Culture in the Twenty-First Century Kindergarten

Culture is a topic that is rich in knowledge and materials to be included in the teaching and learning in kindergartens. However, teachers still find it difficult to use this topic in their teaching because culture is an abstract topic for kindergarten students. This article aims to describe Javanese cultural elements that can be taught in kindergarten classes. The sample of this survey research was selected using purposive sampling technique. There were 96 Yogyakarta kindergarten teachers participating as the respondents in this study. The data were collected using interview and FGD. These two instruments focused on investigating if teachers have ever included culture as the topic of their teaching, whether they can put culture as the theme and subtheme in their teaching, and which Javanese culture they can select to be the theme and subtheme. The findings show that 6 out of 96 (6.25%) teachers have ever included culture as the topic of their teaching while 90 teachers (93.75%) have never used this topic; as many as 30 teachers (31.25%) can identify culture as a big theme in their teaching while 66 teachers (68.75%) use this topic as a national subtheme; of all the topics, daily needs which include traditional food, traditional beverage, and traditional clothing become the most frequently chosen topic, selected by 24 teachers (25%). This finding can be used as a guide to using culture as a topic and theme of learning for kindergarten teachers.

Keywords – Culture, Javanese culture, teaching theme, kindergarten teaching, kindergarten students.