Re-living Nyanja storytelling in the envronmental education of selected children of Lusaka, Zambia
type: CreativeWork
description: Like many developing countries, Zambia faces challenges of disappearing intangible cultural heritage such as languages and, therefore, the country’s education system needs to devise deliberate measures to deal with such a challenge. Linked to the disappearing indigenous languages are stories or folktales of such languages which also require to be salvaged through education. This study took up this challenge and, through the agency of environmental education within the context of the Lusaka Museum. The general aim was achieved through the following specific objectives; (a)to collect and document indigenous Nyanja folktales that existed at the time of conducting the study in the year 2014, (b) show the role that traditional stories could play in the teaching of contemporary Environmental Education to children of Lusaka and the Zambian community at large and compile traditional Nyanja folktales; and (c) to evaluate children’s and adult’s views on the effectiveness of traditional stories and the preservation of Zambia’s intangible heritage.The research involved both qualitative and quantitative research designs, and it was non-experimental, explanatory and descriptive in nature.Methods of data collection were focus group discussion, interviews and self administered questionnaires. Narratives as a method of analyzing qualitative data was used. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The sample comprised 115 respondents. This comprised 80 pupils and 4 teachers from four schools selected on the basis of the Nyanja language being taught as a subject in their schools and being spoken by the majority of the children in Lusaka District. In addition 20 children from the community who visited the Lusaka Museum, 2 respondents from two orphanages, 4 from Government Ministries, 5 elderly Nyanja speakers from the community were used.The key findings show that asignificant percentage of the sampled pupils(73.3 percent) agreed that it was importan…
abstract: Like many developing countries, Zambia faces challenges of disappearing intangible cultural heritage such as languages and, therefore, the country’s education system needs to devise deliberate measures to deal with such a challenge. Linked to the disappearing indigenous languages are stories or folktales of such languages which also require to be salvaged through education. This study took up this challenge and, through the agency of environmental education within the context of the Lusaka Museum. The general aim was achieved through the following specific objectives; (a)to collect and document indigenous Nyanja folktales that existed at the time of conducting the study in the year 2014, (b) show the role that traditional stories could play in the teaching of contemporary Environmental Education to children of Lusaka and the Zambian community at large and compile traditional Nyanja folktales; and (c) to evaluate children’s and adult’s views on the effectiveness of traditional stories and the preservation of Zambia’s intangible heritage.The research involved both qualitative and quantitative research designs, and it was non-experimental, explanatory and descriptive in nature.Methods of data collection were focus group discussion, interviews and self administered questionnaires. Narratives as a method of analyzing qualitative data was used. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The sample comprised 115 respondents. This comprised 80 pupils and 4 teachers from four schools selected on the basis of the Nyanja language being taught as a subject in their schools and being spoken by the majority of the children in Lusaka District. In addition 20 children from the community who visited the Lusaka Museum, 2 respondents from two orphanages, 4 from Government Ministries, 5 elderly Nyanja speakers from the community were used.The key findings show that asignificant percentage of the sampled pupils(73.3 percent) agreed that it was importan…
author: Mulala, Ruwe Yvonne
language: en
keywords: Environmental Education
date published: 2015-04-13
date modified: 2026-07-27T22:07:05Z
provider: University of Zimbabwe
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Zimbabwe