Indigenous pedagogy and collective leadership: Community-based climate mitigation education in Karampuang, Indonesia

Indigenous pedagogies can inform climate action but remain marginal to community development. This phenomenological study examined how Ade’ Eppae collective leadership in Karampuang, South Sulawesi, embeds climate mitigation education in cosmology, customary rules, rituals, and everyday practices. Eight participants (four customary officeholders, a village head, two elders, and a youth representative) were recruited purposively. Data included interviews (approximately 400 minutes), four observation episodes (approximately 32 hours), a local monograph, and Sinjai Regency Regulation No. 1/2019. Analysis combined phenomenological procedures with inductive thematic coding. Five themes emerged: cosmology and collective leadership; paseng as an ecological code; ritual as a community curriculum; gendered and intergenerational knowledge transmission; and selective integration of customary, Islamic, and scientific knowledge. Findings position collective leadership as a pedagogical institution and ritual as a place-based curriculum, with women and youth sustaining knowledge transmission. Community climate education should engage customary institutions, local practices, and participatory policy.