The Ifugaos and the Rice Terraces
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Bank Street College of Education Educate Graduate Student Independent Studies 5-15-2014 The fI ugaos and the Rice Terraces : a third grade social studies curriculum about a Philippine ethnic community Emelita Corazon B. Bautista Bank Street College of Education Follow this and additional works at: http://educate.bankstreet.edu/independent-studies Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Elementary Education Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Bautista, E. C. (2014). The fI ugaos and the Rice Terraces : a third grade social studies curriculum about a Philippine ethnic community. New York : Bank Street College of Education. Retrieved from http://educate.bankstreet.edu/independent-studies/47 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Educate. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Independent Studies by an authorized administrator of Educate. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Ifugaos and the Rice Terraces: A Third Grade Social Studies Curriculum About a Philippine Ethnic Community By Emelita Corazon B. Bautista Mentor Roberta Altman Submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Science in Education Bank Street College of Education 2014 Abstract A big part of the third grade social studies curriculum in the Philippines is learning about the ethnic communities in the country; however it is mainly directed towards enumerating the names of the groups without really knowing their culture, importance, and contributions to the society. For this study, I created an original integrated social studies curriculum for third grader students in an urban community learning about the Ifugaos and the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras. The various experiential activities in this curriculum are designed to immerse students in the life and culture of the Ifugao community. Table of Contents I. Rationale ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 1 II. Literature Review ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 5 III. Ifugaos and the Philippine Rice Terraces: A Third Grade Curriculum ‐‐ 11 Letter to the Readers ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 12 Ifugaos and the Rice Terraces: An Overview ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 13 Introduction ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 14 Rice Culture in the Philippines ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 16 Ifugao and the Rice Terraces ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 23 The Ifugao People ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 31 Shelter ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 38 Festival ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 44 Ifugao in the Modern World ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 50 Community Celebration ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 53 Recommendation ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 54 IV. Additional Teacher Resources ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 56 V. References Picture References ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 57 Visual Support References ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 58 Curriculum References ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 60 Rationale and Related Literature References ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 63 VI. Appendices ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ 64 1 Rationale The Philippine education system has gone through drastic changes over the course of the country’s long history of colonization. Beginning with the non‐existence of academic learning and then later on the creation of public schools, the country endured a lot of adversities before it established its own system of education. The basic education in the Philippines is evolving, and with this continuous development, different solutions are constantly conceived to address issues that plague the country’s education system. One of the major changes that happened in the past decade is the ratification of the Revised Basic Education Curriculum of 2002, which tackled issues regarding integration of the different learning areas and time allotment given to all subjects. Makabayan was introduced as a new subject to make the connections more visible among the different content areas. Its biggest component is Social Studies, but other areas, such as music, art, dance, civics and health, are integrated within the curriculum. As the subject is largely based on learning about the history and culture of the Philippines, the general objective of the curriculum is to develop and strengthen citizenship and nationalism. In addition to this law, the most recent change was the enactment of the K to 12 Basic Education Program of 2012, which aims to create a more globalized education for all Filipinos, making it at par with international standards. With the passing of the K‐12 education reform, laws on education were also changed to make the curriculum more appropriate for students and for classroom instruction to follow a more constructive approach. 2 Despite all these initiatives done by the Philippine government, issues that were supposed to be resolved by the enactment of the said laws are still very much present in the education system. According to a report conducted by Mariñas and Ditapat (n.d.), a major concern confronting the basic education is having an overloaded curriculum. Most elementary students, both in public and private schools, have 7 to 10 subjects with specific time allocations within the school week. There is so much going on in the curriculum that it was observed that targeted learning competencies for Math and Science could not be completed within the school year. There were also a lot of content and skills gap, as well as duplications and overlaps in the scope and sequencing of the curriculums across the board; hence, elementary students are not equipped with the proper foundation needed when they enter secondary education. Time allotment for subjects is crucial because in most schools, teachers do not stay with their class. They move from classroom to classroom to teach multiple subjects across different sections – handling as much as 3 to 4 sections per day with an average of 53 students per section. The creation of Makabayan acknowledged the need for integration across the different learning areas; however, the practice is not that evident in the classroom. With all these information in mind, I thought it would be best to create something that teachers can use to provide students with a deeper and richer learning experience in the classroom. Creating a social studies curriculum that integrates literacy, music and movement, storytelling, art, and science is an excellent way to translate the initiatives that were already put in place by the government into actual practices that teachers can do in their classrooms. 3 Learning about the past and present communities in the Philippines is a big component of Social Studies in the early elementary grades, and a great deal of this is spent studying the diversity of people in the country. Different ethnic groups are mainly taught in the third grade and a lot of rich information can be gathered from this topic. There are a lot of powerful ideas that can come up around this topic; however, current instruction is mostly directed towards enumerating the names and quickly going over a brief background about their community based on the information available in students’ textbooks. At the end of the unit, some students are able to name the ethnic group and the specific region where they belong in but without really understanding what it means to be a part of this community. There are more than a hundred ethnic groups in the Philippines, and the Ifugaos are one of the longstanding and most celebrated indigenous tribes in the country. They are well known for creating the clusters of rice terraces stretching across the cordillera region. The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are cultural treasures located in the province of Ifugao in the island of Luzon. Their ancestors carved the 2,000‐year old iconic landmark on the contours of the mountains, using only their bare hands and makeshift tools. The most renowned cluster is the Banaue Rice Terraces. For this study, I am creating a second grade Social Studies curriculum about the Ifugaos and the rice terraces. The activities will be divided into six sections targeting various aspects of the life and culture of the Ifugaos that are deemed appropriate for third graders. It includes topics such as the rice culture in the Philippines, various land topography in the country, care for the environment, Filipino traditional customs, connections between own life and that of others, and respect for other cultures. The 4 integration aspect of the curriculum is in the lesson planning, which include literacy (e.g. activities in reading, writing, and drawing), music and movement (e.g. dance rituals of Ifugaos, traditional musical instruments), storytelling (e.g. legends and myths as part of Filipino oral tradition), art (e.g. making own rice terraces using clay, painting, sketching) and science (e.g. rice growing, land, topography, environmental awareness). By focusing on one indigenous group, students get to immerse themselves more in what it really means to belong in an ethnic group and exposing them to various aspects of their history and culture may lead them to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of who they are as Filipinos.