2nd Day of Belize Research
Here is the second day of Belize research.
Today, I started with an article from an acedemic journal and almost finished the notes from a website. I will finish my notes from the website next time. I have also implemented a specific purpose statement for this literature review.
The purpose of this literature review is to provide a concise overview on the aspects of culture, language, and community in Belize.
Winsor, P. J. T., Hansen, J. (1999). Coming to know as teachers: Learning together in Belize. Reading Teacher, 52 (8), 810-819. Available:
http://0-web.ebscohost.com.darius.uleth.ca/ehost/detail?vid=7&hid=108&sid=ac449271-cd67-4d9a-96cb-f54606f6d96f%40sessionmgr103
This paper provides a nice overview of language in Belize. Here are my notes from the paper:
Population: 205, 000
Languages: Mayan, Spanish, Creole, Mestizo, Garifuna, and English
Rich and eclectic culture
Ethnic pluralism and multilingualism
Mayan history over 2,000 years old
3 Mayan groups: Kekchi, Mopan, and Yucatan, each with its own language
Creole English – primary Belizean language
Many Belizeans speak their ethnic language at home and Creole when talking with others outside of home
Colonial British declared Standard English and the official language of the country and of school instruction
Upon declaring independence, the Belizean government decided to maintain English as the official language
English is used in all forms of media and business/educational communication
Belizean children growing up in an isolated village without electricity begin school with no English exposure
Schools: overcrowded classrooms, absenteeism, poorly maintained buildings, few teaching resources, few reading materials for young children, but highly motivated teachers
US Library of Congress. (No date provided). Belize. Available: http://countrystudies.us/belize/
This website provides an extensive review of the history, society, economy, education, government and politics of Belize. Here are my brief notes:
Cultural Pluralism and Ethnic Diversity
Bipolar language division: English-speaking (Creole) and Spanish-speaking (Mestizo)
Intermarriage between members of different ethnic groups and mixed ancestry – common historically and presently
Many Belizeans do not identify themselves by their primary ethnic background – they just call themselves “Belizeans”
Structure of Belizean Society
Big gap between rich and poor, but not as big as in other Caribbean countries
Historical 3 social classes/sectors: upper, middle, lower
Upper: either white, light-skinned Creole, or Mestizo
Middle: peoples of different ethnic backgrounds
working-class groups
shared dispositions toward education, cultural respectability, and possibilities for upward social mobility
Lower: majority of Belizean population
Called “grass roots” or “roots” class
unskilled or semiskilled urban workers, subsistence farmers, agricultural laborers, and the unemployed
severely limited access to land, higher education, or any other opportunity to change their marginal status
Social Dynamics/Changes
Changes over the last thirty years:
Growth of educational opportunities
Government employment has facilitated the increase of middle-class and gap between rich and poor
Education now seen as essential
Education
Belize's strategy for social development in the 1980s focused on increasing investments in formal education. On the surface, the achievements have been impressive; opportunities for all levels of schooling have greatly increased in the last thirty years. The number of schools grew, enrollment rates rose, and a record number of students graduated in 1990.
These statistics, however, provided only a partial picture. As in many other areas of the Caribbean, enrollments have lagged behind population growth since at least the early 1980s. Large numbers of the urban and rural poor continued to lack access to schooling or dropped out before completing their primary education. But even with high rates of attrition at the primary and secondary levels, the number of graduates exceeded the number of jobs, contributing to "credential inflation," underemployment, and emigration.
Most important, despite three decades of efforts to "decolonize" education, foreign influences in the structure and content of Belizean schooling remained significant during the 1980s. As in the colonial period, a joint partnership of church and state managed the school system, although the terms, nature, and balance of power within this partnership shifted significantly toward the national government, beginning in the 1960s. The Belizean state, however, continued to lack total control over all levels and aspects of schooling. Belize relied heavily on foreign institutions for maintenance and expansion of formal education. These institutions provided financing, staffing, curriculum, planning, and higher education.
The growth and transformation of Belizean education took place in a number of phases, each related to important changes within the political and economic history of the country. During the initial phase, between 1816 and 1892, the church-state partnership became institutionalized. Religious initiative and control, extremely limited state intervention, and vigorous competition of religious denominations for the allegiance of the inhabitants characterized this phase.
The intensification of denominational rivalry, the benign neglect of the colonial state, and the growing influence of United States Jesuit missionaries in education characterized the second phase lasted from 1893 to 1934. In 1934 the director of education in Jamaica made a thorough investigation of British Honduras's education system. Various reforms were proposed to increase spending on the school system and improve the standard of education. Implementation of many of these reforms began in the late 1930s.
During the next phase, from the late 1940s and early 1950s, the educational and social activities of the Jesuits influenced the rise of an anti-British, anticolonial nationalist movement. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jesuits led efforts to redress the elitist, urban-centered biases of postprimary education that perpetuated not only social inequality, but also the historical dominance of Belize City over its primarily rural hinterland. By the late 1950s, the Jesuits had emerged as the dominant influence at almost every level of formal education.
With the advent of a large degree of self-rule in 1964, the government began to assert its control over schooling. Formal control over education policy and planning passed from British-born clerics and colonial administrators to British-trained Belizeans. Actual education practice, however, changed very little; the religious denominations continued to determine the direction and pace of educational expansion. United States influence within Belizean schools intensified, not only through the adoption of certain Jesuit practices for systemwide use, but also through the arrival of Peace Corps and other United States volunteer teachers and agencies such as CARE and the Michigan Partners.
As the demand for education outstripped the capacities of the churches--even the Jesuits--to provide it, interdenominational cooperation grew and the state assumed a more central role. By the 1970s, the Belizean government had assumed the leading role in establishing new schools, especially at the secondary and tertiary levels. The government conceived of education as an essential tool in the peaceful struggle for independence. But the expansion of educational opportunities outstripped the state's resources, leading to an intensified reliance on external aid. Since 1981, the United States has provided the bulk of this aid. This situation caused many Belizeans to fear the rise of a new form of imperialist control over the country.
Nowhere were fears of recolonization more realized than in higher education. In 1979 the ruling People's United Party (PUP) government established the Belize College of Arts, Science, and Technology (Belcast) with the intention of breaking Belize's dependence on the outside world for university education. The PUP envisioned Belcast as a government-run institution, with no participation from the church. Funding was secured from the European Economic Community for the construction of a campus in Belmopan.
The campus was never built because the PUP was swept out of office in a landslide victory for the rival United Democratic Party (UDP) in December 1984. The UDP revoked the Belcast ordinance and invited Ferris State College of Big Rapids, Michigan to establish and manage a new institution, the University College of Belize (UCB). Control over the UCB program rested not with Belizeans, but with the administration of Ferris State College. The birth of UCB embodied Belizean nationalists' worst fears: the country lost sovereignty over an institution that symbolized Belize's first major effort to break from the country's colonial past in the education sector. The intense controversy arose again in 1991 when it was discovered that Ferris State College had failed to obtain proper accreditation for the UCB program, thus placing into question the value of the degrees UCB had granted since 1987. Following this controversy, the new PUP government revoked its agreement with Ferris State and assumed full control over the institution.
School System
The Belizean school system was a loose aggregate of education subsystems. The system was based on British education and was broken into three levels: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Belizean children began their eight years of primary education with two years of "infant" classes, followed by six "standards." Secondary education was divided into four "forms." Sixth form was a two-year postsecondary course, originally intended to prepare students for the Cambridge Advanced or "A-Level" examinations. Since the early 1970s, sixth-form institutions have also bestowed Associate of Arts degrees sanctioned by the United States Association of Junior Colleges.
Other postsecondary institutions included Belize Teachers' College, the Belize School of Nursing, and the Belize College of Agriculture, in addition to UCB. Belize contributes to and participates in the multinational University of the West Indies. The University of the West Indies also maintained a small extramural department in Belize City.
Management of the system varied according to level. In the latter half of the 1980s, religious denominations controlled the majority of primary schools, but the government or private, community-based boards of governors administered more than 50 percent of the secondary institutions. The preponderance of government institutions at the secondary level was a relatively new development; as recently as 1980, the majority of secondary schools were under religious management. Still, denominational representatives retained considerable influence on the managing boards of private, ostensibly nondenominational, institutions.
Secondary schools also differed according to curriculum and cultural orientation. Most private and denominational schools emphasized academic and commercial studies, although some also offered technical-vocational programs. In contrast, the government directly managed nine schools, all of which offered a curriculum oriented to technical-vocational subjects.
In terms of cultural orientation, educational practices, rituals, and valuative criteria spread to Belize's schools from Jesuit institutions in the United States. Jesuit influence even affected such traditional bastions of British pedagogy as the Anglican and Methodist secondary schools and the government-run Belize Technical College. Nearly thirty years of Peace Corps and other United States volunteer teachers have also influenced Belizean educational culture. Technical-vocational education programs by the United States Agency for International Development promise to erode further British pedagogical legacies.
Standard of Living
Differences in quality of life reflected and shaped patterns of social inequality in Belize. Access to food, housing, health care, and other necessary or desired goods and services varied most markedly between rural and urban areas, as well as by socioeconomic status. In 1984 the average salary of an employee was Bz$6,000. Almost two-thirds of the working population earned between Bz$3,000 and Bz$9,000, while 20 percent earned less than Bz$3,000.
Despite these differences in wealth, virtually all Belizeans shared a penchant for foreign consumer products. In the 1980s, most Belizeans' aspirations for a high standard of living stemmed not only from the long period of colonial rule, but also from tales of emigrants to the United States and television images of the good life there.
Today, I started with an article from an acedemic journal and almost finished the notes from a website. I will finish my notes from the website next time. I have also implemented a specific purpose statement for this literature review.
The purpose of this literature review is to provide a concise overview on the aspects of culture, language, and community in Belize.
Winsor, P. J. T., Hansen, J. (1999). Coming to know as teachers: Learning together in Belize. Reading Teacher, 52 (8), 810-819. Available:
http://0-web.ebscohost.com.darius.uleth.ca/ehost/detail?vid=7&hid=108&sid=ac449271-cd67-4d9a-96cb-f54606f6d96f%40sessionmgr103
This paper provides a nice overview of language in Belize. Here are my notes from the paper:
Population: 205, 000
Languages: Mayan, Spanish, Creole, Mestizo, Garifuna, and English
Rich and eclectic culture
Ethnic pluralism and multilingualism
Mayan history over 2,000 years old
3 Mayan groups: Kekchi, Mopan, and Yucatan, each with its own language
Creole English – primary Belizean language
Many Belizeans speak their ethnic language at home and Creole when talking with others outside of home
Colonial British declared Standard English and the official language of the country and of school instruction
Upon declaring independence, the Belizean government decided to maintain English as the official language
English is used in all forms of media and business/educational communication
Belizean children growing up in an isolated village without electricity begin school with no English exposure
Schools: overcrowded classrooms, absenteeism, poorly maintained buildings, few teaching resources, few reading materials for young children, but highly motivated teachers
US Library of Congress. (No date provided). Belize. Available: http://countrystudies.us/belize/
This website provides an extensive review of the history, society, economy, education, government and politics of Belize. Here are my brief notes:
Cultural Pluralism and Ethnic Diversity
Bipolar language division: English-speaking (Creole) and Spanish-speaking (Mestizo)
Intermarriage between members of different ethnic groups and mixed ancestry – common historically and presently
Many Belizeans do not identify themselves by their primary ethnic background – they just call themselves “Belizeans”
Structure of Belizean Society
Big gap between rich and poor, but not as big as in other Caribbean countries
Historical 3 social classes/sectors: upper, middle, lower
Upper: either white, light-skinned Creole, or Mestizo
Middle: peoples of different ethnic backgrounds
working-class groups
shared dispositions toward education, cultural respectability, and possibilities for upward social mobility
Lower: majority of Belizean population
Called “grass roots” or “roots” class
unskilled or semiskilled urban workers, subsistence farmers, agricultural laborers, and the unemployed
severely limited access to land, higher education, or any other opportunity to change their marginal status
Social Dynamics/Changes
Changes over the last thirty years:
Growth of educational opportunities
Government employment has facilitated the increase of middle-class and gap between rich and poor
Education now seen as essential
Education
Belize's strategy for social development in the 1980s focused on increasing investments in formal education. On the surface, the achievements have been impressive; opportunities for all levels of schooling have greatly increased in the last thirty years. The number of schools grew, enrollment rates rose, and a record number of students graduated in 1990.
These statistics, however, provided only a partial picture. As in many other areas of the Caribbean, enrollments have lagged behind population growth since at least the early 1980s. Large numbers of the urban and rural poor continued to lack access to schooling or dropped out before completing their primary education. But even with high rates of attrition at the primary and secondary levels, the number of graduates exceeded the number of jobs, contributing to "credential inflation," underemployment, and emigration.
Most important, despite three decades of efforts to "decolonize" education, foreign influences in the structure and content of Belizean schooling remained significant during the 1980s. As in the colonial period, a joint partnership of church and state managed the school system, although the terms, nature, and balance of power within this partnership shifted significantly toward the national government, beginning in the 1960s. The Belizean state, however, continued to lack total control over all levels and aspects of schooling. Belize relied heavily on foreign institutions for maintenance and expansion of formal education. These institutions provided financing, staffing, curriculum, planning, and higher education.
The growth and transformation of Belizean education took place in a number of phases, each related to important changes within the political and economic history of the country. During the initial phase, between 1816 and 1892, the church-state partnership became institutionalized. Religious initiative and control, extremely limited state intervention, and vigorous competition of religious denominations for the allegiance of the inhabitants characterized this phase.
The intensification of denominational rivalry, the benign neglect of the colonial state, and the growing influence of United States Jesuit missionaries in education characterized the second phase lasted from 1893 to 1934. In 1934 the director of education in Jamaica made a thorough investigation of British Honduras's education system. Various reforms were proposed to increase spending on the school system and improve the standard of education. Implementation of many of these reforms began in the late 1930s.
During the next phase, from the late 1940s and early 1950s, the educational and social activities of the Jesuits influenced the rise of an anti-British, anticolonial nationalist movement. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jesuits led efforts to redress the elitist, urban-centered biases of postprimary education that perpetuated not only social inequality, but also the historical dominance of Belize City over its primarily rural hinterland. By the late 1950s, the Jesuits had emerged as the dominant influence at almost every level of formal education.
With the advent of a large degree of self-rule in 1964, the government began to assert its control over schooling. Formal control over education policy and planning passed from British-born clerics and colonial administrators to British-trained Belizeans. Actual education practice, however, changed very little; the religious denominations continued to determine the direction and pace of educational expansion. United States influence within Belizean schools intensified, not only through the adoption of certain Jesuit practices for systemwide use, but also through the arrival of Peace Corps and other United States volunteer teachers and agencies such as CARE and the Michigan Partners.
As the demand for education outstripped the capacities of the churches--even the Jesuits--to provide it, interdenominational cooperation grew and the state assumed a more central role. By the 1970s, the Belizean government had assumed the leading role in establishing new schools, especially at the secondary and tertiary levels. The government conceived of education as an essential tool in the peaceful struggle for independence. But the expansion of educational opportunities outstripped the state's resources, leading to an intensified reliance on external aid. Since 1981, the United States has provided the bulk of this aid. This situation caused many Belizeans to fear the rise of a new form of imperialist control over the country.
Nowhere were fears of recolonization more realized than in higher education. In 1979 the ruling People's United Party (PUP) government established the Belize College of Arts, Science, and Technology (Belcast) with the intention of breaking Belize's dependence on the outside world for university education. The PUP envisioned Belcast as a government-run institution, with no participation from the church. Funding was secured from the European Economic Community for the construction of a campus in Belmopan.
The campus was never built because the PUP was swept out of office in a landslide victory for the rival United Democratic Party (UDP) in December 1984. The UDP revoked the Belcast ordinance and invited Ferris State College of Big Rapids, Michigan to establish and manage a new institution, the University College of Belize (UCB). Control over the UCB program rested not with Belizeans, but with the administration of Ferris State College. The birth of UCB embodied Belizean nationalists' worst fears: the country lost sovereignty over an institution that symbolized Belize's first major effort to break from the country's colonial past in the education sector. The intense controversy arose again in 1991 when it was discovered that Ferris State College had failed to obtain proper accreditation for the UCB program, thus placing into question the value of the degrees UCB had granted since 1987. Following this controversy, the new PUP government revoked its agreement with Ferris State and assumed full control over the institution.
School System
The Belizean school system was a loose aggregate of education subsystems. The system was based on British education and was broken into three levels: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Belizean children began their eight years of primary education with two years of "infant" classes, followed by six "standards." Secondary education was divided into four "forms." Sixth form was a two-year postsecondary course, originally intended to prepare students for the Cambridge Advanced or "A-Level" examinations. Since the early 1970s, sixth-form institutions have also bestowed Associate of Arts degrees sanctioned by the United States Association of Junior Colleges.
Other postsecondary institutions included Belize Teachers' College, the Belize School of Nursing, and the Belize College of Agriculture, in addition to UCB. Belize contributes to and participates in the multinational University of the West Indies. The University of the West Indies also maintained a small extramural department in Belize City.
Management of the system varied according to level. In the latter half of the 1980s, religious denominations controlled the majority of primary schools, but the government or private, community-based boards of governors administered more than 50 percent of the secondary institutions. The preponderance of government institutions at the secondary level was a relatively new development; as recently as 1980, the majority of secondary schools were under religious management. Still, denominational representatives retained considerable influence on the managing boards of private, ostensibly nondenominational, institutions.
Secondary schools also differed according to curriculum and cultural orientation. Most private and denominational schools emphasized academic and commercial studies, although some also offered technical-vocational programs. In contrast, the government directly managed nine schools, all of which offered a curriculum oriented to technical-vocational subjects.
In terms of cultural orientation, educational practices, rituals, and valuative criteria spread to Belize's schools from Jesuit institutions in the United States. Jesuit influence even affected such traditional bastions of British pedagogy as the Anglican and Methodist secondary schools and the government-run Belize Technical College. Nearly thirty years of Peace Corps and other United States volunteer teachers have also influenced Belizean educational culture. Technical-vocational education programs by the United States Agency for International Development promise to erode further British pedagogical legacies.
Standard of Living
Differences in quality of life reflected and shaped patterns of social inequality in Belize. Access to food, housing, health care, and other necessary or desired goods and services varied most markedly between rural and urban areas, as well as by socioeconomic status. In 1984 the average salary of an employee was Bz$6,000. Almost two-thirds of the working population earned between Bz$3,000 and Bz$9,000, while 20 percent earned less than Bz$3,000.
Despite these differences in wealth, virtually all Belizeans shared a penchant for foreign consumer products. In the 1980s, most Belizeans' aspirations for a high standard of living stemmed not only from the long period of colonial rule, but also from tales of emigrants to the United States and television images of the good life there.
posted by Brad | 1:21 PM
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