An examination of the educational and instructional facets in isiXhosa children’s oral songs

Abstract It is incontrovertible that African, and in particular, isiXhosa children’s oral songs play a significant role in the educational and instructional facets given their propensity to contribute to children’s cognitive development when used and applied meticulously. Bearing that in mind, this article aimed to unravel two selected children’s oral isiXhosa songs in respect of their didactic and pedagogical components. The principal objective, among others, was to determine their latent interplaying meanings. The sociocultural theory of learning was deployed to examine the two songs while the songs themselves served as a primary source of data subsumed under qualitative research methodology. The examination and discussions maintained that isiXhosa children’s oral songs contain educational and instructional dimensions that may not be privy to everyone, and as such, it is consequential that they continue to be probed. The closing remarks underlined the deficit in the evaluation of isiXhosa children’s songs concerning their didactic and pedagogical facets.