International Journal of Education & the Arts

Citation: Silo, N., & Khudu-Petersen, K. (2016). Hearing ancestral voices through creative art – a tool for environmental education for sustainability. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 17(9). Retrieved from http://www.ijea.org/v17n9/.

The research presented in this paper draws on a study in the Kgalagari region of Botswana where participant observation workshops were conducted to illustrate the impact of using the Arts in Education approach (AiE). This approach was used through traditional storytelling in lessons on environmental issues in a rural primary school in the Kgalahari region of Botswana. The BaKgalagari Standard 4 children participated in lessons in which community elders were invited to tell them stories. The lessons conducted offered the participants exemplary activities in conducting a teaching unit incorporating story-telling, dramatizing and visual art, whereby the story was embedded within the learners’ contexts and in the idea of environmental appreciation. The outcome of the study demonstrated that this approach can enhance learning by yielding a more egalitarian and communicative environment, which takes into account the voices of previously socially excluded learners, into the teaching and learning process.