TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan – A secondary school teacher from Linao National High School just presented the Ibanag’s Dudul (maja blanca) not as a delicacy but as a dance form, the Maja Blanca Dance.
Alrose Soriano, a Technology Learning Education teacher in Tuguegarao City made the presentation to more than 200 participants from the Philippines and other Asian countries during the Malikhaing Guro International Conference in Culture-Based Education at the University of the Philippine at Los Baños, Laguna yesterday.
Confirmed reports from the Division of Tuguegarao City said Soriano’s paper, ‘Maja Blanca, A Teaching Strategy in TLE’ is a culture-based approach.
Soriano, a TLE teacher from Linao National High School, created dance steps using the procedures in preparing the Ibanag’s dudul (maja blanca) like grate, squeeze and mix, among others. She contextualized local materials like coconut and corn and its association to an Ibanag culture on food.
“Not all papers are presented during the conference ,” Eloisa Mangulad said.
Mangulad, an English teacher and an NCCA-GDCE scholar from the same school joined Soriano as a presenter with her paper on ‘Pancit Batil Potun: Adding Flavor to Tuguegarao Tourism.’
Soriano and Mangulad were the only teachers from Cagayan whose papers were accepted for presentation and were supported by Division of Tuguegarao City and the City Government of Tuguegarao.
The conference was a gathering of cultural educators, scholars, researchers and national artists in Asia sponsored by UPLB, ARTISTS Incorporated, NCCA and DepEd.