“Ethnonics”: Converting Spanish Speakers' Ethnography for Directed Change

Abstract

Missionary educators sometimes lack the freedom to design educational programs which fit the cultures of their students. More often, they lack the necessary cross-cultural insight. The result (this was the editor's experience during six years as a teacher in the Central African Republic) is that most schools in non-Western countries are far too much like equivalent schools in the country of origin of the curriculum designer, and are poorly adapted to the needs and culturally determined aptitudes of the pupils. The author proposes an approach grounded in a practical application of anthropological findings and theory. Readers' reactions are invited! – The Editor.