Effectiveness of Incorporation Traditional Costumes into Educational Curriculum to Enhance Students’ Awareness of Their Heritage

Abstract

Students need to learn about their cultural costumes and art in general to see how smart and skillful their ancestors were in the past, as this would boost their national identity and link them with glory of the past. They need to be taught the things that strengthen their sense of national belonging, and love of traditional costumes. Therefore, they must be introduced to their authentic heritage in innovative and lovely ways. This paper tries to attract the attention of educators to this fact so that they can effectively guide children to find real truth and knowledge and, at the same time, realize their true essence through tradition. This research examines the effectiveness of introducing traditional costumes to children to enhance their sense of national belonging at childhood stage and seeks to find the best way that may connect our children with their heritage to preserve the national identity. For this purpose, a survey was conducted to measure students’ knowledge of their traditional costumes prior to introducing them to a booklet on traditional costumes. After introducing students to a booklet on traditional costumes of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, another survey was conducted to examine the effect of the booklet in strengthening their knowledge of traditional costumes and sense of national identity. The researcher has concluded that introducing traditional costumes through educational curriculum would enhance children’s knowledge of culture, promote their national identity and strengthen their sense of patriotism.