Learning and Growing in Indigenous Amazon: the Education System of French Guiana Wayana-Apalaï communities

Abstract

This paper presents the first results obtained from an exploratory study conducted with a Wayana-Apalaï indigenous community living the High Maroni region, in French Guiana. The study is situated within an ecological and interactionist approach and attempts (1) to understand educational family practices and community logic of children training, (2) to describe parents' expectations vis-à-vis their children as a postmodern dynamic. The ethnographic corpus was gathered during a period of five years with the aim to link observed behaviors with contextual and cultural variables. Following the analysis of the data, the authors propose a diagram of a) the micro-systems structuring the Wayana-Apalaï kinship system; b) a description of parental roles and educational functions; c) an overview of parental expectations in terms of "traditional success"/ "school success ".