Elementary teachers’ practices and challenges in integrating nusantara culture into multicultural learning
Keywords:
Nusantara culture, multicultural education, elementary teachers, ethnomathematics, pedagogical challengesAbstract
Purpose: This study investigates how elementary teachers integrate Nusantara culture into multicultural learning, examining interdisciplinary practices, structural challenges, and pedagogical anxiety in Indonesian primary classrooms.
Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative multi-case study examined 15 purposively sampled teachers across six elementary schools in Yogyakarta and West Java, Indonesia. Over four months, data were gathered via semi-structured interviews, 60-minute observations, and document analysis of lesson plans (Modul Ajar). Analysis followed Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic approach, verified via triangulation and member-checking.
Findings: Teachers operationalized Nusantara culture through artifact-based instruction and service-learning (gotong royong),Logically enhancing spatial reasoning, identity salience, and practical wisdom (phronesis). However, integration was constrained by curriculum pressures, static textbooks, and anxiety over cultural misrepresentation and religious sensitivities, causing topic avoidance or superficial compliance.
Practical implications: Findings inform teacher education reforms by offering strategies to embed ethnomathematics and culturally sustaining pedagogy, mitigating teacher anxiety while reconciling standardized requirements with local cultural integration.
Originality/value: This study shifts multicultural discourse from Western racial binaries to a Global South pluralistic context, demonstrating how indigenous Nusantara heritage enriches core subjects like primary mathematics.
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