Folk culture comprises the traditions, beliefs, rituals, cuisine, storytelling, arts and other forms of expressions derived from each community’s everyday living and passed down through generations orally or through informal means. The study of folk culture in education can be easily carried out in any subject area, with any age group and allows teachers to enhance children’s concept of personal identity, while reinforcing the importance of diversity. Engaging young children with the traditional aspects of folk culture, can be based on acquisition of knowledge about techniques, materials, and utilization of folk arts and crafts. Furthermore, folk culture in education provides opportunities for children to raise questions, reconsider ideas and renew feelings in such a way as to update traditional works. Tradition is led to transition when there is small deviation from the original experience provided to users while maintaining its core elements. When significant changes are made to the original form of folk culture, with a more profound shift in perceiving, understanding, and practicing it, tradition leads to transformation.

The project described in this paper, was based on the hypothesis that transformation of folk culture is unavoidable when aiming to make traditional elements relevant to children today. An educational event was planned during a semester as a collaboration between the UNESCO Chair and the Department of Education of the University of Nicosia with the Cyprus Folk Art Museum (CFAM). The context of activities of two undergraduate courses (Art Education, Preschool Education Activities) was modified to make CFAM’s exhibits relevant initially to 11 student-teachers, and later to 20 preschool children invited at the end of the semester to participate in activities by the student-teachers at the CFAM. Student-teachers instructional design was based on strategies followed by artists who pursue meaningful artmaking. These strategies/stages include identifying and personalizing a big idea, building a knowledge base, setting boundaries, and problem solving. Slow looking techniques were utilized to define Identity-Community and Folk Culture as the big idea, which was specified to the subject matter of The Gnome of the Well (folk myth) and pattern (visual characteristic). Student-teachers then constructed a relevant knowledge base and proceeded with problem solving for planning educational activities with humor as a main strategy. The process resulted in a theatrical performance (The Naughty Gnome of the Well) by student-teachers, as a starting point for children’s participation in activities dealing with pattern (visual, sound, movement) at the CFAM. Continuing the story from the performance, children were guided in small groups in different areas to weave, perform musical scores, play a floor board-game, untangle threads, and dance. The activities respectively concluded with the importance of seeking knowledge, cooperation, humor, and patience.

Whether with a small or large deviation from the initial folk cultural experience, all participants were actively involved from tradition to transition and transformation. As a continuation of the project, we propose further focus on transformation of folk art in education. By utilizing technology (i.e. VR) in activities at the CFAM, young children’s learning on tradition could be enhanced while opening windows for storytelling, imaginary thinking, and inclusive engagement in learning.

Keywords: Folk culture, folk art, museum activities, designing meaningful activities.