{"id":52057,"date":"2018-11-22T12:19:22","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T17:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=52057"},"modified":"2025-10-15T10:58:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:58:39","slug":"experiential-learning-belize","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/experiential-learning-belize\/","title":{"rendered":"Experiential Learning in Belize"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Experiential Learning in Belize\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

In 2015, after two decades of legal battles, an unprecedented Caribbean Court of Justice ruling<\/a> reinforced property rights of the Maya people of Belize, enshrining their system of customary land tenure within the country\u2019s constitution and providing protection from encroaching logging and oil companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, Carleton University student Tianna Doto travelled to the Mayan village of Laguna in southern Belize, where she and a small group of classmates developed an activity booklet to teach children about the court case and how it could impact their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legal decision \u201cmeans the land can be for whatever the people and villages need it for, like fishing or raising chickens,\u201d reads a passage on a page that also features a word scramble game using terms from traditional Maya culture. \u201cWhether it be feeding your own family, building new houses for your elders or enhancing your spirituality, this land has and will always be Maya land, but only if we work together to protect it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Maya people of the village of Laguna, Belize<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Doto, who is now in the fourth year of Carleton\u2019s Bachelor of Global and International Studies (BGInS<\/a>) program, specializing in Globalization and the Environment<\/a>, was in Belize for the inaugural year of GINS 3200<\/a>, an experiential learning abroad summer course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The course, which is now open to applicants from BGInS and other programs for summer 2019, was created in collaboration with Belize\u2019s Center for Engaged Learning Abroad (CELA<\/a>), which develops customized experiential learning programs \u2014 with a focus on sustainability \u2014 and ensures that both visiting students and locals benefit from the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe achievements that the Maya people have made in protecting their culture and lands could not have happened without the contribution of many friends of the Maya people,\u201d says Pablo Mis, a Maya Q’eqchi and program director of the Maya Leaders Alliance. \u201cWith rights now affirmed to ancestral lands, the Carleton students have made a contribution by raising awareness about the responsibilities that come along with the court decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was daunting, being a white woman from Canada and going to Belize to try to help Maya people learn about their history and future,\u201d Doto says about the nearly two weeks she spent in Laguna, a community of about 300, where the Carleton students stayed in a cooperatively-run guesthouse and ate meals in the homes of village families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was conscious about white privilege and being an outsider, and we weren\u2019t there to \u2018teach\u2019 but to share stories with children about Maya connections to the land,\u201d continues Doto, who spent three weeks in a classroom on campus getting ready for the trip – learning about the history, economy and culture of the Maya in Belize – and one week in a classroom at Carleton deconstructing the trip afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was incredibly rewarding. There were no textbooks \u2014 we learned through what we were doing and through our everyday experiences and interactions. This will really help me prepare for my future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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A Collaborative Approach to Experiential Learning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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GINS 3200 was launched in 2017, the year Doto went to Belize, after Political Science Prof. Peter Andr\u00e9e<\/a> learned about similar overseas experience partnerships between CELA and other Canadian universities. Belize is a particularly good fit because English is the official language in the culturally diverse nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are myriad valid criticisms about \u201cvoluntourism\u201d and students from wealthy nations travelling to developing countries for educational experiences that, while well intentioned, can turn out to be exploitative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andr\u00e9e, who will be leading this summer\u2019s trip to Belize and is a principal investigator on the major SSHRC-funded partnership project Community-First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE<\/a>), says that collaborating with CELA and making a multi-year commitment to Belize was a way to address potential pitfalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough episodic, we\u2019re building long-term relationships in Belize,\u201d says Andr\u00e9e, noting that the development of GINS 3200 has been informed by the CFICE project and its goal of understanding how partnering with universities can positively impact communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carleton students and residents of Laguna, Belize<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Maya have historically been marginalized within society. Working with North American institutions can bring money and profile. We\u2019re not going to solve their problems, but we\u2019re learning about the challenges they face and together trying to come up with ways to deal with these concerns. And we can refine the program year by year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cultural immersion, meanwhile, leaves Carleton students more knowledgeable about both the Maya and themselves. They come to understand that although the people of villages such as Laguna and Succotz (where the students will travel next summer) live rural, low-tech lives, they don\u2019t identify as \u201cpoor\u201d and tend to have a strong sense of pride and happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you have to process something that\u2019s seemingly a contradiction, it challenges your assumptions very deeply and can lead to a paradigm shift,\u201d says Andr\u00e9e. \u201cYou start to appreciate the richness of Indigenous communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This type of awareness, he adds, is relevant to perceptions about Indigenous communities in Canada as well.<\/p>\n\n\n

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An Opportunity to Help the Community Move Forward<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Because the Maya of Belize now have more control over their land, but no formal process for managing their resources, CELA saw an opportunity to help community members collectively discuss and decide upon next steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization has three types of programming, says Filiberto Penados, the centre\u2019s academic director and a member of the Maya nation: field courses, internships, and faculty-led courses such as GINS 3200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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