Ethnomathematics: The Discovery of Mathematical Concepts in the Sekaten Tradition

Abstract

Ethnomathematics should be fully understood and developed to become a fundamental idea to solve crucial problems in learning mathematics. It focused on describing the exploration of prospective mathematics teachers in Indonesia in understanding ethnomathematics and its practice. This study aims to examine how future mathematics teachers perceive and use an ethnomathematics approach in the sekaten. The qualitative research employed mathematics education students at one of the leading private universities in Central Java Province. The study concludes that the concept of ethnomathematics should be limited to exploration and experimentation on mathematics learning in schools and should be adopted as a curriculum in education. Ethnomathematics is fun, meaningful, and more concrete for students learning mathematics as ethnomathematics can be extracted from cultural heritage. Therefore, ethnomathematics study is considered an innovation in mathematics learning that can be sustainably explored.