The Question of Moral Education: Reading Selected Bangla and English Folktales

Abstract

Moral education is a type of education that distinguishes between right and wrong and determines human behaviour. In other words, moral education is an educational programme that focuses on moral and ethical values. The folktales' moral education aims to prepare the audience to be responsible, respectful, and resilient citizens who will contribute to the development of society, the nation, and the world at large. This study classifies moral themes and investigates their educational impact by conducting a qualitative content analysis of selected Bangala and English folktales. The study finds that each folktale incorporates some moral education, which is necessary in all aspects of human society. Folktales from the oral literary tradition play an important role in imparting moral education that includes historical, cultural, and religious ideologies and values. Folktale performances convey the moral values imbued in folktales to both children and adults. Folktale performance has been a part of human culture since time immemorial. The stories told in a pleasant ambience not only entertain, but also teach children moral lessons and values that will help them become better members of society. The folktale genre aims to educate children by instilling moral values, socialisation, behavioural changes, psychological development, and spiritual upliftment. The study concludes proving that these folktale-based lessons teach children human qualities like hard work, courage, love, sympathy, forgiveness, respect for elders, patriotism, tolerance, heroism, truthfulness, fraternity, and religiosity, among others. Furthermore, these folktale performances also highlight social vices such as pride, envy, wrath, theft, hatred, wickedness, ingratitude, injustice, disobedience, and dishonesty, which typically lead to retribution and nemesis.