Implementing Ethno-Pedagogy in Indonesian Primary Education: An Exploratory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study of Culturally Responsive Learning

Abstract

Ethno-pedagogy uses local culture, community knowledge, and everyday practices as resources for culturally responsive learning. This study examined its classroom implementation in a rural Indonesian primary school and the accompanying student learning profiles. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods design involved four purposively selected teachers and 60 students in Grades 3–5 at SDN Patokan 2, Situbondo, East Java. Interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis identified recurrent implementation patterns that informed the quantitative phase. Student outcomes were summarized descriptively across cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains, and reported item-difficulty logits were interpreted as a relative hierarchy. Ethno-pedagogy was enacted through local folklore, traditional games, local-language expressions, crafts, community-linked activities, contextual problem solving, and cultural performance. Reported domain averages were 81.3 for cognitive, 85.6 for affective, and 86.1 for psychomotor outcomes; item difficulty ranged from −0.80 to 2.60 logits. Integrated findings indicate that cultural familiarity and experiential enactment were associated with visible participation and strong affective and psychomotor profiles. Because the study was descriptive, single-site, and lacked baseline or comparison data, the results represent implementation evidence rather than causal effects. These findings suggest that ethno-pedagogy can serve as a contextual framework for designing culturally responsive primary education, while highlighting the need for broader and comparative studies to examine its long-term educational impacts.