2.4 Culture and Traditions

Culture and tradition offer a sense of belonging and comfort and serve as an anchor that binds a person to his/her roots. Having a deep understanding of the connection that one has with the extended members of the culture helps the young ones in realizing their self-worth (“Why is it vital to teach kids about our culture and traditions?”, n.d).

This concept is essential in learning because it teaches students the importance of different cultural context, values, skills and knowledge. As the world is drastically changing students should be aware of how to act in order to survive into different societies. Embedding culture and traditions in the curriculum can prolong traditional skills and knowledge, customs and beliefs. Throughout my teaching practices I demonstrated my understanding on this domain by practicing three indicators which are, enhancing understanding on the cultural curriculum goals by inviting a guest speaker, using variety of teaching methods for teaching different kinds of context and practicing, and practicing local skills in a school-based context.

Maintaining culture and traditions in school is important therefore, the existing knowledge and skills of members of the society should be accepted. One way of doing so is by inviting guest speakers to share their understanding on the subject matter that is being taught. I remembered that I've been practiced this concept by inviting a guest speaker to teach and inform students about the local dance. So, in order to involve this in learning and to not take much time of the learning duration, I scheduled their time with the expert after school (see the video). This allowed students to picturize and captivate the experiences being shared which could be useful in understanding the value of their surroundings. This kind of activity drive students to focus and capture vital information about near diminishing skills. According to Morotti, he stated that children should be well educated in the needed skills, practices, and beliefs that will ensure the continuing existence of the society (Morotti, 2006).

Furthermore, teaching students the importance of different cultural context could be possible if there are variety of teaching and learning methods applied by teachers. Understanding the array of different cultures by teachers is mostly helpful in adopting variety of strategies that will encourage and support students’ achievements. To cater for this area teachers must entertain the use of hands-on activities, class discussions, inquiry-guided instructions, co-operate learning and so forth. These activities could lead to exploration and comparisons of different cultural contexts, families, products, artifacts and so forth. For example, in social science, students engaged in learning reasons for having extended and nuclear families. Their findings could results in enriching their understanding on different cultural beliefs that still exist nowadays (refer to appendix).

Lastly but not least, practicing local skills in a school-based context allows progression of students. For example, planning, practicing and producing local production and activities such as, 'te bwabwa', 'te kainiaaki', 'te wairau', 'te inaai', 'te bakatarawa', 'te tororau' and so forth. These activities were very fun and engaging for learners at the same time students are learning a great lesson about their culture and traditions which are hardly being practiced nowadays by their generation.

Therefore, practicing culture and traditions in learning have answered some questions about how importance is our own skills and knowledge, cultural beliefs, customs and etc are to keep on practicing and learning. Culture and tradition help children to know how to act, speak and fit into society and prepared them into adulthood (IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING OUR TRADITION TO KIDS, 2019).

Bibliography: 

IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING OUR TRADITION TO KIDS. (2019) Retrieved from: https://nachammalvidyavani.com/importance-of-teaching-our-tradition-to-kids/

Morotti, A. (2006). Culture and Education. Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1098435.pdf

Why is it vital to teach kids about our culture and traditions?. (n. d). Retrieved from: https://gurukultheschool.com/blog/why-is-it-vital-to-teach-kids-about-our-culture-and-traditions/#:~:text=Develops%20self%2Desteem%20and%20respect,in%20realizing%20their%20self%2Dworth.