Teaching as Performance: Connections between Folklore and Education

Drawing upon the literature in performance-centered folklore along with my experience as an elementary school teacher, I argue that teaching can be viewed as oral improvisational performance based on curricular themes. Five concepts from performance-centered folklore with apparent applicability to studies of the enacted curriculum are discussed. These concepts are: the redefinition of linguistic competence and linguistic community; the view of text as emergent from the social structure in which it is told; the emphasis on locally determined norms and rules for linguistic conduct; the role of tradition and innovation in folklore; and the feminist critique and revision of folklore.