Folklore in Shaping Ethnic Identity of Junior Schoolchildren (in Russian and Belarusian Schools)
Research urgency of folklore in shaping ethnic identity of the personality is identified in the article. Place of folklore in the activ- ity of outstanding teachers-enlighteners is shown (Ya. A. Komenski, K. D. Ushinski, Belarusian enlighteners of the late XIX - early XX centuries, who participated in collecting, studying and propagating folklore; N. K. Krupskaya), with the accent on its implementation in the experience of primary schools work. Content analysis of textbooks for primary schools in the cities of Vitebsk and Smolensk from the point of view of the possibility of implementation of folklore in shaping ethnic identity of schoolchildren is presented. Features of folklore representation are found out (amount of folklore material, genre composition, ethnic origin of folklore items) which are conditioned by the specificity of historical development and contemporary education policy in Belarus and Russia.