Mapping Papuan Ethnoscience Contexts onto PISA 2025 Scientific Literacy Competencies in the Indonesia–Papua New Guinea Border Region
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54065/pelita.6.2.2026.1878Keywords:
Science Literacy, Pisa 2025, Ethnoscience, Papuan Culture, Indonesia–Papua New Guinea BorderAbstract
The urgency of this study lies in integrating Papuan ethnoscience contexts with PISA 2025 scientific literacy competencies to promote culturally relevant science education in the Indonesia–Papua New Guinea border region. Scientific literacy achievement of Indonesian students remains low, and the gap widens in Papua’s RI–PNG border region where instruction is rarely anchored in students’ lived experience. No inventory yet maps border cultural practices onto the three scientific literacy competencies of the PISA 2025 framework, so materials development risks being generic. This study aims to 1) analyse which cultural contexts are most relevant as science learning scenarios, and 2) map those contexts onto the three competencies, using a qualitative descriptive design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 purposively selected informants, namely 5 teachers, 8 parents, 3 community members, and 9 students across four schools in Muara Tami District, complemented by field notes and document review. Every cluster was scored on two separate rubrics, namely empirical evidentiary strength and scientific affordance. Of twelve clusters identified, areca nut and sago–papeda scored highest on both; dance and local language scored highest on evidentiary strength but lowest on affordance; while coconut, tidal dynamics known emically as meti, noken, and everyday health knowledge showed useful affordance but weaker community recognition. Empirical support fell sharply across competencies: explaining phenomena was supported by all 25 informants in four schools, constructing enquiry by 7, and decision making by only 3 informants in two schools. Parents were already posing causal questions at home, indicating an untapped household resource. These patterns reveal a systematic disjunction between expressive-ceremonial and resource-based culture, which plausibly explains why ethnoscience integration often halts at the illustrative level. The resulting scored context bank, status-marked matrix, and seven design principles give developers a verified starting point that prioritises the weakest competency.
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