Role Of Sinhalese Folk Narratives In Child Socialization Process In Sri Lankan Society

Folk narratives, which is a one of many forms of folklore, have been passing through the art of storytelling across generations, are developed by way of the folk process. Story performance was apparent in association with folk narratives long before they were sought to be written and edited by scribes, poets, or scholars. Storytelling is a linguistic activity that is educative because it allows individuals to share their personal understanding with others thereby creating negotiated transactions (Egan,1995 & 1999). In the perspective of Anthropology, folk narratives are with cultural anthropology as a source of cultural information of any society. Folk narratives are rife with socializing implications for the culture acquisition of children, since the socialization is’the process by which people acquires the behaviors and beliefs of the social world, that is, the culture in which they live’(Arnett, J. J. (1995). Theoretically, the children who deal with the acquisition of culture, well, could act as effective members of their own society and it is they, who can acquire standards of qualities of life, which has been accepted by their society. This is no exception to Sri Lanka where a part of its’rich legacy of traditional cultural material, is comprised of folk narratives. They had been using, communication and entertainment through the art of storytelling as a compulsory function in the process of education in the context the family, and also certain educational and religious institutions in the past. However, this is an era when there is a process in which technology has taken a steady control over individual life, because of which the validity of some traditional matters has been diminishing. Yet, it is significant to see that the practice of folk narratives has not been totally disappeared and it is still in the continuation within the society and particularly among children.This study aims to investigate children’s folk narrative practices within the family and the school and as a whole consider its implications on the achievement of the qualities of child socialization process. The Research question address in this study is "what is the role of Sinhalese folk narratives in child socialization process in Sri Lankan society? In addressing this question, "what is the condition of the prevailing folk narrative practices among children in the family and the school?", "what provisions have been made for folk narrative practices of schoolchildren in education process?" and "how folk narrative practices influence on child socialization and whence to quality of life?", are raised as sub questions. Meanwhile, the Study is willing to test three hypotheses; Folk narrative practices cause the success of child socialization process and quality of life, Due to the factors of social change, the social validity of folk narratives has been changed, and Provisions made in the current education system for folk narrative practices among children are not sufficient enough to meet the objectives of the folk narrative practices as expected. Consequently, there are three objectives could be noted here which are to be achieved; To investigate the patterns of folk narrative practices of school children in the family and the school, taking the divergences of rural and urban areas into consideration, to find out factors of social change which are influence on declining of social validity of folk narratives, and to provide certain recommendations on the further improvement of folk narrative practices among school children.As far as the methodology of the study is concerned, the qualitative data analysis is widely used and moreover, the quantitative data are also used to prove qualitative data. Accordingly, the qualitative data are collected from group discussions with parents and teachers, key informant discussions, with Buddhist priests, scholars, education professionals and elders, and also literature sources are intensively used when necessary. The quantitative data are collected from 570 respondents (434 School children+108 Parents or caregivers +28 School teachers) selected randomly from seven provinces and questionnaires are prepared separately for each group so that it could obtain their responses. The data show that 100% children engage in folk narrative activities and 60% children are at excellent knowledge level with regard to folk narratives. To the study, almost all the students bear an apatite towards folk narrative activities in the school The findings also prove that even though an overwhelming majority of (80%)parents purchase extra folk narrative books for their children, a large proportion (56%) of children are not willing to read them. Results further show that parents do not make a tedious attempt to stimulate children to be engaged in folk narrative activities as done for other subjects and it has been in turn affected with children to be enrolled in tuition classes. This is verified in the study as a proportion of 72% children attend tuition classes. It is interesting here to note that, according to the study, the grand parents still play a vital role as story tellers in the society of Sri Lanka. The role of teachers is also found to be crucial, and seen to be satisfactory in directing children to be participated in folk narrative activities as an integral subject part in the school syllabuses. Whatever it is, the study also reveals some factors as hindering children in enrolling folk narrative activities in their homes. Some of these factors could be pointed out as, lack of leisure of children due to the enrollment in tuition classes; heavy home works, spending an extensive time on television, and the hectic life of parents due to their occupations as well as social responsibilities. To the study, even though there are many provisions and opportunities, parents are seemed not to be making a serious effort in facilitating their children in the process of acquisition of the factors related to socialization, they vehemently focus on the task of accomplishing the lessons recommended in school syllabuses. Accordingly, this study suggests that the folk narrative practices among school children have to be reformed so as to enable them to be gathered knowledge related to the factors of socialization.In the final analysis, it is possible to state that it is a paramount need of the hour to make further studies in relation to folk narrative practices of children as the role of folk narratives in child socialization is accelerating as an effective media to communicate cultural and moral factors which are part and parcel to be acquired in the process of the socialization of children for its vitality.