LearnLink Projects: GUATEMALA

Improving Intercultural, Bilingual Education In Guatemala Through Teacher Training

Project URL: http://www.enlacequiche.org.gt

LearnLink worked with USAID/Guatemala to help improve teacher training and develop bilingual learning materials. Home to 22 indigenous Mayan cultures, Guatemala is multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual, with nearly 40 percent of children starting school without a productive knowledge of Spanish. Yet only 12 percent of schools are bilingual. This linguistic and cultural mismatch is particularly pronounced in certain provinces, or “departments,” as they are known in Guatemala, like Quiché, where 95 percent of the population is indigenous.

Typically, teachers working in areas with large indigenous populations possess limited local language skills—many speak the local language but do not have reading or writing literacy—and are essentially ill-prepared to teach Mayan children in their own languages. Opportunities for training are also inadequate, particularly in the areas of active learning and intercultural understanding.

Guatemala's teacher training institutions need to strengthen instruction in Mayan language literacy and cultural concepts, first and second language learning and bilingual pedagogy, multigrade teaching methods, and cultural sensitivity to help students bridge the gap between home and school.

Focusing on the Department of Quiché, an area severely affected by decades of armed conflict, LearnLink assisted the Ministry of Education by helping to develop the following:

• Culturally appropriate Mayan language instructional support materials.
This includes the digital formatting of a set of core K'iche' and Ixil Mayan language materials. LearnLink has forged partnerships with public and private sector entities for the establishment of a system to collect, translate, enhance and digitize materials such as teacher guides, instructional units, pamphlets, maps, booklets, workbooks, and manuals.

• Teacher's professional skills and proficiency in oral and written Mayan languages.
LearnLink has purchased the necessary technology and installing multimedia computer labs in four teacher training schools (escuelas normales) in the region, also producing educational materials for bilingual teacher preparation, including an interactive multimedia system on CD-ROM to train teachers in oral and written K'iche' and Ixil.

• Early childhood activities to enhance learning.
After researching and collecting K'iche' and Ixil language materials, LearnLink produced programs for radio provided to local radio stations.

• Institutional capacity in computer applications for teacher training schools and communities.
LearnLink trained trainers to use the computer labs. In addition, training was provided for the Departmental Directorate of Education staff to increase their effectiveness in the use of software, email, and the Internet.

LearnLink's work is one more example of the ways in which modern communication technology is contributing to cultural survival for indigenous groups.

For more information, contact Kelly Morphy.