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in Cultural Education
INTEGRATING CULTURAL CONCEPTS IN INDIGENOUS CHILDREN’S EDUCATION: RELEVANCE AND IMPLICATIONS
University of the Philippines – Mindanao
Abstract
Cultural concepts reflect shared ways of understanding in a social group as they collectively experience changing political, economic, social, and ecological conditions. The importance of recognizing and incorporating them in the formal education of indigenous children lies on the fact that these are valuable notions produced through their history and social identity. In light of this, two cultural concepts among an indigenous group of Southern Philippines, the Manobo, will be discussed in this article: bantug (‘respect’) and banwa (‘community’). It will be shown that these are relevant categories in inculcating values of respect and unity and, at the same time, in promoting local history, identity, and social pride. Hence, an inclusive and culturally sensitive pedagogical framework should also consider how such important cultural concepts among indigenous groups may be integrated in their formal education.
About the Author
Sheila Mae T. Cabazares is a faculty member of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of the Philippines Mindanao. Through a Fulbright Fellowship, she obtained her master’s degree in Anthropology from North Carolina State University with a focus on Cultural Anthropology and a minor in Cognitive Science. Among her research interests include local cognitive categories, pangayaw among Lumad groups in Mindanao, and Philippine millenarian movements.