Biocultural Factors in School Achievement for Mopan Children in Belize

MOPAN MAYA CHILDREN of San Antonio, Toledo, Belize, face a number of challenges to their success in school. Mayan ethnicity, language, and traditional economic strategies are rendered disadvantageous for school achievement by historical, social, cultural, and economic forces. Statistics on poverty and child growth indicate that Mayan children are poorer and more poorly nourished than other Belizean children, and they do less well on national achievement exams. In addition, they attend school structured on the British model and taught in English. In the past, biocultural approaches might model a causal pathway from poverty to nutritional status to cognitive development to school achievement. But the interrelationships among poverty, nutrition, and school achievement are more complicated than can be described by simple formulas or reductionist models. To understand these relationships, we need a combination of quantitative and qualitative information. In research conducted between November 1990 and July 1991, I utilized both quantitative and qualitative techniques to explore the complex web of relationships among nutritional status, household factors, and school performance for Mopan Maya children. Combining quantitative and qualitative techniques in biocultural research, however, requires a rethinking of the research process. To incorporate qualitative methodologies