Strengthening Student Character with Local Cultural Metaphors: Messages Exploration from the Tiba Meka Dance

Abstract

The research aimed to analyze the metaphor constructions and pedagogic values in the tiba meka dance. Students’ character building through metaphor construction in traditional dance had not been widely investigated; meanwhile, the metaphors used in this dance contain great values for encouraging students’ positive attitudes. Metaphor construction had a fundamental role for the students to have creative thought and deepen their understanding of its nature and role as a real communication language. The proper metaphor’s construction encouraged a student to be a catalyst in cross-cultural communication and appreciated the values contained in the metaphor delivered. The research was carried out between February and December 2019 and involved 30 respondents. The instruments used in collecting data were a set of stationery, questionnaire, interview, documentation, field notes, and recordings. These data were analyzed qualitatively through the phenomenological method. The findings show that the tiba meka dance is inseparable from the use of metaphors, namely bird, vegetation, body, sun, and water metaphors that have great pedagogic values, such as honesty, responsibility, and disciplin that contribute to the character building for students. The ideologies that underline tiba meka dance are morals, identity, and economy.