A curriculum of place and respect: towards an understanding of contemporary Mayan education

• Main Author: Hood, Robin June
• Other Authors: Fowler, Robert
• Format: Others
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Educators; Guatemala; Mayas; Education
• Online Access: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca//handle/1828/10059

Testimonial texts of contemporary Mayan educators are at the heart of this study about K ’iche ’ Mayan education in the highland area of Totonicapan in Guatemala. I use Schrag’s (1986) framework of communicative praxis to provide a lens of critical hermeneutics or an informed reading of the filmed and audiotaped testimonies of two contemporary Mayan teachers/daykeepers. I use communicative praxis to provide a method of interpreting texts as discourse: about something, by someone, and for someone. Each of the texts is interpreted using the following questions: What is occurring in this person’s testimony? What is this person’s experience being a Mayan educator in contemporary Guatemala? How is that experience disclosed through the text? The first five chapters outline the historical circumstances and describe some of the cultural practices and traditions within which the teachings of the Mayan educators are rooted. This portion of the dissertation is based on an action research project which I coordinated in 1996. The themes of place and respect arose from interviews I conducted with 15 educators and provide the background for an informed reading of the two texts of the Mayan elders. Chapters 6 and 7 focus on an interpretation of each text, what each person referenced in his 'lived' world, and what their testimonies signify about that world, using the lens of communicative praxis. This section explores the backgrounds of the two educators, what they were saying, and how they were saying it. The interpretation elucidates the Mayan educators’ notions of place and respect for the individual, the community, and all living things, as well as heaven and earth. In poignant testimonies, the elders employed personal stories, poetry, metaphors, and ancient texts which call for the return to a Mayan curriculum that is grounded in spiritual ecology. They question the morality of the Guatemalan state and they make an impassioned plea for the creation of a culture of peace. The study concludes in chapter 8 with an examination of the interface between contemporary Western curricular discourse and that of these K’iche’ educators. === Graduate