy such as community-based education. Thus, I use this article to add as a section on wikipedia laying out this form of indigenous pedagogy that is not already mentioned. In addition, I write about the important of community involvement as it relates to my PE and the youth-led community projects that embody the goals and principles of community-based education.

Indigenous students
Indigenous students achieve significantly below non-indigenous students in rural Guatemala. This inequality between indigenous and non-indigenous students results from the intersectionality of class and race in a post-colonial society. There is a significant difference of socioeconomic status between the two demographics perpetuating poverty among indigenous communities and thus diminishing the level of education adults receive and are then able to provide for their offspring. Already at a socioeconomic disadvantage, indigenous youth who attend school are hindered from success by the monolingual instruction they receive in Spanish which is not their dominant language.

Voces y Manos
I will be working with Voces y Manos this summer in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala. This organization works primarily with indigenous youth through an after-school program that offers workshops and leadership development. I will have several duties as a volunteer this summer. I will be helping with the youth workshops which focus on different themes each week such as identity, interculturality, decolonization, and history of U.S. intervention in Guatemala which has affected their communities. My other main role as a volunteer is to take part in executing a youth led community project by collecting data among the community and helping with logistical and policy matters. In addition, during my time in Guatemala I will collect personal stories from the participating youth to help them write autobiographies that will then be posted on our website and used to help them apply for outside scholarships o continue their education.

and state your PE org's name, location, and what you anticipate doing with it.

Area: Education in Guatemala
Through the sources I have found for my Area article: Education in Guatemala, I have learned a lot about the disparities and inequalities that dominate education for indigenous students -- most being economic. All of these sources speak on reasons why indigenous students achieve less than non-indigenous students and programs such as PRONADE and EIB which have been implemented in many schools to combat such inequalities. The common theme I have come across is the issue of language in education -- most schools teach only in Spanish which does not serve the indigenous students who are likely to speak their indigenous language. Some interventions that have been implemented across Guatemala focus on training teachers to incorporate indigenous languages in the classroom not just to support the indigenous students but also because non-indigenous students benefit from having a bilingual education. Other programs; however, tackle the issue of indigenous students not getting quality education by supporting intervention focused on SPANISH only and “helping” them to assimilate. This is a very top down approach to the issue because rather than changing the system to serve indigenous students, they aim to change the students themselves to fit into the system that innately ignores and diminishes their unique culture, tradition, and language. Together, all of these sources give me a base to add a section on indigenous struggles in Guatemalan education system as well as interventions that have been placed to tackle such issues.

One program in particular is PRONADE which came into place after the signing of the Peace Accords in 1996. These Peace Accords were signed as an agreement between the Guatemalan government and civilian groups, especially those if indigenous descent, who suffered the consequences of the militias and the Civil War. PRONADE schools are self-managed schools funded by the Ministry of Education and the World Bank. A board of community members uses the funds to pay things like teacher salaries, snacks, and supplies. While it seems like a noble project, according to some off my sources that have done research, many locals do not appreciate it having PRONADE schools as it is almost forced parent participation and does not even meet the demands made during the Peace Accords. An essential demand was that of culturally relevant and bilingual education. However, most schools do not hve bilingual education and several programs, PRONADE included, aim at Spanish instruction rather than incorporating the indigenous languages. In further research, I want to continue looking at the effects of colonization and erasure of culture and language of many of these indigenous cultures.

Even with programs like PRONADE; however, there is still an education gap between indigenous and non-indigenous (ladino) students in Guatemala. This inequality stems from years of colonization and practices of castellinizacion from the 1960s where indigenous students were forced to assimilate to Spanish culture rather than their indigenous culture, through language and education. A practice of this was even to translate indigenous language to Spanish in an alphabet but words that were difficult to translate and were left unwritten and thus perpetuated the systemic erasure of indigenous languages. My scholarly sources cover several research studies that have been conducted and each finds that indigenous students are at a disadvantage in the Guatemalan education system but more specifically, indigenous female students are by far the most disadvantaged group in Guatemala. Community-based schools are essential to student achievement and a study even finds that indigenous students did better when instructed by a teacher who was also of indigenous decent. This could be due to many things but it's definitely having a sense of community and mutual identity that allows teachers to relate to their students and thus increase their scores. This is so important because indigenous students in Guatemala are already at a huge disadvantage just from generally coming form poorer families, studying under less experienced teachers, attending schools with poor infrastructure, and having less access to learning materials.

Sector: Indigenous Education
The sources I have found so far for my sector: Indigenous Education, lay out different approaches to implementing culture in the context of the classroom. They advocate for institutional changes and argue that without any systemic changes, culturally relevant teaching, a framework for Indigenous education, will continue to be talked about and be generalized to mere discourse instead of action and implementation like has happened in most cases. These articles also introduce new rhetoric and new name for culturally relevant teaching such as culturally responsive schooling and culturally sustaining and revitalizing pedagogy. They give background and reason as to why it should be those terms and what those terms suggest but when reading through examples and thinking practically, I wonder if by introducing new terms to this practice, they are just keeping it about rhetoric and correctness which could potentially prevent the action and systemic change they call for if we’re more concerned with the correct terms to use.

More specific to Indigenous Education, I have come across other frameworks of pedagogy such as land-based pedagogy. which is rooted in spiritual values of Indigenous culture and connection to the land rather than to a classroom. Education through land however does not thrive in a capitalist system because rather than focusing on market accessibility, it focuses on teaching students not about how to get a job but about kindnesses and community building. Community is a huge part of indigenous culture and thus indigenous education which is why another form of pedagogy offered by my sources is community-based participatory research. CBPR requires having committees made up of youth, tribal leaders, and elders, having youth-researcher partnerships, and creating youth action-groups. All of these approaches are different and almost the complete opposite of Western education systems that are skill and labor based. Indigenous education really emphasizes and thrives on community, spirituality, and connection with their land.

Area: Education in Guatemala
(** bold sections are my own contributions).

Education in Guatemala is free and compulsory for six years. Guatemala has a three-tier system of education starting with primary school, followed by secondary school and tertiary education, depending on the level of technical training. 74.5% of the population age 15 and over is literate, the lowest literacy rate in Central America. The official language of instruction is Spanish as mandated by the Education Law in 1965 when Spanish became the official language of Guatemala .

Issues
Education is not free, atleast not highscool by the government, the main average years of schooling in 2011 was 4.1 years per student.

25.5% of Guatemala's population are illiterate, with illiteracy rates up to more than 60% in the indigenous population. '''Indigenous people make up about 42% of the population in Guatemala and mostly reside in poor rural areas with little access to post-primary education. Compared to non-indigenous students who average 5.7 years of schooling, Indigenous students are at a disadvantage with an average of 2.5 years of schooling. Indigenous students achieve lower than non-indigenous (ladino) students in schooling possibly due to greater poverty and lack of indigenous language involvement in public schooling. '''

Education resources and indigenous Disadvantage
'''Indigenous student achievement is lower than non-indigenous student achievement. Indigenous parents have less schooling and lower socioeconomic status contributing to a poor education environment: schools with fewer educational materials, poor school infrastructure, and low quality educators.   Indigenous students across Guatemala start schooling about 0.5 years later than ladino students. Already with disadvantaged backgrounds, indigenous students attend schools with fewer resources and perform worse on exams than non-indigenous students across Guatemala.'''

The recruitment and retaining of quality teachers poses a large problem in rural areas of Guatemala. Apart from the meagre pay, most teachers come from larger towns, where they have been able to receive higher education and, faced with a daily commute of a few hours to reach rural areas, many seek employment in the larger towns first. Indigenous students in rural schools therefore have lower teacher expectations which affects their achievement in school. The lack of curriculum guides or teaching materials in rural schools also hamper efforts to improve education standards in those areas.

The current state of education in Guatemala is significantly under-funded. Many classrooms nationwide, especially in rural Guatemala, do not meet minimum standards for classroom space, teaching materials, classroom equipment and furniture, and water/sanitation.

With more than half the population of Guatemalans living below the poverty line,[8] it is hard for children going to school, especially indigenous children, to afford the rising cost of uniforms, books, supplies and transportation — none of which are supplied by the government.[6] This is exacerbated by the fact that, for poorer students, time spent in school could be time better spent working to sustain the family. It is especially hard for children living in rural areas to attend primary school. Access to primary education  in Guatemala has increase but levels of attainment remain the lowest in Latin America. Most drop out due to the lack of access and largely inadequate facilities.

'''Indigenous students drop out starting at age 12 which is the transition age between primary and secondary level schools mostly due to economic constraints and demand for labor work. For indigenous males, the need to work for financial stability is the most frequent case for dropping out or not enrolling in school. Indigenous students are more likely to work instead of or while attending school. Poverty is thus the main deterrent to schooling for indigenous students -- poverty and rural residence increases the likelihood of school incompletion and non enrollment.'''

Gender inequality in education is common — male literacy and school enrolment exceeds female rates in all aspects. Out of the 2 million children who do not attend school in Guatemala, the majority are indigenous girls living in rural areas. Most families subscribe to patriarchal traditions that tie women to a domestic role and the majority would rather send a son than a daughter to school if they could afford it. '''Mayan females are the least likely to enroll, start school late, and drop out the earliest compared to Mayan males and ladino males and females. Only 39% of indigenous females are literate compared to 68% of Mayan males, 87% Ladino males, and 77% Ladino women. Expectation of marriage and domestic duties for females, contributes to low investment in education -- indigenous females marry younger than non-indigenous females and only 3% of married females enroll in school. '''

Research has found that lack of infrastructure such as adequate potable water, sewage services, or electricity and  lack of educational materials such as textbooks in Guatemalan schools can have significant negative impacts on student performance.

Educators in Guatemalan public schools often use teaching methods that do not account for the nearly 40% of students hailing from indigenous backgrounds who are non-native Spanish speakers.[13] '''Monolingual Spanish instruction is used in linguistically diverse classrooms as there are about 20 Mayan languages in Guatemala. ''' This is reflected in high rates of repetition of grades, for instance up to 30% in first grade. '''Compared to native Spanish speaking ladino students, Indigenous students often enter school without Spanish fluency and due to the language gap, achieve lower than other students. Research shows that bilingual education for indigenous students reduced grade repetition and dropout rates.'''

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

'''Guatemala’s Democratic Spring (1944-1954), was a period of social integration for Indigenous groups. In 1945 the democratic government of Guatemala established the instituto Indigenista Nacional (IIN) allowing children in schools to learn to read in their native language first before learning Spanish. After a short democratic period, Guatemala suffered 36 years (1960-1996) of civil unrest, referred to as the Conflicto Armado or “armed conflict.” Learning in native indigenous languages was no longer allowed after 1965 when the Education Law declared Spanish as the official language of Guatemala educational instruction. The shift from a democratic to an authoritarian state caused guerrilla movements to emerge and a civil war to break leading to the indiscriminate massacre of many indigenous groups across Guatemala creating systemic inequalities for the indigenous, particularly in politics and education. '''

Peace Accords

'''The Peace Accords of 1996, an agreement between the Guatemalan government and civilian groups under the United Nations, ended the 36 year armed conflict and “acknowledged the role of the educational sector in perpetuating racism via unequal access to schools, poor treatment of indigenous students, and discriminatory representations of indigenous culture in curricula” (Bellino, 65). The Peace Accords laid out steps to achieving education equality by increasing access to schooling, promoting bilingual instruction, encouraging community involvement, reforming school curriculum, and establishing decentralizing institutions. '''

'''A main objective of the Peace Accords was to increase schooling for rural and indigenous people and decentralize the education system, but many demands of the Peace Accords remain unfulfilled. There has not been an official introduction of indigenous languages to the education sector and inequalities between indigenous versus non indigenous groups remain. Demands in the Peace Accords are as follows: '''


 * Intercultural and bilingual education will exist in every school
 * Policies will recognize and strengthen Mayan identity and increase their access to education by incorporating indigenous pedagogical values in teaching.
 * Government will fund implementation
 * Females will have equal access to education

PRONADE

In attempts to reform the country's education system, particularly its rural schools, the Guatemalan government created the PRONADE (National Community-Managed Program for Educational Development), and PROESCOLAR (Education Development Program) initiatives in the 1990s to give communities more say in local school affairs.[10] Together with the parents of students, these programs administered thousands of rural public and quasi-charter schools in the late 1990s and early 2000s, governing teacher hiring, monitoring teacher and student attendance, facilitating school food programs, and maintaining facilities.[10]

'''PRONADE schools are located primarily in rural indigenous areas to increase access to schooling and improve the quality of education in rural Guatemala. Each community is represented by a Comite Educativo de Autogestion Educativa (COEDUCA) made up of parents and community members. PRONADE is successful in improving parent and community participation in schools and has expanded access to educational opportunities in rural areas. '''

Critiques and challenges

'''PRONADE is not institutionalized by the Ministry of Education so it is not considered equivalent to traditional schooling. Teachers have provisional status and experience inconsistent salaries as it is determined by the community so several are unsatisfied. They are also not trained in intercultural and bilingual education which is a demand of the Peace Accords and which affects student achievement. PRONADE has increased access to education but repetition, non-enrollment, and dropout rates remain high. '''

'''PRONADE schools are self-managed schools that require voluntary parent and community management which is not always feasible for communities where PRONADE exists that are of the poorest and need to work. Insufficient finances force parents to invest in textbooks, teacher salaries, bills, etc from their own money which puts an additional financial burden on them. PRONADE is a low cost to the government but a high cost to communities which influences the quality of education that students receive. Some critics believe that PRONADE, a top-down approach, fails to address the educational inequalities of poor indigenous people and rather perpetuates extreme poverty in rural Guatemala. '''

Sector: Indigenous Education
** Added an entirely new section.

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES TO INDIGENOUS EDUCATION
Decentralization requires a shift in education that steps away from Western practices. The following are pedagogical approaches aimed at empowering indigenous students and indigenous communities through education that does not rely on western culture.

CULTURALLY RELEVANT PEDAGOGY

Culturally Relevant pedagogy involves curriculum tailored to the cultural needs of students and participants involved. Culture is at the core of CRP and teachers and educators aim for all students to achieve academic success, develop cultural competence, and develop critical consciousness to challenge the current social structures of inequality that affect indigenous communities in particular. Culturally relevant Pedagogy also extends to culturally sustaining and revitalizing pedagogy which actively works to challenge power relations and colonization by recognizing reclaiming, through education, what has been displaced by colonization and recognizing the important of community engagement in such efforts.

CRITICAL INDIGENOUS PEDAGOGY

Critical Indigenous Pedagogy focuses on resisting colonization and oppression through education practices that privilege indigenous knowledge and promote indigenous sovereignty. Beyond schooling and instruction, CIP is rooted in thinking critically about social injustices and challenging those through education systems that empower youth and teachers to create social change. The goal of teachers and educators under CIP is to guide indigenous students in developing critical consciousness by creating a space for self-reflection and dialogue as opposed to mere instruction. This form of pedagogy empowers Indigenous youth to take charge and responsibility to transform their own communities.

Under critical indigenous pedagogy, schools are considered sacred landscapes since they offer a sacred place for growth and engagement. Western-style schooling is limited in engaging indigenous knowledge and languages but schools that embrace critical indigenous pedagogy recognize Indigenous knowledge and epistemologies which is why indigenous schools should be considered sacred landscape.

LAND-BASED PEDAGOGY

Land as pedagogy recognizes colonization as dispossession and thus aims to achieve decolonization through education practices that connect Indigenous people to their native land and the social relations that arise from those lands. Land-based pedagogy encourages indigenous people to center love for the land and each other as the core of education in order to contest oppression and colonialism that is aimed at deterring indigenous people from their land.

Land-based pedagogy has no specific curriculum because education and knowledge come from what the land gives. Unlike western practices with a standard curriculum, land-based pedagogy is based on the idea of abstaining from imposing an agenda to another living being. Intelligence is considered a consensual engagement where children consent to learning and having a set curriculum is thought to normalize dominance and non-consent within schooling and inevitably extended to societal norms. Western style education is seen as coercive because in order to achieve something, one must follow the set guidelines and curriculum enforced by educators. Individuals show interest and commitment on their own thus achieving self-actualization and sharing their knowledge with others through modeling and “wearing their teachings.” The values of land-based pedagogy are important to indigenous people groups who believe that “raising Indigenous children in a context where their consent, physically and intellectually, is not just required but valued, goes a long way to undoing the replication of colonial gender violence” (Simpson, 31)

COMMUNITY-BASED EDUCATION

Community-based education is central to the revival of indigenous cultures and diverse languages. This form of pedagogy allows community members to participate and influence the learning environment in local schools. Community-based education embraces the ideas of Paolo Freirie who called for individuals to “become active participants in shaping their own education” (May, 10).

The main effects of instilling community-based pedagogy in schools are as follows:


 * Parent involvement in decision making encourages children to become closer to their teachers
 * Indigenous parents themselves gain confidence and positively impacts their children’s learning
 * Teacher-parent collaboration eliminates stereotypes non-indigenous teachers may have about indigenous people.
 * Communities collectively gain self-respect and achieve political influence as they take responsibility for their local schools

The school environment under a community-based education system requires communication and collaboration between the school and the community. The community must share leadership within the schools and must be involved in decision-making, planning, and implementation. Children learn through the guidance rather than determinants of their teachers or elders and are taught skills of active participation. Out of community-based education arises community-based participatory research (CBPR), an approach to research that facilitates co-learning co-partnership between researchers and community members to promote community-capacity building.  CBPR requires having youth-researcher partnerships, youth action-groups, and local committees made up of youth, tribal leaders, and elders. This approach to research builds strength and empowers community members.