Ethnoscientific literacy in Pacu Jalur tradition: Can students connect science with their local culture?

Abstract

Ethnoscientific literacy is related to the ability to explain a cultural context scientifically. Pacu Jalur is a long boat rowing competition that is a hereditary tradition of the Malay people who occupy the area along the Kuantan River in Riau Province, Indonesia. Pacu Jalur is most popular with the local community because involves many people in the process of making the boat, preparing for the event, and ten of thousand people watching local or national competition events. We wanted to identify the extent to which this tradition had an impact on students’ ethnoscientific literacy. For this purpose, we have surveyed 480 high school students who live around the Kuantan River using an ethnoscientific literacy test. The result showed that the ethnoscientific literacy of students living in this area is unsatifactory and no significant differences identified between male and female students. We have also identified a positive impact of the atmosphere event on students’ ethnoscientific literacy.