Ethnopedagogy for strengthening anti-corruption values and integrity: A culturally responsive pathway toward quality education and strong institutions

Corruption undermines democratic governance and the goals of Quality Education and Strong Institutions in Indonesia, as reflected in the country’s low Corruption Perception Index score. Existing anti-corruption education tends to rely on normative-cognitive delivery, which has limited impact on ethical internalization. To address this gap, this study positions ethnopedagogy rooted in local wisdom as a culturally meaningful approach to strengthening integrity and anti-corruption values, making the intervention more contextually aligned with socially accountable educational practices. This research explores how ethnopedagogy is applied in anti-corruption education and the factors influencing student character formation. Using a qualitative ethnographic design, data were collected through interviews with 15 participants (school principals, students, and community leaders) in the Mataraman cultural region of East Java and analyzed using an interactive technique supported by NVivo. The findings show that Scouting activities, honest canteen programs, and vlog competitions integrate Javanese values such as tata krama (etiquette) and srawung (social harmony) to cultivate honesty and responsibility, contributing to value-driven learning consistent with the development of strong civic ethics. This study demonstrates the potential of ethnopedagogy contributes to advancing SDG 4 (Quality Education) through culturally relevant character education and SDG 16 (Strong Institutions) by strengthening integrity and anti-corruption awareness among students.