Prospect of integrating indigenous knowledge in the teacher learning community

ABSTRACT

Integrating indigenous knowledge in the science classroom is one approach of maximizing the sociocultural relevance of education. The purpose of this study is to describe the possibility of integrating indigenous knowledge and school sciences through a Teacher Learning Community (TLC) at the secondary school. Data were collected through teaching and learning documents, interviews, and observations of a secondary teacher working group of natural science subjects in the Special Region of Yogyakarta Province in Indonesia. This research finding proposes eight steps to integrate indigenous science within the TLC: collecting and identifying what constitutes indigenous science, selecting natives’ science issues of interest, analyzing and connecting the topics to school science, implementing the lessons, reflecting on the consequences of each knowledge, evaluating the lesson process, expanding possibilities for further discovery, and sharing outcomes. The eight steps are sequential and repetitive in the cycle. The indigenous integration knowledge through the TLC is expected to link indigenous knowledge and school science.