The Presentation of Indonesian Cultural Perspective in Mathematics Textbook

Abstract

Contents related to the cultural perspective of a region must be integrated into the design of their curricula (including textbooks) at all levels. The government of Indonesia has facilitated students and teachers across the country free access to online downloadable learning resources. With a focus on issues about the presentation of a cultural perspective in Indonesia mathematics textbooks, this study examined a widely used curriculum resource series for lower secondary school and high school – Buku Sekolah Elektronik – published by the Indonesian Government that be accessed for free, to explore how the cultural influence is manifested in the two series of resource books. For data collection and analysis, the authors developed a framework by Fan (2018) who has classified cultures into six types concerning people’s beliefs, values, and ways of interacting. More precisely, the authors considered geography as a variable for data collection. As result, they found that the introduction of geography in Indonesian junior high school mathematics textbooks is still minimal. Keywords: Indonesian cultural perspective, mathematics textbooks