The role of families in narrating Kaili ethnic oral traditions to strengthen religious education at elementary schools: an ethnography from two villages in Indonesia

Oral traditions have been considered a rich source of values that promote social and religious teachings. Local communities often narrate the values to their children to instill moral or religious teachings in an informal context. Instead, the values can enhance religious education; they are rarely incorporated into family religious education to strengthen religious education in schools. This study aims to investigate the narration of local oral traditions within families to support religious education in elementary schools. This study employs an ethnographic approach to understand the incorporation of oral traditions into Islamic religious education within families and at elementary schools in Sigi Regency, Indonesia. Data were gathered through participative observation, in-depth interviews with local community figures, parents, teachers, and students, and written document analysis. The data were analyzed using a thematic approach. The results of this study indicate that incorporating oral traditions into Islamic religious education can enhance local children and students’ understanding of the relevance of local cultural values and Islamic teachings. Relevant Islamic religious teachings from oral traditions include theological, social, and environmental values. Oral traditions can serve as a powerful educational resource within families and schools, helping to understand religion as lived in a rural, non-literate community context. We acknowledge the limitations of this study, which was conducted for 1 year and focused on oral tradition types. Future research might conduct longer ethnographies with more oral tradition types.