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Strengthening and Preserving Practices of Philippine Folk Dances in Relation to

Cultural Awareness of Secondary Students of Davao City

Article · May 2014

DOI: 10.17158/328

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 Strengthening and Preserving Practices of Philippine Folk Dances in
Relation to Cultural Awareness of Secondary
Students of Davao City

Porferia S. Poralan, Rene M. Babiera, and Rebecca P. Habla

University of the Immaculate Conception

Abstract

Cultural awareness is the foundation of literate national communication. It

involves one’s ability to stand back from where he or she is to become more aware of
cultural values, beliefs and perceptions. Strengthening and preserving these values,
beliefs, and traditions can pose a great challenge especially today when culture has
become vulnerable because of globalization. It is on this ground that this study was
conducted to determine the levels of practices in strengthening and preserving
Philippine folk dances and general knowledge of folkdances as a measure of cultural
awareness of secondary students of Davao City. The respondents of the study were the
37 MAPEH teachers and 1,896 secondary school students of School Year 2011-12
teaching or enrolled, respectively, in public high schools in three congressional districts
of Davao City. The mean was used to describe the levels of practices concerning the
strengthening and preserving of Philippines folk dances and Pearson-r was employed to
test the relationship between each of these variables and cultural awareness. A
researcher-made survey questionnaire was constructed and tested for validity and
reliability. A 20-item multiple choice test was also administered to the student
respondents of the study. Findings revealed that there is a high level of strengthening
and preserving practices for Philippine folk dances with an overall mean of 3.69 and
3.64, respectively, and level of cultural awareness of students is good as quantified by a
mean score of 11.03. Further, strengthening practices, such as being careful but
allowing students to explore Philippine folk dance, was encouraged while preserving
practices, such as resisting any alteration of folk dances and reading literature before
the dance, are also prevalent among MAPEH teachers. On the other hand, students are
more knowledgeable of the dance literature than about folk dances. However,
strengthening and preserving practices by the MAPEH teachers have no significant
relationship with the general knowledge as a measure of cultural awareness of the
student of Philippine folk dances.

Keywords: cultural awareness, Philippine folk dances, preserving, strengthening,

Physical Education, MAPEH Teachers
 Introduction

While it is true that people today should acculturate themselves to the growing
world culture, all the more a global citizen must not sacrifice one’s own culture. It is in
their own cultural awareness that they learn moral and ethical dispositions, which can
guide the understanding of individuals or groups of local and global contexts, and
remind them of their relative responsibilities within various communities. (Bartle, 2010)

To the call of globalization, the Philippines is responding well, but in no time,

efforts towards cultural awareness might be jeopardized because of the tough
competition from media and the technological landscape that surround the young
generations. Carmela Meris, a principal said the public school system is not helping
matters. The cafeteria-style curriculum, combined with educators’ unwillingness to place
demands on the students, has resulted in a steady decline of commonly shared
information between generations, and young people themselves. Dr. Remedios
Taguba, former director of the Department of Education of the Philippines said many
students who have graduated from high school in the recent past have been deprived of
the cultural vocabulary that was common to educated persons in past generations. They
must be reintroduced to the cultural vocabulary that continues to be the foundation of
literate national communication (Bengwayan, 2008).
In Davao City, the Kadayawan Festival takes place every year, exposing the
young and old to colorful festivities, usually characterized by street dancing showcasing
colorful to traditional apparel, and dance performances that depict the lives of people
(Kadayawan, 2011). But this event does not guarantee a good cultural awareness of the
young generation since the city’s festivities are only limited to tribal dances, which
constitute only one of the five types of Philippine dances (Meashan, et. al, 1998). Thus,
it is imperative to assess how literate the secondary students in Davao City are as
regards Philippine folk dances as a whole.
The level of cultural awareness in terms of the general knowledge of Philippine
folk dances should be determined among the secondary students of Davao City
because most of the youth of today are evidently more engaged in pop dance and hip
hop dance (Lewis, 2012). Their engagement in these kinds of dances is not at all an
impediment to cultural awareness among them. On the contrary, this study could
educate them regarding the different ways of strengthening and preserving Philippine
folk dances. Francisca Reyes-Aquino, a great researcher of Philippine dances once
expressed her concern that while the Philippine folk dances do not face extinction,
these are being threatened by distortion. She had no objection to innovations in the
presentation, but she felt that folk dances should be left as they are because they are of
the folk. Thus, the conduct of this study is seen as giving dance teachers and secondary
students the chance to contribute to strengthening and preserving cultural dances and
to uphold mutual respect of the old and the new ideas in staging a folk dance and
ultimately to generate cultural development in the face of the power of world cultures.
Method

This is a descriptive study involving 37 MAPEH teachers and 1,896 secondary school
students of S.Y. 2011-12 as respondents of the investigation. They were purposively
chosen from public high schools in three districts of Davao City. A researcher-made
questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale was distributed to the MAPEH teachers and a
20-item multiple test questionnaire was administered to the students to gauge their
general knowledge of Philippine folk dances. The survey questionnaire for the MAPEH
teachers has two parts. The first part contains questions geared towards determining
the extent of strengthening practices while the second part focuses on preserving
practices in folk dances. The 20-item test is classified into two categories, Dance
Literature and Philippine Folk Dance Information. Dance literature questions were taken
from the stories about or the origins of the dance, while Philippine folk dance
information questions were taken from general information about folk dancing, such as
proclamations on folk dances and types of folk dances.
The gathering of data commenced with seeking endorsement from the Office of
the Division Superintendent of Davao City for the conduct of the study. The letter was
duly noted by the Research Director of the University of the Immaculate Conception.
Researchers were also given a list of schools in the respective districts. The principal of
the chosen school commissioned MAPEH teachers to answer the questionnaire and
MAPEH teachers prepared the special class of each year level to answer the test
questions. The researchers administered the test to the students. The student
respondents were made to understand that the score in the test would not affect their
grade in MAPEH. Papers were checked and subjected to item analysis. To determine
the result, the mean was used to measure the levels of strengthening and preserving
practices of the MAPEH teachers and general knowledge of the students. To measure
the significant relationship, Pearson-Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was
employed.

Results and Discussion

Level of Strengthening of Philippine Folk Dances among MAPEH Teachers

in Davao City in the Area of Choreographing Skills

Displayed in Table 1 are the data for level of strengthening through choreographing skills
of MAPEH teachers in Davao City. The overall mean rating is 3.64, which is equivalent to a
descriptive rating of high. Eight out of ten items in this indicator are rated high. The item “Being
careful not to distort the Philippine folk dance when adapting the figures, music and costumes”
garnered the highest mean score of 4.18. The second highest mean, which is 3.86, referred to
the item “Supporting students’ endeavors in interpreting katutubong kanta into creative dance
presentations.” The third highest mean score is 3.81 for the item “Adapting Philippine folk dance
as one of the options in staging a dance.” The item “Preferring to present other types of dances,
such as hip hop, ballet, jazz, modern dance and cheer dance, instead of a Philippine folk dance”
garnered the lowest mean of 3.22. The second lowest mean score garnered is 3.28 for the item
“Modifying the music, figures, and costumes of Philippine folk dance,” while the third lowest
mean rating is 3.49 describing the item “Allowing innovations to the published folk dance
literatures because it develops creativity and hones cultural knowledge.” This means that
MAPEH teachers in Davao City have oftentimes implemented strengthening activities for
Philippine folk dances. Evidently, they have found that their learning activities or approaches are
supportive of students’ endeavors towards folk dancing and that they were careful enough not to
tolerate the distortion, modification, and innovations of the choreography, which jeopardize the
authenticity of the folk dance. The standard deviation values were all less than 1.0. This implies
that the responses of the MAPEH teachers were consistent. This further means that the level of
strengthening of Philippine folk dances among MAPEH teachers in Davao City is high. This
result is supported by Jervis (2006), who said that teachers will increasingly need to find ways of
talking about culture that take into account the multicultural classroom or community in which
they teach. This requires a different kind of sensitivity, different tools, and different approaches.

Table 1

Level of Strengthening of Philippine Folk Dances among MAPEH Teachers

in Davao City in the Area of Choreographing Skills

Variables Mean Description SD Interpretation

A. Choreography
1. Adapting Philippine folk dances as one of Homogeneous
3.82 High 0.42
the options in staging a dance responses
2. Being careful not to distort the Philippine Homogeneous
folk dance when adapting the figures, 4.18 0.49 responses
High
music and costumes.
3. Using Philippine folk dance music or Homogeneous
katutubong kanta as an accompaniment responses
High
to creative expression of a dance and 3.64 0.54
using fundamental folk dance steps in
my choreography
4. Supporting students’ endeavors in Homogeneous
interpreting katutubong kanta into 3.86 0.50 responses
High
creative dance presentation
5. Modifying the music, figures, and Homogeneous
3.28 Moderate 0.85
costumes of Philippine folk dances responses
6. Adding props and theatrical innovations Homogeneous
3.69 High 0.52
to Philippine folk dance presentations responses
7. Allowing innovations to the published folk Homogeneous
dance literatures because it develops 3.50 High 0.39 responses
creativity and hones cultural knowledge.
8. Providing synopsis of adapted Philippine Homogeneous
folk dances which includes recognition of 3.64 High 0.48 responses
the original choreographer/researcher
9. Preferring to present other types of Homogeneous
dances, such as hip hop, ballet, jazz, 3.22 Moderate 0.70 responses
modern dance and cheer dance, instead
 of Philippine folk dances
10. Creating a dance presentation using folk Homogeneous
dance steps. 3.54 High 0.61 responses

Category Mean Homogeneous

3.64 High 0.34
responses

Level of Strengthening of Philippine Folk Dances among MAPEH Teachers

in Davao City in the Area of Cultural Development

Presented in Table 2 are the data for the level of strengthening through cultural
development of MAPEH teachers in Davao City. The overall mean rating is 3.74, which
is equivalent to a descriptive rating of high. Four out of the five items for this indicator
are rated high. Topping the items is “Highlighting values of the folk dance through
synopsis and the figures of the dance” with 4.00 as the average score. The second in
rank is “Increasing the students’ cultural awareness by allowing the adaptation of
Philippine folk dances” as quantified by a mean score of 3.97 while the third is the item
“Harnessing potentials of students in folk dancing by allowing the students to explore
the use of folk dance steps in their dance presentations” with a mean of 3.84. The item
“Reinforcing folk dance presentations in school programs by organizing folk dance
activities” is at the fourth spot, and last is the item “Integrating folk dance in classroom
instruction by using its music as icebreaker or as an introduction to a class activity” with
3.33 as its mean score. This explains that MAPEH teachers’ choreographing skills that
are geared towards strengthening folk dances, for example, increasing, reinforcing,
integrating, highlighting and harnessing folk dance into teaching folk dances are
oftentimes practiced in the school. The standard deviation values were all less than 1.0.
This implies that the responses of the MAPEH teachers described homogeneity of
assessment.

Table 2

Level of Strengthening of Philippine Folk Dances among MAPEH Teachers

in Davao City in the Area of Cultural Development

Variables Mean Description SD Interpretation

B. Cultural Development
1. Increasing the students’ cultural awareness by
allowing the adaptation of Philippine folk dance 3.97 High 0.36 Homogeneous
responses
2. Reinforcing folk dance presentations in school Homogeneous
3.64 High 0.61
programs by organizing folk dance activities responses
3. Highlighting values of the folk dance through Homogeneous
4.00 High 0.47
synopsis and the figures of the dance responses
4. Integrating folk dances in classroom instruction 3.33 Moderate 0.51 Homogeneous
by using its music as icebreaker or as an responses
introduction to a class activity

5. Harnessing potentials of students in folk dancing Homogeneous

by allowing the students to explore the use of folk 3.83 High 0.39 responses
dance steps in their dance presentation

Category Mean High Homogeneous

3.74 0.38
responses
Overall Mean/SD High Homogeneous
3.69 0.35
responses

Level of Preserving of Philippine Folk Dances among MAPEH Teachers

in Davao City in the Area of Choreographing Skills

Shown in Table 3 are the data describing the level of preserving of Philippine
folk dance through choreographing skills of the MAPEH teachers in Davao City. The
overall mean for this indicator is 3.85. It is equivalent to a descriptive rating of high. The
item with the highest mean is “Discouraging any alteration in the figures of the dance
because it’s a sign of disrespect to the original researchers/writers of the dance” with
4.28 as its mean score. The second highest mean is the item “Encouraging reading of
the literature of the folk dance before the dance performance” with a mean score of
4.25. Third in the order is the item “Attempting to change any of the figures described in
the dance literature” with a mean score of 4.14. With a mean score of 4.06, the item
“Prescribing music and costume in the staging of the Philippine folk dance” is in the
fourth rank. Among all the items, “Preferring to present a Philippine Folk Dance
whenever the dance group is invited to perform” has the lowest mean score of 3.19.
The survey implies that the preserving activities, such as discouraging the
alteration, reading the literature of the folk dance, and prescribing the music and
costume of the dance are oftentimes practiced by MAPEH teachers in secondary
schools of Davao City. This means that the level of preserving practices in folk dancing
is high. The standard deviation values were all less than 1.0. This implies that the
responses of the MAPEH teachers described homogeneity of ratings or responses.
This result supports the assertion of Inigo (2010) that “the schools aim to transmit
in living form intangible skills and techniques to the young. Culture bearers of an
ethnolinguistic group, in oral, practical and non-formal sessions train the young in the
pure form of their art. The learners are expected to eventually take the place of the
elders to continue expanding and developing frontiers of specialization in the
community”
 Table 3

Level of Preserving of Philippine Folk Dances among MAPEH Teachers

in Davao City in the Area of Choreographing Skills

A. Choreographing Skills Mean Description SD Interpretation

1. Interpreting literally the published Philippine Homogeneous
3.64 High 0.44
folk dance responses

2. Prescribing music and costume in the Homogeneous

4.06 High 0.68
staging of the Philippine folk dance responses

3. Attempting to change any of the figures Homogeneous

4.14 High 0.46
described in the dance literature responses

4. Discouraging any alteration in the figures of Homogeneous

the dance because it’s a sign of disrespect to 4.28 High 0.63 responses
the original researchers/writers of the dance

5. Encouraging reading of the literature of the Homogeneous

4.25 High 0.64
folk dance before the dance performance responses

6. Attending seminars/workshops in folk Homogeneous

dancing, whether it’s about coaching, 3.64 High 0.66 responses
teaching and performing

7. Finding ways to pursue folk dancing amidst Homogeneous

lack of materials and equipment, such as 4.0 High 0.45 responses
videos, CD, tapes, books and costumes

8. Promoting folk dancing by increasing the Homogeneous

number of folk dance presentations in and 3.64 High 0.59 responses
out of the school

9. Preferring to present a Philippine folk dance Homogeneous

whenever the dance group is invited to 3.19 High 0.50 responses
present a dance

10. Consulting other choreographers in times Homogeneous

of doubt to ensure my presentation’s 3.67 High 0.64 responses
faithfulness to the dance literature

Homogeneous
Category Mean 3.85 High 0.41 responses

Level of Preserving of Philippine Folk Dances among MAPEH Teachers

in Davao City in the Area of Cultural Sensitivity

Shown in Table 4 are the data for the level of preserving the Philippine folk dance in
Davao City through cultural development as an indicator. With an overall rating 3.43, the
descriptive equivalent of the indicator is moderate. In this indicator the top item is “Heightening
cultural experiences of students by allowing them to participate in dance festivals in and outside
of the school” with a mean score of 3.53. On the second spot is the item “Having faculty,
administration and staff that support efforts in encouraging the youth to patronize folk dances”
with a mean score of 3.50. On the third slot is the item “Having available resources and
materials for Philippine folk dance, such as videos, CD, tapes, books and costumes” with a
mean score of 3.47. “Having school officials that support initiatives in providing a venue for
creative challenge in showcasing folk dances” is the item on the fifth rank with a mean score
3.33 and on the last rank is the item “Having higher authorities who remind us about the
mandate that requires the presentation of the Philippine folk dance in all major programs in
schools” with a mean score of 3.31. The standard deviation values were all less than 1.0. This
implies that the responses of the MAPEH teachers described homogeneity of ratings.

Table 4

Level of Preserving of Philippine Folk Dances among MAPEH Teachers

in Davao City in the Area of Cultural Sensitivity

Cultural Sensitivity Mean Description SD Interpretation

1. Having higher authorities who remind Homogeneous

us about the mandate that requires the responses
presentation of the Philippine folk dance 3.31 Moderate 0.54
in all major programs in schools

2. Having school officials that support Homogeneous

initiatives in providing a venue for responses
creative challenge in showcasing folk 3.33 Moderate 0.53
dances

3. Having available resources and Homogeneous

materials for Philippine folk dance, such responses
as videos, CD, tapes, books and 3.47 Moderate 0.56
costumes

4. Having faculty, administration and staff Homogeneous

that support efforts in encouraging the 3.50 High 0.46 responses
youth to patronize folk dances

5. Heightening cultural experiences of Homogeneous

students by allowing them to participate responses
in dance festivals in and outside of the 3.53 High 0.48
school

Homogeneous
Category Mean 3.43 Moderate 0.40 responses

Homogeneous
Over-all Mean/SD 3.64 High 0.35 responses
Level of Cultural Awareness among Secondary Students in Davao City

Shown in Table 5 are the data for the cultural awareness of the secondary
students of Davao City. The level of cultural awareness of the secondary students as a
whole is good. The schools in the 1st Congressional District have relatively higher
scores when compared to those from 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts. District Two
has the lowest score of all the three.

Table 5

Level of Cultural Awareness on Philippine Folk Dances of

Secondary Students of Davao City

School Score Description

District 1
A 11.00 Good
B 12.00 Good
C 13.00 Good
D 12.00 Good
District 2
E 10.00 Good
F 9.90 Good
G 10.62 Good
H 9.80 Good
District 3
I 10.00 Good
J 11.00 Good
K 13.00 Good
L 10.00 Good
Overall Mean Score 11.03 Good

Characterizing Cultural Awareness through General Knowledge of the Philippine

Folk Dances

Table 6

Frequency Distribution of the Respondents in Terms of Accuracy

of the Test Answers
 Items Correct Answer Incorrect Answers
No of No of
1. Which of the Philippine folk dances is known for its Students
% Students
%
distinguished use of bamboo poles accompanied by steps?
b. Itik –Itik 79 4
a. Tinikling 1778 94
c. Binasuan 33 2
d. Maglalatik 6 0
2. This is the dance that tells the story of a Muslim Princess c. Singkil 479 25 a. Pangalay 303 16
Gandingan who was caught in the middle of the forest during
an earthquake caused by diwatas. b. Kapa Malong- 915 48
malong
d. Gayong-Gayong 198 10

3.The typical attire of a rural dance include: a. Patadyong b.Tapis 277 15

and kimona
c.Barong Tagalog 653 34
716 38
d. Maria Clara 244 13
4. What are the dances performed essentially for the gods a.Tribal 1375 73 b.Muslim and Moro 256 14
by the cultural minorities who lived in the hills and the Dance Dance
mountains? c. Spanish Dance 43 2
d. Rural Dance 216 11

5. This is a style of dance where performance includes c. Spanish 1038 55 a.Tribal Dance 221 12
Spanish footwork with Filipino modifications, such as Dance
b .Muslim and 417 22
bamboo castanets and Asian fan.
Moro Dance
d. Rural Dance 211 11
6. The Philippine National folk dance is … c. Cariñosa 1678 65% a.Tinikling 585 31
b.Singkil 42 2
d.Itik-itik 41 2
7. The government agency responsible for culture and arts c a. Department of 93 5
in the Philippines is … c. National Education
Commission 1678 89% b. Commission on 39 2
on Culture and Higher
Arts Education
d. Department of 86 5
Tourism
8. The subject that includes folk dances in its curriculum is b. Physical 868 46 a. Araling 50 3
… Education Panlipunan
c. MUsic 658 35
d. Arts 311 16
9. The Philippine National Folk Dance Company is … c. Bayanihan 328 17 a. Ramon Obusan 220 12
Dance Fokloric Dance
Company Company
b. Hiyas Philippine
Folk Dance
Company 1261 67
d. Leyte Kalipayan
Dance Troupe 85 4
10. This was created in 1966 through Executive Order #30 c a. Araneta
with the purpose of promoting and preserving Filipino arts c. Cultural 1026 54 Coliseum 478 25
and culture. Center of the b.Cuneta 148 8
Philippines Astrodome

d. Philippine 232 12
International
Convention
Center
11. Two folk dances that are similar in nature as both b. a. Singkil and
dances use drinking glasses to show off the grace, balance, Pandango 1153 61 Tinikling 431 23
and dexterity of the performers. sa Ilaw and c. Sakuting and
Binasuan Cariñosa
205 11
 d. Maglalatik and
Kuratsa
105 6
12. This dance is performed in a flirtatious manner with fans b. Cariñosa 1001 53 a.Salakot 325 17
and handkerchiefs to emphasize the dancers’ “ hide-and-
c. Mazurka
seek” movements.
Mindoreña 391 21
d. Paseo de Iloilo 175 9
13This rural dance mimics the high-stepping strut of birds in c. Tinikling 1057 56 a. Singkil
the Philippine jungles over bamboo traps. It is the most 404 21
popular dance in the Philippines. b. Sakuting 212 11
d. Subli
220 12
14. This dance is commonly performed at formal gathering, a. Rigodon 797 42 b. La Jota Manileña 374 20
such as balls, in which prominent members of government
c. Pandango sa
enjoy and participate.
Ilaw 488 26
d. Mazurka
Boholana 233 12
15. This dance mimics the early battle of Christians and a. Maglalatik 1301 69 b. Pantomina 261 14
Moros over coconut meat or latik during the time of Spanish
c. Pandango sa
colonization. 192 10
Ilaw
d. Karatong 137 7
16. What is the rural dance that imitates the courtship b. Itik-itik 1636 86 a.Tinikling 93 5
movements of a duck?
c. Jota Macedoña 86 5
c. Jota Macedoña 80 4
17. What do the dancers in Sakuting use to portray a mock b. Sticks 774 41 a. Castanets
fight? 338 18
c. Coconut Shells
493 26
d. Handkerchiefs 285 15
18. This Muslim dance was originally performed by wealthy a. Pangalay 569 b. Kapa Malong-
families during a wedding celebration. This fingernail dance 30 malong 656 35
is a popular festival dance in Sulu. c. Singkil 350 18
d. Gayong-Gayong
315 18
19. What dance from Cordillera has dancers portraying a. Banog 676 36 b. Bendayan 508 27
hunters shielding their chicken from the famishing hawk and
c. Idudu 352 19
the hawk end up entrapped and dies in the hands of the
hunters? d. Salisid
354 19
20. What is the most popular dance in the Philippines? a. Tinikling 1712 90 b. Itik-itik 96 5
c. Jota Macedoña 44 2
d. Sakuting 36 2

Looking at each item of the test, the lowest percentage of accuracy is Item 9,
which pertains to the students’ knowledge of the national folk dance troupe of the
Philippines. Out of 1,896 secondary students only 17 percent of them answered the
item correctly. The second lowest percentage of accuracy is the Item 2 which pertains
to the story behind the folk dance Singkil. Only 25 percent of the respondents
answered this item correctly.
On the other hand, the highest percentage of accuracy that the students got is in
the Item 1. This item asked about the dance Tinikling. Ninety-four percent or 1,778
students out of 1,896 have answered the item correctly. The second highest percentage
of accuracy is the Item 7 and Item 20 where 89 percent of the students answered them
correctly. Item 7 asked about the NCCA (National Commission on Culture and Arts) as
the government agency responsible for culture and arts while Item 20 asked about the
most popular dance of the Philippines. This item is consistent with the result about Item
1, which asked about Tinikling.

Significance of the Relationships between Strengthening and Preserving to the

Cultural Awareness
As shown in the data of Table 7, there is no significant relationship between
strengthening of Philippine folk dances and cultural awareness (p > 0.05) and also no
significant relationship between preserving of Philippine folk dances and cultural
awareness (p > 0.05). These results imply that the variations in views regarding cultural
awareness cannot be significantly attributed to its relationship in either strengthening
(3.24 percent) or preserving (12.25 percent) practices.

Table 7

Significance of the Relationships between Strengthening and Preserving to the

Cultural Awareness

Predictors Cultural Interpretation p-value Decision

(x) Awareness
(y)
Strengthening 0.18 Negligible 0.576 Accept Ho
correlation
Preserving 0.35 Low 0.270 Accept Ho
correlations;
definite but
small
relationship

Strengthening practices, such as increasing, reinforcing, integrating, highlighting

and harnessing folk dance activities were highly observed by the teachers. Practices
geared towards preservation of Philippine folk dances, such as using the prescribed
music and costume, reading the dance literature before the dance presentation, and
discoursing alteration of the dance figures were implemented as well by the MAPEH
teachers. Preservation of anything encourages keeping its original form; thus, teachers
are really enthusiastic about the protection of folk dances by not changing or altering the
dance choreography. Therefore, dances’ authenticity must be retained as the literature
specified. Both strengthening and preserving affirm what Phil Bartle (2010) says about
the characteristics of culture, “Since those traditional songs, dances and music are
important elements in the identity of those who perform and enjoy them, we strongly
support the idea of preserving them and adding to them, as well as increasing their
presence and profile in all societies, and in increasing and expanding their content. A
strong sense of identity is a valuable element in the strengthening of communities and
their culture.”
 The general knowledge of students about folk dancing was found to be good. In
this study, their general knowledge of folk dancing was used as a measure to determine
cultural awareness. As revealed by the data, students are knowledgeable about the
dance “tinikling.” They readily knew that this dance uses bamboo poles accompanied by
steps and that this dance mimics a kind of bird called tikling strutting over the bamboo
poles. However, results also revealed that students were least knowledgeable about the
Philippine national folk dance troupe, which is the “Bayanihan Dance Troupe.”
When measured as to the relationship of strengthening and preserving practices
on the cultural awareness, this study showed that these practices are not significantly
related to the general knowledge of the students in folk dancing. This result was just
congruent to the assessment of Taguba (2007) in Bengwayan (2008), former Director of
the Department of Education of the Philippines who said that many students who have
graduated from high school in the recent past have been deprived of the cultural
vocabulary that was commonly possessed by educated persons in the past generation.
She said that the students must be reintroduced to the cultural vocabulary that
continues to be the foundation for literate national communication (Bengwayan, 2008).
With these results, a more thorough examination of what may affect the cultural
awareness of the students is encouraged. This cultural awareness is significant as it
will determine the kind of global citizens Filipinos must have in the future.

REFERENCES

Bartle, Phil. (2007). Preserving culture. 5 June 2010. http://cec.vcn.bc.ca/cmp/modules/

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Bengwayan, Michael. (2008). Cultural literacy: How good are the young? 10 July 2010.
http://www.onislam.net/english/family/moms-and-dads/raising-positive-
children/416934.html, July 2010.

Inigo, Corazon. (2010). Tari Baris and pangalay. 10 August 2010.

http://pangalaydance.com/page/4

Jervis, Nancy. (2006).What is a culture? 19 February 2013.

http://emsc32.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/grade3/whatisa.

Kadayawan sa Dabaw festival. (2011). 5 August 2011.

http://www.philippinecountry.com/philippine_festivals/kadawayan_sa_dabaw.html

Lewis, Lisa. (2012). The Philippine "hip hop stick dance"

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