Manifestations of Educational Values in Algerian Oral Folk Proverbs

Abstract

Folk proverbs are one of the forms of Algerian popular literary expression. They are simple literary material transmitted orally among members of the popular community, and they carry an inexhaustible cultural and educational reservoir. They play a prominent and effective role in framing the behaviour of individuals and guiding them towards commitment to educational values in an indirect way. This allows these values to settle in their subconscious and to appear spontaneously and naturally in their daily behaviour towards others.
At the oral level, Algerian popular society is rich in this guiding material, which condenses useful ethical and educational values. From this perspective, this article seeks to shed light on some of these oral folk proverbs current in the Algerian popular milieu and to show their role in guiding individual behaviour through purposeful educational values, with the aim of raising awareness, shaping character, and benefiting from the experiences of earlier people, since proverbs are a store of experience.
The questions, then, are: What are these educational values? How have they appeared in Algerian folk proverbs? And to what extent do they remain valid in our contemporary life, which is undergoing remarkable and seemingly limitless development?