Pedagogy as ritual: How teachers use rituals to foster their myths in the early childhood curriculum framework

Rituals are used as a way of defining what is to be taught and how it is to be taught, reflect the teacher’s decisions about what is pedagogically sound, and are based on their personal ideological Myths. This study examined the forms and practices of ritual in two Early Childhood Classroom settings through field observations, observational records and interviews to see how different rituals have effected on children’s learning. The findings have suggested that the teacher who is willing to change her traditional pedagogical ritual form to a new ritualistic pedagogical form has experienced a shift in her mythical value system; whereas for the other teacher who upholds her original ritualistic pedagogy has experienced no change in her mythical value system. Both claimed, however that young children who were taught under their rituals have got the most effective learning impact. Implications of these findings were discussed as reference for policy makers and practitioners of the field.