Although it is believed that letting learners explore mathematics within their cultural contexts is an effective way to teach and learn the subject and helps them understand its relevance in daily life, there is a limited understanding of the opportunities and challenges associated with using the ethnomathematics program as a pedagogical tool for mathematics education. Consequently, the purpose of this review was to provide evidence-based insights into the opportunities that learners have when utilizing the ethnomathematics program as a learning tool, as well as the challenges that mathematics teachers encounter when using it as a pedagogical tool. This review included 38 articles from Scopus, JSTOR, EBSCOhost, and ProQuest. Upon analysis, the articles revealed that the opportunities of using the ethnomathematics program as a learning tool include, among others, augmenting conceptual understanding, enhancing mathematics achievement, inculcating sustainable development skills, supporting income generation and poverty alleviation, instilling cultural values, and reinforcing change and transformation. Meanwhile, the challenges that mathematics teachers face include, among others, the scarcity of local instructional materials, unclear curriculum guidelines and teacher policies, their perceptions and knowledge, cultural authenticity and appropriation, and assessment and evaluation using cultural knowledge. The findings emphasize the need to incorporate the ethnomathematics program into mathematics education curricula and train mathematics teachers accordingly to utilize it as a pedagogical approach. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.
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