Table 3.

Areas of learning in which teachers perceive that folktales have the potential to be a valuable pedagogical tool.

Themes	Subthemes	Some exemplar quotations
Oral transfer of cultural traditions		“I always want children to know their tradition and some of the folktales are based on that” “I use some of the folktales to teach the children the way their forefathers were living…in terms of the traditional way of dressing, medications, food etc” “Teach cultural values”
Cognitive skills	Stimulation of imagination Thinking attention retention	“When children are asked to present folktales in class it enhances their imagination and thinking” “I realized when I asked my pupils to tell stories, in the course of that some will pause for some seconds and will ask me to give them some time to think before they continue” “When it is time for story-telling my pupils pay a lot of attention” “Some children listen to folktales and they also repeat the same stories to their friend”
Morality	Bad behavior is punished Good behavior rewarded Forgiveness	“When am teaching some topics in moral education, I use folktales which show how wicked people are punished” “Folktales can be used to instil knowledge on the type of punishment that can be given to any person who maltreat others, cheat others, kill, tell lies or even those who fight” “I used folktales to show how good people are always rewarded with gifts and other blessings” “There is one famous folktale in the Nso community which focuses on teaching children to help adults, when they do that they will receive blessings” “Folktales are very relevant and should be integrated into the school curriculum to teach good morals. There are many folktales which talk about the importance of forgiving one another”
Language development	New Vocabulary Public speaking Translation skills	“Though I hardly use folktales in teaching, I realized that when I asked my pupils to tell stories, or when I tell them folktales, I asked them to indicate the words that they are getting for the first time. Then we define those words” “Folktales should be encouraged in primary schools because they enhance communication skills in children. They learn to speak in public without any fear. This can help then to become good public speakers or become journalist in future” “Most of the folk tales are often narrated to most children in lamnso (the local language of the Nso people). when you ask them to tell stories they translate into the English language’ This helps them in word formation, construction of sentences using diverse tenses, especially the past tense”
Musical repertoire	Learning songs Interest/enjoyment	“I mostly ask learners to tell us the stories. If there is a song in it, they sing together... I tell them to repeat the song severally so that others should learn, the whole story becomes a song to all learners” “Most of my pupils pay attention when the folktale has a song…Some children sing the songs with joy, and this makes the lesson very interesting”