Centre for Indigenous Americas Studies
Wapishana bilingual education
Evaluating processes of Wapishana-English Bilingual Education Programme in Guyana.
Description
The broad purpose of this PhD project is to develop a framework of educational interventions for the successful implementation of the Wapishana-English Bilingual Education Programme, such that it is meaningfully integrated rather than peripherally added to the mainstream curriculum. The development of such a framework will be based on an examination and evaluation of the processes involved in a Wapishana-English Bilingual Programme currently running in three Wapishana communities in Guyana. In this study, it is the goal to reinforce the argument that besides the teaching of English academic skills, the utilization of children’s linguistic, cultural and experiential background plays a critical role in determining their language learning and academic development. The core of the analysis concerns determining whether or not the “ingredients” of educationally-proven forms of bilingual education in similar contexts are present in the Wapishana-English Bilingual Education Programme currently being piloted among the Wapishana children. In addition, this project explorse to what extent the ingredients are maintained and make recommendations to improve existing efforts.