Folklore and Education Section of the American Folklore Society
The Spring 2008 section newsletter is now online.
Past newsletters are also online.
Spring 2007
Spring 2006
Spring 2005
Spring 2004
Spring 2003
Spring 2002
Spring 2001
Section Convener:
Luc D. Guglielmi, PhD
Department of Foreign Languages
Kennesaw State University
142 Pilcher
1000 Chastain Road
Kennesaw GA 30144-5591
678/797-2229
770/499-3386 fax
Co-Convener:
Carol Spellman
Oregon Historical Society Folklife Program
1200 SW Park Avenue
Portland OR 97205
503/306-5292
503/221-2035 fax
Section Activities
Section membership dues are $10 per year. Interested persons can join the section, with or without joining the larger AFS, by completing the AFS mail-in or secure online membership forms available in the membership section of this web site. Please specify that you wish to join the Folklore and Education Section.
Dorothy Howard Folklore and Education Prize
Dorothy Howard (1902-1996) grew up in the Progressive Era, receiving a teaching degree from the North Texas Normal College (now the University of North Texas ) in 1923. During her career as a teacher and principal in Texas, New York, and New Jersey, Howard integrated folklore into her curriculum by having students collect and study playground chants and jingles as a way of introducing them to poetry; research their names and their meanings to study spelling; and write about such traditions as ravioli making to develop their writing skills. Howard's interest in children's folklore and education enabled her to bridge a gap between the Victorian "armchair" study of children's culture with the field-based studies we conduct today. In 1938 she received her doctorate in education with a study of games that combined these two styles of study. Her pioneering work shows us that folklore can be used in the curriculum in a way that is rich and meaningful. The Dorothy Howard Prize honors both Howard and those who have followed her lead in folklore and education.
The prize competition is open to all individuals and organizations whose work effectively encourages K-12 educators or students to use or study folklore and folkloristic approaches in all educational environments. Such works include but are not limited to curriculum materials, publications, audio and video recordings, multimedia publications, and exhibits. Work produced in the two calendar years prior to the annual AFS meeting is eligible for consideration.
Nominations should identify the author(s) or creator(s), publisher, date of publication, and describe why the nomination deserves consideration. Statements should not exceed three double-spaced pages. Entries must have been published within the past two years. Anyone may nominate work by submitting three copies of materials, or in the case of non-print work, three copies of detailed descriptions and any relevant supporting materials to the address below. In the case of particularly extensive or expensive materials (e.g., multimedia kits), a single copy may be submitted, but please still include three copies of the nominating statement/description.
Submissions will be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:
• Does the product add significantly to the body of folklore and education literature or resources?
• Is the material appropriate for intended age groups and subject focus?
• Do the materials have the potential to engage their intended audience fully?
Please send submissions to Luc D. Guglielmi, Department of Foreign Languages, Kennesaw State University, 142 Pilcher, 1000 Chastain Road, Kennesaw GA 30144-5591. The prize amount is $100, and the next deadline for submissions is August 1, 2008. The recipient of the Dorothy Howard Prize will be announced during the annual Folklore and Education section meeting during the American Folklore Society conference each October.
2007 Recipients
First place: Quilting Circles--Learning Communities, submitted by Anne Pryor
Quilting Circles is a thoughtful, focused and well-balanced use of material culture resources and scholarship about those materials. This curriculum guide is quite thorough, relevant on a national (possibly even an international level) and the tactile-ness of the project is both appealing and useful for teachers. Educators in a range of classroom settings will find the package of practical activities, culturally contextualized essays and the guides for further exploration and study a welcome and innovative addition to their own teaching toolkits. The most-welcome addition of the CD allows the images to be projected on the wall, multiplying the possibilities of group discussions or large-scale patterns from which to practice sewing techniques.
The lessons in Quilting Circles--Learning Communities move between hands-on projects and studying quilts in cultural contexts. They invite students to make connections with the quilts in their own lives. All lessons are interdisciplinary, infusing art with social studies, language arts, and technology. All lessons are linked with Wisconsin curriculum standards. To order materials, contact the Office of Education Outreach, 1050 University Avenue, Madison WI 53706; 608/262-4650.
Second Place: The website Folkvine, submitted by Tina Bucavalas of the Florida Folklife Program
This website is an extremely innovative and interactive resource. The Dorothy Howard committee particularly liked the fresh, creative approach to presenting and discussing folklore: the use of bobble heads and each “guide” to the artists is specific in a design sense to the artist’s style, which gives the site a very unique feel. It is also packed with information and offers a variety of ways to access audio, visual, and textual resources.
Honorable Mention: “Bullfrog Jumped: Children's Folksongs from the Byron Arnold Collection," a CD-ROM with an accompanying website, submitted by Joey Brackner of the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture
“Bullfrog Jumped: Children’s Folksongs from the Byron Arnold Collection” is a wonderful compilation of children’s folksongs and a tribute to Bryon Arnold. The recordings are of excellent quality, and the contextualization of the songs further enriches the project. Included is a seventy-two page guide, which provided resources for educator.
Past Winners of the Dorothy Howard Prize
2006
Iowa Folklife: Our People, Communities, and Traditions provides teachers and students with a variety of resources to explore folklife and community traditions in Iowa. K-12 educators can access resources to teach folklife in the classroom as well as compare and contrast their own state or country traditions with Iowa’s folklife. This online resource includes content-related connections, video and audio recordings, suggestions for student projects and ways to engage senior citizens in documenting their traditions.
(Honorable Mention) Bermuda Connections: A Cultural Resource Guide for the Classroom. Published by the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. The guide includes a 278-page classroom handbook, a videotape, an audio CD, a map of Bermuda, and an interview guide in poster form. It draws on the research for and presentations at the Bermuda Connections program of the 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the fieldwork projects of the students of Bermudian teachers who had been fellows at the Smithsonian during the Festival.
The Spurrin’ the Words 4-H Cowboy Poetry Project, created by Kirk A. Astroth, Director of the Montana 4-H Center for Youth Development, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana. Published in July 2004, this work embodies the principles Dorothy Howard practiced herself in promoting the study of folklife and folklore in schools and other educational settings. The book teaches youth how to write poetry following rhyme and meter patterns, but it also includes recipes, history, tips for reading brands, and profiles of famous poets like Badger Clark, and a section on Native American cowboys and women poets. A CD features Montana cowboy and cowgirl poets reading their works and the works of others that include classics. More information is available online.
Wisconsin Weather Stories, a collaborative project between the Wisconsin Arts Board and two divisions of the University of Wisconsin : the cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies and the UW Folklore Program. The project designers include folklorist Anne Pryor, atmospheric scientist Steven Ackerman, meteorologist Margaret Mooney from CIMSS, and folklorist James Leary from UW. Five undergraduate students were key workers and five Wisconsin K-12 classroom teachers participated in developing an interdisciplinary approach to teaching about their love of weather and testing the materials in their classrooms.
2004
The Hmong Cultural Tour, developed by Mark Wagler. This comprehensive project provides a superb model for students, teachers, folklorists and community members who wish to document and educate about their community’s cultural development. Teacher and student guides are available online.
(Honorable Mention) Portraits of Oregon: Youth Exploring Culture and Community, developed by Carol Spellman at The Oregon Historical Society Folklife Program. This thorough, intensive documentary project brings together youth and older community members using interview and video documentary techniques. Project guides and streamed video are available online.
2003
The Florida Music Train, written and developed by Laurie Sommers and produced by the Florida Folklife Program’s Bureau of Historic Preservation and the Florida Folklore Society. For more information about this multimedia kit, contact Laurie Sommers.
(Honorable Mention) The Masters of Traditional Arts DVD and Teacher’ Guide, available online
(Honorable Mention) The Wisconsin Folks website
2002
Discovering Our Delta, by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Jan Rosenberg, project leader. The teacher and student guides are available online.
Uncle Monday and Other Florida Tales (University of Mississippi Press, 2001), written by Kristin Congdon with illustrations by Kitty Kitson Petterson. Teaching points accompany each of the stories, which come from contemporary as well as historical sources.
2001
Traditional Arts of the Oregon Country (1999) by Laura Marcus, and five instructional units posted on the Support for Teachers in Art section of the Oregon Public Education Network website (2000), compiled by Leila Childs
2000
Louisiana Voices: An Educator's Guide to Exploring our Communities and Traditions, by Paddy Bowman, Sylvia Bienvenu, and Maida Owens
1999
Brown Girl in the Ring: An Anthology of Song Games from the Eastern Caribbean, by Alan Lomax, J.D. Elder & Bess Lomax Hawes. Available through the CARTS Culture Catalog.
1998
CARTS (Cultural Arts Resources for Teachers and Students) website and newsletter, by Amanda Dargan, Gail Matthews-DeNatale, and Paddy Bowman.
1997
Standards for Folklife Education: Integrating Language Arts, Social Studies, Arts and Science through Student Traditions and Cultures, Diane Sidener Young, editor. Available through the CARTS Culture Catalog.
Robinson-Roeder-Ward Fellowship
This fellowship is awarded in memory of folklorists Beverly Robinson, Bea Roeder, and Vaughn Ward. Each was a person of vision, scholarship, and activism, and they inspired a generation of folklorists working in K-12 education. The fellowship will be awarded to an educator who is engaged in folklore, ethnography, or cultural heritage and K-12 education. The fellowship will provide the recipient a stipend of $300 to participate in the annual meeting of the American Folklore Society and a free membership in the Folklore and Education Section for one year.
Application forms are available by contacting Carol Spellman. Applications must be postmarked by April 24, 2008. The Fellowship Award announcement will be made by May 24, 2008. The recipient will receive the stipend by August 1, 2008.
Beverly Robinson was known as a theater historian, folklorist, producer, writer, director and professor in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Beverly received her MA in folklore from the University of California, Berkeley and her PhD in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. She was director of the African Studies Program at UCLA. A prolific writer, noted author, and contributor to several chapters in books and numerous articles, Beverly was also know for her research for such films as Miss Evers’ Boys, Nightjohn, and The Color Purple. As a scholar and innovator, Beverly brought folklore and folklife into the public eye. Beverly passed away in May 2002.
Bea Roeder, a native Californian, became fascinated by Colorado’s rich folk heritage while working with Southwest Studies Folklore collections at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. She returned to graduate school to pursue her newfound interest and received her PhD, focusing on Hispanic folk medicine, from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1984. Bea worked for the Colorado Council on the Arts as a regional folklorist and was a force behind the CCA/NEA project Ties that Bind, a multimedia kit about Colorado’s many folk traditions for school teachers. She was deeply involved with Native American culture and spirituality and a student of the Lakota language. Bea passed away in June 2003.
Vaughn Ward, a folklorist and musician, was a founding member of Caffe Lena. Vaughn taught high school English where her students organized the first Niskayuna Festival. She was a staff folklorist for the Lower Adirondack Arts Council and organized the Adirondack Liar’s Club in 1986. With quenchable energy she founded the Black Crow Network to support tradition bearers and those with an interest in interpreting the history of the Mohawk-Champlain region and eastern Adirondacks. Vaughn passed away in December 2001.
Past Robinson-Roeder-Ward Fellowship Recipients
2007: The fellowship was not awarded this year, but will be offered again in 2008.
2006: Mark Wagler from Randall Elementary School in Madison, Wisconsin, was this year's recipient. Wagler's 4th and 5th-grade classes have completed several in-depth cultural and folklife fieldwork explorations, including the Dane County Cultural Tour, the Hmong Cultural Tour, the Park Street Cultural Tour, and the Greenbush Cultural Tour. Information about Wagler's current educational programming, entitled Games and Simulations: Playing to Learn, was submitted by Steve Ackerman.
2005: Renee Morris from Gainesville Middle School in Gainsville, Georgia. Renee and several of her students attended the annual Saturday morning AFS Folklife and Education Section workshop. They shared their original research about family stories. Classroom projects included immigration and integration stories and a novella entitled A Gathering of Young People inspired by the book A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines. The students narratives address bullying, prejudice, and cliques among teens. Renee received a grant from Teaching Tolerance Foundation of the Southern Poverty Law Center. She continues to work on additional writings with her class including the gathering of stories called The Ghosts of Gainesville.
2004: Tamera Newman of Tremonton, Utah. Tamera was the first recipient of the Robinson-Roeder-Ward Fellowship. She has had her high-school English students conducting oral-history interviews with local veterans, with a special emphasis on WW II vets. She has compiled many of these transcribed interviews into a self-published book, allowing students to share their work with others. Two student participants, MacKenzie Petersen and Elizabeth Thayne, joined Newman to discuss their experiences working on the project at the annual Saturday morning AFS Folklife and Education Section workshop.
Related Organizations
The National Network for Folk Arts in Education facilitates K-12 teachers' and teacher educators' use of folklore and folkloristic approaches in their classrooms through national advocacy, publications, teacher training, and extensive online resources. The Network, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, serves as a clearinghouse and information network. Paddy Bowman is the Network Coordinator; contact her at 609 Johnston Place, Alexandria VA 22301; 703/836-7499.
The Network, in collaboration with City Lore, publishes the annual CARTS newsletter (Cultural Arts Resources for Teachers and Students), CARTS Catalog, and the CARTS website. Excerpts from past issues of the newsletter, lesson plans, and links to many other regional and local folklore in education resources are available on the website.
Join City Lore as an Education Member and receive the CARTS newsletter, City Lore mailings and discounts on events, a 10% discount on orders from the CARTS Catalog (featuring high-quality, authentic teaching resources for folklore, oral history, and the arts), and a free CD or cassette. Send $30 (check payable to City Lore) to City Lore, 72 East First Street, New York NY 10003. For a free copy of the catalog, e-mail hkazama@citylore.org or phone 800/333-5982.
Websites
Click here to explore a wide variety of websites that employ folklife and education. Some of these sites were created by Folklore and Education Section members.
To join this American Folklore Society interest-group section, please visit the AFS membership page of this web site, where you will find both a secure online and a printable, mailable membership form. You need not be a member of the American Folklore Society to join its sections.