Language and culture are two aspects which interchange each other where the language is a medium to get information about the culture. As the product of language and culture, oral tradition plays a vital role in Maluku not only as the most powerful and sacred chant that regulate the life of people but also as the folk song that contains history,…

Schooling has been the main approach for transmitting knowledge and skills in both Eastern and Western cultures. The conservatory, for instance, has been the main cradle of great musicians. However, traditional folk arts in the East relied on apprenticeship using an oral approach for transmission. Applying Lave and Wenger's theory of legitimate…

The oral re-telling of traditional tales, modelled by a storyteller and taught to children in school, can be understood as 'non-instrumental' practice in speaking and listening that emphasises oral language over the reading and writing of stories. While oral storytelling has significant benefits to children's education and development, it is…

Students new to doing qualitative research in the ethnographic and oral traditions, often have difficulty creating successful interview protocols. This article offers practical suggestions for students new to qualitative research for both writing interview protocol that elicit useful data and for conducting the interview. This piece was originally…

My action research investigation into place-conscious writing practices invited experienced Non-Aboriginal teachers from the Northwest Territories to think through writing practices that might engage Northern students, many of whom are Indigenous. In this paper, I will focus on what the teachers had to say about the influences of aspects of…

After the war in 1866, slaves became the owners of the lands they once farmed for their masters. The land they farmed became their own because of the nature of Creek citizenship and land tenure. The 1866 treaty of peace between the United States federal government and the Creek Nation (also known as the Muskogee Nation) declared that freed slaves…

The Sankofa Drum and Dance Ensemble is a Ghanaian drum and dance ensemble that focusses on music in the Ewe tradition. It is based in an elementary school in the Greater Toronto Area and consists of students in Grade 4 through Grade 8. Students in the ensemble study Ghanaian traditional Ewe drumming and dancing in the oral tradition. Nine students…

Analog audio recording has been around for a long time, but today's digital technology makes the process even easier, thanks to inexpensive equipment and free editing software. This year, the author's students at South Valley Junior High in Liberty, Missouri, will embark on an oral history project in which they will record their own family…

Indigenous peoples in Taiwan belong to the Austronesian racial group. Confined to their oral language tradition, knowledge about Taiwan aborigines based on written documents reflected the positionality of dominant ethnic groups. This qualitative study employed participatory research approach to explore the process of producing their own knowledge…

Lao students have not fared well in the American educational system. Raised in a home culture that emphasizes and values the oral tradition, the acquisition of academic writing skills has been especially problematic even for U.S.-born students of Lao heritage. Recognizing that writing is a critical component for academic success, this study…

Examines the visual memories of women over 70 years old that take place during a long life and the roles of visual culture in memory and in mental images through interview and focus groups. Indicates that older women's stories anticipate feminist issues and do not conform to traditional male models of understanding. (CMK)

Language shift among New Mexico Pueblo Indians threatens the loss of their oral-based cultures. Language revival for many Pueblos has resulted in school programs in which students are easily accessible and teachers are accountable to tribes rather than the state. Finding "Pueblo space" for the Native language in school, where it was…

The work of experienced and student lower primary teachers in three schools in Southern Malawi was studied, using lesson observations, interviews and pupil tests. The use teachers make of songs is given as an example of how they use oral culture. The function of songs in lessons is mainly to manage the class rather than to teach content, in…

Pueblo author Simon Ortiz discusses Indigenous authors' use of their native language as a form of self-assertion, pointing out how African literature drives the decolonizing impulse in literature today. Use of the dominant language would reach a larger audience but would also make transmission of colonizers' cultural assumptions unavoidable while…