Measuring Subtle and Blatant Prejudice: A New Assessment Tool for Guatemala's Bilingual Education Program

Abstract

The Peace Accords ending a decades long civil war in Guatemala set a goal to overcome the historic discrimination towards the indigenous peoples” through “the transformation of mentalities, attitudes, and behavior of all citizens” (MINUGUA, 1996, p. 194). One of the state apparatuses for doing so is the Bilingual and Multicultural Education program, under the Ministry of Education. However, the program lacks monitoring and evaluation to the extent that the program is achieving these outcomes. This thesis presents a pilot survey to meet this need. It is adapted from Mendoza Casaús’ (2006) study of contact and prejudice among Guatemalan university students which draws theoretically from Allport (1954) and methodologically from Pettigrew and Meertens (1995). It surveys 208 students enrolled in Bilingual and Multicultural Education classes in Guatemala City. The results indicate high levels of prejudice among students surveyed and does not find significant associations in prejudice towards indigenous people in terms of school-based factors or levels of intergroup contact. It does find a significant relationship between prejudice and emotional affect towards indigenous people. These findings suggest new directions for research and curriculum development regarding Guatemala’s bilingual education program as they highlight the need for assessment of learning outcomes.