Ethnopedagogy in Social and Cultural Sciences: A Bridge between Cultural Identity, Local Values, and Contextual Learning

Abstrak

Ethnopedagogy is an educational approach that positions local culture, community wisdom, and social values as learning resources. In social and cultural science education, this approach is important because it connects social concepts with students’ lived experiences in a more contextual manner. This article aims to examine ethnopedagogy as an identity-based and local value-based approach in social and cultural science learning. The method used is library research with content analysis of scholarly literature, research findings, and documents discussing ethnopedagogy, culture-based education, cultural identity, and local values in education. The findings show that ethnopedagogy functions as a bridge between local culture and contextual social-cultural learning. This approach helps students understand social realities through traditions, values, symbols, and cultural practices that are close to their lives. Ethnopedagogy also contributes to strengthening cultural identity, internalizing character values, and using local values as learning resources. However, its implementation still faces challenges, such as standardized curricula, limited teacher competence, the lack of local teaching materials, and the risk of reducing culture to mere learning illustrations. Therefore, ethnopedagogy needs to be understood not only as a strategy for cultural preservation, but also as a critical pedagogical approach that integrates local knowledge, social learning, and the reflective formation of students’ identities.