The Use of Local Wisdom Content in Secondary School: Problems And Creative Development

The study aimed to 1) study the use of local wisdom and its problems in secondary schools and 2) examine the pattern of development of local wisdom contents used in secondary schools. The study is a qualitative research which was done by examining related texts and documents as well as field research which was participated by 100 informants including government officers and local people. The data was collected by using questionnaire, observation form, interview, and focus group. The data was then analyzed according to the study and present by descriptive analysis approach. Research results show that The problems of using local wisdom contents are classified into the following aspects ; 1) Community aspect: learning and using local wisdom of the people in the community are related to local materials and ethnic ; 2) Curriculum aspect: the studied schools has curriculums conforming to government policies ; 3) Local wisdom instructors: local wisdom contents are instructed by local wisdom instructors in the studied schools. Local wisdom instructors from the university also take part in local wisdom education at the studied schools located in the same university campus ; 4) Current local wisdom learning aspect: all of the studied schools value the local wisdom education. Local wisdom contents are found enclosed in the schools’ visions and missions. Problems on using local wisdom contents are the deficiency of financial support from the government, neglect of school administrators, discontinuity of learners and instructors affected by their transference reasons, and insufficiency of local wisdom philosophers who could not keep continuative instruction in harvest season according to their initiative occupation of farming. For the development pattern of the use of local wisdom contents in the studied schools, it was found that local wisdom contents are creatively developed to increase the economic value in industry, handicraft, art, and Thai medicine. The patterns of development are to production design, exhibit the products, and weave the academic networks among schools and enterprises both locally and nationally