Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage Through Teaching Practices Within the Scope of Transmission: the Case of Traditional Turkish Archery

Abstract

2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage reflects a safeguarding approach that aims to ensure the viability of the intangible heritage (ICH) as a whole with the cultural object, within and with the community, integrated with the heritage objects to which it is associated. This holistic safeguarding approach, in addition to research, documentation and archiving processes, also includes the processes of making it livable in wider contexts, transmitting correct knowledge/awareness raising through education and training, and supporting capacity building related to information sharing. It draws attention as an important emphasis in the text of the Convention that teaching activities focusing on the relationship between heritage, space and time will strengthen the transmission of intangible heritage and, hence the success of its safeguarding. The text of the Convention, the Operational Directives and the Code of Ethics have a human-oriented protection perspective in which individuals, groups and communities are centered on a participatory basis. The purpose and content of studies in the fields of history and geography teaching are also human-oriented and both are social sciences that place importance on the concepts of space and time. Therefore, discussing how both subject areas should be reflected in the socio-spatial-based perspective on teaching practices and instructional content designs in curricula will make important contributions in the context of understanding the attention to the evaluation of the intangible cultural heritage without isolating it from its material context with the physical environment and placed in its time dimension position. In this context, in order to explain the historical continuity and shared experiences in the intergenerational transmission of the Turkish Archery Tradition within the framework of the interdisciplinary programming approach, the spatial context in which the collective mentality hidden in the cultural geographic history of the tradition is built is associated with the socio-political context and it made visible in this paper. Then, the importance of the recommended approaches to be followed in order to strengthen the intergenerational transmission of the heritage that has been passed on from the pre-Christ Central Asian cultural circles to the present day, in terms of holistic conservation processes is evaluated in the context of Traditional Turkish Archery which was inscribed on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2019 by Turkey. This article has been structured by taking into account the goal of raising awareness, which considers it important to determine the framework of the knowledge and cognitive process dimensions of the goal-achievements included in the transdisciplinary teaching designs within the formal education system of UNESCO with reference to the past. In addition, this paper also addresses the meaning of the intangible cultural heritage in today’s context in the case of Traditional Turkish Archery. Literature research has been carried out within the scope of academic works, geography and history teaching pro-grams, research works prepared by using Chinese, Islamic and Western sources and primary data sources in which the texts produced within the framework of the Convention, which evaluated the intangible cultural heritage as a learning resource have been examined at national and international level. Content analysis, one of the techniques frequently used in research in the field of social sciences is used in the review of the literature document. Following the document review process carried out within the framework of the stated purposes, the 9th grade history lesson includes the Turkic World in the First and Middle Ages and the 11th grade geography lesson Global Environment, Regions and Countries unit, which include steps for the use of thinking and learning contexts that support each other. An interdisciplinary teaching content methodology is presented focusing on the integration of the Turkish archery tradition’s living nature which includes the change into the current education programs. © 2021, Milli Folklor Dergisi. All rights reserved.