TITLE:
Effectiveness of Incorporation Traditional Costumes into Educational Curriculum to Enhance Students’ Awareness of Their Heritage
AUTHORS:
Aisha Hassan Ali Al-Shehri, Maha Abdullah Al Dabbagh
KEYWORDS:
Children, Introductory Booklet, Traditional Costumes, National Identity
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.9 No.6,
June
7,
2021
ABSTRACT: Students need to learn about their cultural costumes and art in general
to see how smart and skillful their ancestors were in the past, as this would
boost their national identity and link them with glory of the past. They need
to be taught the things that strengthen their sense of national belonging, and
love of traditional costumes. Therefore, they must be introduced to their
authentic heritage in innovative and lovely ways. This paper tries to attract
the attention of educators to this fact so that they can effectively guide
children to find real truth and knowledge and, at the same time, realize their
true essence through tradition. This research examines the effectiveness of
introducing traditional costumes to children to enhance their sense of national
belonging at childhood stage and seeks to find the best way that may connect
our children with their heritage to preserve the national identity. For this
purpose, a survey was conducted to measure students’ knowledge of their
traditional costumes prior to introducing them to a booklet on traditional
costumes. After introducing students to a booklet on traditional costumes of
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, another survey was conducted to examine the effect
of the booklet in strengthening their knowledge of traditional costumes and
sense of national identity. The researcher has concluded that introducing
traditional costumes through educational curriculum would enhance children’s
knowledge of culture, promote their national identity and strengthen their
sense of patriotism.