Educators challenged to embed ‘living heritage’ as cultural erosion accelerates

Educators are being urged to move beyond textbooks and bring Barbados’ cultural traditions into the classroom through song, dance, craft and food, as a new initiative backed by the Clara Lionel Foundation warns that elements of national identity are at risk of being lost.

Hosted by the Pinelands Creative Workshop (PCW), the two-day workshop forms part of the Cultural Heritage Identification and Preservation (CHIP) initiative, supported by the Clara Lionel Foundation, and is focused on integrating Barbados’ “living heritage” into both formal and informal education.

PCW chief executive Sophia Greaves-Broome said the initiative is centred on reclaiming and repositioning cultural knowledge that has been lost or sidelined over time.

“The primary goal of this initiative is to launch a process of recovery, documentation, and preservation of indigenous artforms, while leveraging intangible cultural heritage to enhance community engagement and stimulate economic activity,” she said during the opening ceremony at the Courtyard by Marriott on Wednesday.

She shared that the programme goes beyond preservation, aiming instead to transform how learning takes place in classrooms and communities.

Using what she described as a “living laboratory” approach, the workshop encourages educators to connect traditional knowledge with academic subjects.

“Intangible cultural heritage is embedded in the song, dance or story that teaches history… the craft that teaches physics, and the food that teaches chemistry,” she said, noting that culture should be experienced, not simply studied.

The PCW CEO further warned that without deliberate action, elements of Barbadian identity could continue to erode.

“We have undergone significant loss: loss of identity, self-esteem, our traditions, norms and practices… our culture,” she said, adding that programmes like CHIP are intended to counter that decline by strengthening cultural confidence and transmission.

The sessions, guided by UNESCO’s 2003 convention on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, aim to equip participants with practical tools including intergenerational learning, community mapping and partnerships with cultural “knowledge bearers”.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Pan-African Affairs and Heritage, Trevor Prescod, who addressed the opening, also underscored the urgency of protecting cultural identity, pointing to the growing influence of external forces.

“The exogenous influences are too strong, and it is even stronger now in a time when we deal with artificial intelligence,” he said.

“The majority of people around don’t even know how effective that is going to be… especially in terms of the impositions on the preservation of the indigenous nature of our society.”

He urged educators to remain grounded in the communities that shaped Barbadian culture.

“Never lose your roots, never lose your groundings as an institution,” Prescod said, praising the organisers.

“You’ve got to pull this society back on track.”

Among those attending was Alexander School teacher and librarian Janelle Small, who said the workshop comes at a critical time for educators trying to keep students connected to their heritage.

“I think that we need to preserve our heritage and so much is being lost,” she told Barbados TODAY, noting the growing influence of foreign culture on young people.

“As we see, our young people are copycatting a lot of the American culture, whether it is in terms of music and dress, and these are things that we need to preserve.”

Small said she has already been incorporating elements of local culture into her teaching, including folklore displays during Independence celebrations.

“Those are things that need to be implemented in the school curriculum,” she added.

“The textbooks are not teaching the history, so we need to bring our Caribbean writers into our curriculum… so that we are not lost in the new terminology of being a republic, but staying true to our own.” 

(SM)