Revitalizing Local Wisdom through Fictional Texts: Enhancing Reading Comprehension in Indonesian Primary Classrooms

Sukida Sukida, Sulfasyah Sulfasyah, Tarman Tarman

Abstract


Reading comprehension is a foundational skill in early education, yet many Indonesian primary students struggle with it due to instructional materials that are culturally distant and pedagogically static. This study aims to develop a fictional reading module grounded in kearifan lokal (local wisdom) from Bone, South Sulawesi, using the Four-D development model: Define, Design, Develop, and Disseminate. The module incorporates the folklore of Goa Mampu, embedding moral values and regional identity within narrative texts designed for fourth-grade students. Validation involved expert reviews and field testing in a local elementary school. Results showed the materials achieved high validity (mean expert score: 3.8/4.0), strong effectiveness (mean post-test score: 87%), and high practicality based on teacher and student responses. Students demonstrated marked improvements in literal, inferential, and critical reading comprehension. Beyond academic gains, the module strengthened learners' cultural awareness and engagement. This research underscores the pedagogical value of integrating localized, story-based content into national curricula, particularly in multicultural education systems. It also highlights the role of culturally responsive materials in promoting equitable literacy outcomes. The findings contribute to a growing movement for curriculum contextualization in educational contexts of the Global South.

Keywords


Reading Comprehension; Local Wisdom; Fictional Texts; Primary Education; Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Full Text:

PDF

References


Afflerbach, P., Cho, B. Y., & Kim, J. Y. (2015). Conceptualizing and assessing higher-order thinking in reading. Theory Into Practice, 54(3), 203–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2015.1044344

Anderson, R. C., & Pearson, P. D. (1984). A schema-theoretic view of basic processes in reading comprehension. In P. D. Pearson (Ed.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 255–291). Longman.

Anggraini, L., & Kusniarti, T. (2015). The insertion of local wisdom into instructional materials of Bahasa Indonesia for 10th-grade students in senior high school. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(33), 89–92.

Banks, J. A., Cookson, P., Gay, G., Hawley, W., Irvine, J. J., Nieto, S., ... & Stephan, W. G. (2021). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (10th ed.). Wiley.

Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). Teachers College Press.

Hake, R. R. (1998). Interactive-engagement vs traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses. American Journal of Physics, 66(1), 64–74. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.18809

Kim, J. S. (2020). Making every word matter: Strategies for improving reading comprehension. Harvard Educational Review, 90(2), 241–267.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2014). Culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0: Aka the remix. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 74–84. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.84.1.p2rj131485484751

Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

McNamara, D. S., & Magliano, J. P. (2018). Toward a comprehensive model of comprehension. In D. Schunk & J. Greene (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation of learning and performance (2nd ed., pp. 283–296). Routledge.

Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press.

Pretorius, E. J., & Spaull, N. (2016). Exploring relationships between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension among English second-language readers in South Africa. Reading and Writing, 29, 1449–1471. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-016-9645-9

Snow, C. E., & Matthews, T. J. (2016). Reading and Language in the Early Grades. The Future of Children, 26(2), 57–74. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.2016.0012

Subakir, U., Rahmawati, E., & Mukhlis, I. (2021). Folklore-based teaching material development to improve students' reading comprehension. Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn), 15(1), 109–117. https://doi.org/10.11591/edulearn.v15i1.19434

Thiagarajan, S., Semmel, D. S., & Semmel, M. I. (1974). Instructional development for training teachers of exceptional children: A sourcebook. Indiana University.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30984/jii.v19i2.3760

Article Metrics

Abstract view : 46 times
PDF - 18 times

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Rumah Jurnal Institut Agama Islam Negeri Manado

Jl. Dr. S.H. Sarundajang, Kawasan Ringroad I, Malendeng Manado Kode Pos 95128, Sulawesi Utara, Indonesia.

 

Creative Commons License
All publication by Jurnal Ilmiah Iqra' are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Jurnal Ilmiah Iqra', ISSN 1693-5705 (Print), ISSN 2541-2108 (Online)