More Children's Folklore Connections
Our 2008 issue feaured a column
from by McDowell of the Children's Folklore Section exploring connections
between their section and ours. In this issue, we'd like to continue the
theme by presenting several updates about recent scholarship in children's
folklore that might be of particular interest to educators. Below, news
about a new children's folklore collecting initiative; in this issue's
Feature, Gregory Hansen reviews several recent collections of folktales
for children and discusses their classroom potential; and of course, be
sure to click on the "Book Corner" icon for news about the 2008
Aesop Award winners.
"Childhood,
Tradition and Change": A National Study of Australian Children's
Playlore
Scholars from three Australian universities (the University of Melbourne,
Deakin University and Curtin University) are collaborating with the National
Library of Australia and Museum Victoria in a four-year research project
with major funding from the Australian Research Council. "Childhood,
Tradition and Change" is a nationwide study to examine the historical
and cultural development of Australian children's playlore over a fifty-year
period. The project will produce the first comprehensive national study
of continuity and change in children's playlore in Australia from the
1950s to the present. Fieldworkers are traveling to selected primary schools
in every Australian State and Territory to collect material for comparison
with earlier research, particularly the considerable archive of children's
folklore in the Australian Children's Folklore Collection (ACFC), which
stretches back to the 1870s. The ACFC includes the extensive fieldwork
carried out in Australia in 1954-55 by the American folklorist Dorothy
Howard. The project's website is www.australian.unimelb.edu.au/CTC
Folklore and Education is the newsletter of the Folklore and Education section of the American Folklore Society.
Individuals may join
the Folklore and Education Section without joining the American Folklore
Society. Annual dues at $10. See the Online Membership Form at www.afsnet.org/membership/service/.
We want to stay in touch! Please notify the AFS business office if your
e-mail address or other contact information changes. E-mail address changes
to Tim Lloyd, Executive Director, at lloyd.100@osu.edu,
or Maria Teresa Agozzino, Associate Director, at agozzino.2@osu.edu.
Questions, comments, and contributions about this newsletter are welcome at all times. Section members and others interested in submitting materials relevant to folklore and education may send such materials to the editorial staff, either by e-mail or regular mail, at the addresses below.