(1572) AFRICAN FOLK NARRATIVES AS AN APPROACH TO EDUCATION FOR BEHAVIOUR CHANGE: EXPERIENCES OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS OF ISIZULU LANGUAGE

摘要

The term folklore generally means the culture and traditional stories of a group;;and particularly inAfrican cultures, it comprises proverbs, riddles, legends, folktales, tongue twisters, folksongs, ballads,and folkdances. Several researchers have reported on the educational value and the beneficial effectsof folklore, particularly its significant role in the socialisation of youths. The various folklorecomponents either add or re-enforce knowledge of the physical environment and skills for living withinit;;how to live and work with others;;roles in networks of kinships and understanding of rights andobligations;;laws, morals, principles, and beliefs. The proverbs in many African languages areunderstood as capsules full of wisdom, norms, and beliefs. However, there is still paucity of researchin the exploration of this indigenous folklore approach to education in formal educational settings. Forthis approach to be explored in formal educational settings, much evidence is required that it leads tobehaviour change among youths. Therefore, this paper presents findings of a study that explored thepre-service teachers' personal experiences of cultural education through isiZulu folk tales or folknarratives. Sixty-two pre-service teachers participated in the study and qualitative data generationmethods-narratives and written interviews- were used to elicit data from participants. Their storiesand responses to questions were analysed using the socio-cultural theory as an analytical frameworkand thematic analysis of data. The findings reveal that the indigenous folklore approach to educationhave power to change behaviour of youths. Folk tales or folk narratives have characters and usuallygood and bad juxtaposed. The behaviour of characters may be interwoven in the story to answer whyquestions, have lessons on discipline, manners, scaffold concepts such as assertiveness, decisionmaking,compassions, respect, relationships, humaneness, and love. The paper therefore argues thatthe indigenous folklore approach to education for behaviour change has the potential to be usedsuccessfully in Life Skills-based curriculum that aims to curb the spread of HIV among young people.