Highlighted Session: The transition from oral to written: Leveraging indigenous stories to create culturally relevant reading materials and a culture of reading

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

Access to appropriate reading materials is a key factor in determining children’s academic success and enables education to be a catalyst for change . Unfortunately, many children in low- and middle-income countries do not have access to culturally relevant reading materials in a language they speak and understand. Some have attempted to rectify this challenge by providing books in colonial or regional languages, or by translating stories from other languages into the vernacular languages spoken in those underserved communities. However, books written in other contexts and languages come with a worldview and culture different from that of the target communities, often with the unintended effect of denying indigenous communities’ identity. Many indigenous groups around the world have demanded that the youngest members of their communities learn and preserve their linguistic heritage (GPE, 2014). Furthermore, research shows (UNESCO, 2023) that children’s learning outcomes and academic performance are enhanced if education is provided in their mother tongue. Creating and providing indigenous storybooks and reading materials for children is also an opportunity for inclusive education through the validation of indigenous stories, languages, and experiences.
In many countries, oral stories are transmitted from parent to child, from generation to generation and from mouth to ear, but few of them are written. Children inherently enjoy listening to these stories, but it is a challenge to transition them from listening to a story to reading the story in print. In the communities where these children grow, few or no children’s reading materials exist. The only access they have to the printed page is often a school textbook or religious texts, which are not always adapted to context or children’s reading levels. Therefore, it is critical to create or adapt culturally relevant story books for these young readers. Most important, it is critical to make the storybooks available, accessible, and utilized in remote and hard to reach communities.
This presentation will discuss examples of projects from Burundi, Guatemala, and the Philippines where organizations have partnered with indigenous communities and Ministries of Education to adapt and transcribe existing oral stories into children’s books and create new titles that are culturally relevant and in a language that children speak and understand. It will discuss the methodology used to conduct this adaptation and creation, including the technology used, as well as the challenges and benefits of the process.
The presentation will also discuss the utilization of the children’s books and the strategies to build a culture of reading in the challenging context of book scarcity. Oral stories for children exist in every culture and they can be leveraged to build this culture of reading by providing literature that mirrors their everyday life. Adapting stories from what children already hear, know, and like helps make reading a fun and enjoyable experience, making it easier to cultivate a love for books. The presentations will share answers to several key questions to consider when creating or adapting children’s reading materials. These include: Which storybooks or types of storybooks do children prefer and like to read most? What do these storybooks have in common that we can use to promote literacy and reading in similar contexts? Which elements are essential for adapting oral stories into written format, including incorporating quality illustrations and selecting the best version of the story?
Presentations will also discuss how their projects promoted access to diversified types of texts including poetry, nonfiction, and other genres. Oral stories told to children are often fiction, and so are the storybooks adapted from them. This is an existing gap in many mother tongue language materials. Consequently, the presentations will explore the needs for the future of children’s literature in their contexts to enrich the reading experience.
Finally, given the magnitude and urgency of the work, the panel will present on partnerships and collaboration. There is a need to advocate and mobilize for more to be involved, for more funding, and for more progress to be achieved. The panel will discuss how undergoing initiatives such as open-source licensing, sharing created storybooks across organizations, and making the created reading materials accessible digitally can make a difference in creating a culture of reading. Working closely with local and international partners to promote the creation and distribution of reading resources in indigenous languages and to ensure their availability and accessibility in schools, in homes, and in communities is of paramount importance.

Sub Unit

• Language Issues SIG

Chair

• Lisa M Easterbrooks, CARE

Individual Presentations

• Agency and Authenticity: Storybooks in Indigenous Languages of the Philippines - Xinia R. Skoropinski, SIL International

• Bringing Oral Tradition to Written Tradition into the Classroom and Community: the Experience of Guatemala - Sophia Maldonado, Universidad Del Valle De Guatemala

• Transforming children’s literature in Burundi: our experiences, our stories - Alisa Michelle Phillips, World Vision; Venuste VN Nitereka, World Vision Burundi

Discussant

• Paul S Frank, SIL International