Abstract
This study tests Puerto Ricans' knowledge about the national and municipal flag, since it is known that teaching with flags is part of the social studies standards of the island. Two questionnaires were provided to 50 participants to test their knowledge of the national, municipal and Latin American flags. For the national and municipal flags, the participants were asked to provide the symbolism. A total of 96% drew the national flag correctly, although no one identified all the symbolisms correctly. Only 2% of the participants identified all Latin American flags correctly. A Chi-square test was performed to test if flag knowledge and level of education were independent variables. The test value was 0.30 which is greater than the P > 0.10; therefore, the null hypothesis was accepted: Ho = the level of schooling of the participants and their knowledge of the Puerto Rican flag are independent.
Highlights
The origin of flags dates to ancient times (Cordero Alvarado, 2014), vexillology – the study of flags (Smith, 1975; Montaner Frutos, 2013) – was initially ‘coined’ as a discipline in the 1960s by Dr Whitney Smith (Orenski, 2003)
All participants were Puerto Ricans and questionnaires were completed in the island
Most of the participants were in the age group of 18-24 years old, with 32% of the entire group
Summary
The origin of flags dates to ancient times (Cordero Alvarado, 2014), vexillology – the study of flags (Smith, 1975; Montaner Frutos, 2013) – was initially ‘coined’ as a discipline in the 1960s by Dr Whitney Smith (Orenski, 2003). Flags are an object of communication, expressing political ideologies, history and cultural aspirations (Erbez Rodriguez and Balbuena Castellano, 2008; Minahan 2010; Kizilçaoğlu, 2014). Such communication represents the value of a nation, reflecting its change and transformation through time (Endrst, 1992), honouring the symbolism of national identification (Znamierowski, 2010; Morales-Ramirez, 2015). It is important to recognize that such symbols are not exclusive to the independent states of the Morales-Ramirez world (Minahan, 2010). Territories and other dependencies incorporate their own ‘local’ symbols into many of their flag designs (Whyte, 2007; Minahan, 2010)
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