Loss of Innocence

About the Book

This research investigates and describes attitudes toward language and education in a Latin American/Caribbean community. It is designed to provide community-based foundations for future educational development. What has evolved is a community study through which critical issues in educational policy have been identified. Following the ethos of action anthropology (Tax, 1975), this study has two audiences: the academic community, which can gain a greater understanding of sociocultural changes as they effect education, and the on-site community of Sandy Bay, Roatán which desires bilingual education.

OVERVIEW OF THE VOCABULARY

I have used certain terms and concepts in a specific way in this study; this section defines them.
Ethnography is the work of describing culture; it involves learning from people.
Culture is the acquired knowledge people use to interpret and generate social behavior.
Knowledge is derived from different sources: scientific, mathematic, logical, linguistic, kinesthetic, artistic, and personal. There are many ways of knowing. Generally in the school system we learn the mathematical, scientific and logical order. In doing this ethnography I‘m looking at different ways of knowing, finding out how people perceive things.
Action Anthropology has two audiences: the local community and the academic community are of equal importance. Knowledge gained from the research must be transmitted to both audiences.

OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

My study is called —A loss of innocence: Sandy Bay, Roatán, Hondruas. A sociocultural transition“ Sociocultural in this sense involves everything in the social system: politics and economics, as well as the social life. Education refers to both formal schooling and informal learning.

I have done an ethnography of a Honduran island community. The implications are that the educational phenomena are embedded in the sociocultural change on the island.

An interpretation of the study provides a foundation for improved education, specifically in the areas of bilingual and bicultural education.

My research methods included interviews: conversations with teachers and community members that crossed generations and family lines. I conducted a comprehensive survey of the upper (eastern) portion of the community gathering baseline data that help in understanding the people. In going to every house, I talked with a person from each family to see their living situations were and to develop an understanding of the entire community.

I made maps of the community, conducted classroom observations, inventoried libraries and official documents from the Ministry Of Education and the schools. I had a drawing class for children once a week in which they could come to draw, talk, and tell me about their —printing.“

I attended community meetings of the water board, electricity possibilities, the reef reserve, and padres de la familia. I helped arrange and attended meetings at the very end of the research when planning for English classes began in the community.

I observed daily life: what the people did, what they used, what was important to them, and how they discipline their children. I learned all about the coconut line, which is a major communication system there. I went to social activities: the baseball games, the dances, played dominoes, and went to the local resort. I used public transportation, thus keeping in touch with local happenings. I also kept a journal and maintained correspondence.

Louise Spindler‘s (1977) model of cultures in transition provided the framework from which I gathered data at the cultural level, the social interaction level, and the individual level. The community is a society in