Indigenous artifacts from remote areas, used to design a lesson plan for preservice math teachers regarding sustainable education

Abstract

In the context of sustainable education, remote areas require special treatment. However, teachers are not evenly distributed in terms of quantity and quality. Adaptable, creative, and innovative teachers are needed in remote areas. Therefore, universities must prepare preservice teachers to teach in these places. This study explores indigenous artifacts from local communities related to mathematical content that preservice teachers can adopt to design lesson plans using available resources. Data were collected through the artifacts of indigenous people in a mountainous region on the border of Yogyakarta and Central Java, Indonesia, and the math curriculum content was examined. The relational ideas of the artifacts and the math curriculum content were analyzed. Based on the results, this study shows that artifacts can be incorporated into math learning materials. Elaborating on the artifacts can potentially relate culture and math in the classroom. The artifacts contain mathematical value and are close to students' thoughts. Hence, preservice math teachers can use them to design lesson plans, particularly for math learning. By understanding artifacts in remote areas, preservice teachers will have a particular capability for preparing lesson plans relevant to students’ environment for sustainable education.

Keywords

• Sustainable education
• Indigenous knowledge
• Ethnomathematics
• Preservice math teacher
• Math lesson plan