Indigenous knowledge is a living, breathing concept and must be treated with care and respect. This living knowledge is transmitted orally. At the University of Queensland (Australia), the Torres Strait Islander Studies course was taught in the Indigenous way, and elders were involved throughout, from formatting the course outline to the running…

Examines the importance and centrality of orality, rather than literacy, in the shared lives of the Cree of northern Alberta. Discusses orality consciousness related to the practice of shared memories and personal and communal healing during the "dance of the ancestors" or "ghost dance." Includes a short history of the Cree…

Offers suggestions for using folk tales from around the world and story-telling for classroom instruction. Because folk tales are ultimately about communication and the way people in a society interact, a multi-cultural class can make good use of them. Offers examples for application to language arts and social science courses. (Contains 9…

Describes an initiative to incorporate folktales and legends from francophone West Africa into a college-level advanced French literary and cultural studies course. Students recorded their reactions to various texts taken from France and West Africa in reading journals. Analysis of the journals shows that critical competencies in Western culture…

Presents a report on a study of the organization of oral data in libraries and archives in the United States and Canada. The management, collection, processing, and dissemination of materials in 10 documentation centers was investigated. (Author/JKP)

Investigates a hypothesis that concerns the importance of storytelling as an infrastructure that serves to create, transmit, and authenticate folklore based on a collection of Puerto Rican children's folktales with the character of Juan Bobo. Discusses cultural identity and boundaries, oral traditions, classification of folktales, and future…

Describes an intergenerational literacy English-as-a-Second-Language program. Stories were used to foster language and literacy development in English and participants' native language. Activities were built on the oral tradition. (Author/VWL)

Argues that problems with teaching the Talmud are methodological not didactic. Talmudic methodology is reviewed and summarized. Suggests a new curriculum based on four curricular stations from study of Mishnah to study of the Talmudic superstructure. Argues that the new method allows students to be active participants in the learning process. (DSK)

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that oral literature, which is an aspect of the oral tradition, has functioned historically as a vital medium of moral and civic education in non-literate societies the world over. Through the ages, oral literature has performed this function by presenting its various genres as forms of entertainment…

The "pontes" (bridges) approach may be viewed as a teaching guide for action in music education. It may help music teachers to articulate the different aspects that surround the teaching-learning process, especially those related to cultural interfaces, such as: the student's personal characteristics, the elements and essence of the…

Among the American Indians of western Washington State and northwest Oregon, stories have served as educational tools by presenting lessons concerning the traditional culture. Several types of instruction have been noted in the oral literature of these Indians of the Southern Northwest Coast. Today these stories present another type of insight and…

This collection of stories and memories, suitable for adolescents, offers a perspective on both traditional and contemporary ways of California Indians. Some stories are from old reports and books, and some are from people of today. The introduction ties the wide variety of Indians that live in California to the variety of landscape and climate.…

Ten stories, in poem and narrative form, told by Anna Nelson Harry, are presented here. The stories represent a portion of the oral tradition of the Eyak, an Alaskan native nation of which few native speakers remain. An introductory section chronicles the history and decline of the Eyak, the research undertaken to preserve their culture, and the…

This collection of eighteen traditional stories are told in Koyukon Athabaskan, an American Indian language variety spoken in Alaska, on the left page and in English translation on the right page. Introductory sections provide background information on the oral tradition from which the stories come, the translations, the storyteller and her…

The stories published in this book are the result of a collaborative effort of the elders of the village of Tununak (Alaska), the Lower Kuskokwim School District, and school staff and students. The stories were told in Yup'ik by elders at various school and community gatherings. The book is divided into seven sections: (1) hunters and animal…