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Living Together in a Religious Plural Society: Indonesian Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions on Citizenship, Identity & Religious Tolerance

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Living Together in a Religious Plural Society: Indonesian Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions on Citizenship, Identity & Religious Tolerance View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ResearchArchive at Victoria University of Wellington LIVING TOGETHER IN A RELIGIOUS PLURAL SOCIETY: INDONESIAN TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON CITIZENSHIP, IDENTITY & RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE BEN K. C. LAKSANA A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education Victoria University of Wellington 2014 Acknowledgements There are a number of people without whom this thesis might not have been written and to whom I am greatly indebted. First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisor, Bronwyn Wood, for her constant, never ceasing support and encouragement. Having her as my mentor this past year has pushed me to develop not only my meagre writing skills but also expand my knowledge on matters I have never thought of or even heard of. I am extremely grateful of having such a caring and knowledgeable supervisor such as her. My research would not have taken place were it not for the teachers and students of the three case study schools. Thank you for your time to take part in the interviews. To my mom, my brother and sister, I thank you for all the long-distance support that you have given me throughout my stay here in New Zealand. My work here is done, on to the next. Many thanks to my friends here in Wellington: Rose, Ross, Rosie, Rosa, Hadleigh, Louise, Elli, Elle, Jon, John, Caitlyn, Dylan, Emir, Keni, Ardya, Henry, Bryan, Ren, Aaron, Tapuwa, Art and Mba Dwi. Thank you for all the childish laughs, the beautiful food, the late night talks and the shoulders to cry on. It’s been a fun ride but it’s time to go home. I would like to thank the NZ Aid Scholarship for giving me the chance to study here in New Zealand. I hope I come home not only as a better scholar but a better person as well. To Rara, thank you. For her unwavering love, her endless patience, the hours-long Skype chat as I toil through the night, lamenting on my quarter-life crisis and my broodings on life. Thank you will never be enough. And last I would like to thank my dad, wherever you are, thank you for the initial support and the hard earned wisdom that you have given to me even if you are no longer here. i Abstract This study investigates Indonesian secondary school teachers’ and students’ perceptions of citizenship, religion and religious tolerance. It explores how participants negotiate their citizenship and religious identities, and looks at how religious tolerance is understood and defined. The study involves religious education and citizenship teachers (n=8) and students (n=20) from three different schools in Jakarta, Indonesia. The schools were purposely selected to represent a range of philosophical approaches to religion and included a Madrasah, a private school and a public school. This study discovered that both teachers and students intertwined their religious and citizenship identities to produce a form of ‘religious citizenship’. The study also found that both teachers and students generally saw religious tolerance as a necessity to manage inter-religious relations. Many of the strategies teachers employed, which were also supported by curriculum documents, overlooked the complexity of inter-religious identities and in particular, the equality of minority religious groups. Most teachers perceived religious tolerance through an exclusivist view whereby religious tolerance was limited to social tolerance, while many student participants provided more progressive and inclusive definitions of religious tolerance that often reflected their lived experiences of engaging in inter-religious relations. In conclusion, the study argues that both teachers and students constantly negotiate their citizenship and religious identities in order to find ways to live together in a religiously plural society such as Indonesia. While students and teachers in this study agreed that finding ways to promote and sustain inter-religious harmony in Indonesia was a high priority, many challenges relating to the teaching and practice of religious tolerance in Indonesia still remain. ii Table of contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ i Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Table of contents ............................................................................................................... iii List of tables..................................................................................................................... vii Glossary and abbreviations ........................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 1.1 Overview ........................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Understanding religious tolerance .................................................................... 6 1.3 Research aim & questions ................................................................................. 8 1.4 Personal incentive for research ......................................................................... 9 1.5 Thesis structure ................................................................................................. 9 CHAPTER 2: CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND OF RESEARCH ...........................11 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................11 2.2 Freedom of religion in Indonesia .....................................................................11 2.3 Indonesia’s education system .......................................................................... 13 2.3.1 Contextual background of Indonesia’s national curriculum ............ 14 2.3.2 Contextual background of Islamic schools ...................................... 18 2.3.3 Contextual background of citizenship education and religious in the national curriculum ................................................................................... 20 2.4 The current Indonesian National Curriculum: Religious and Citizenship Education .............................................................................................................. 22 2.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK . 26 3.1 Chapter Introduction ....................................................................................... 26 3.3 Descriptions of citizenship and identity .......................................................... 27 iii 3.3.1 Religious citizenship ........................................................................ 31 3.4 Conceptual framework for religious education ............................................... 33 3.5 Chapter Conclusion ......................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLGY .................................................................................... 37 4.1 Chapter introduction ....................................................................................... 37 4.2 Research paradigm .......................................................................................... 37 4.3 Qualitative approach ....................................................................................... 38 4.4 Selecting case study schools ........................................................................... 38 4.4.1 Description of case study schools .................................................... 39 4.4.1.1 Jakarta Madrasah High ..................................................... 40 4.4.1.2 Jakarta Public High ........................................................... 42 4.4.1.3 Jakarta National High ....................................................... 42 4.4.2 Description of participants from each school .................................. 45 4.5 Data collection methods .................................................................................. 47 4.5.1 Semi-structured Interviews .............................................................. 47 4.5.2 Focus Groups ................................................................................... 47 4.5.3 Secret Box Activity .......................................................................... 49 4.5.4 Secondary Data ................................................................................ 49 4.6 Data analysis methods..................................................................................... 50 4.7 Trustworthiness and Integrity ......................................................................... 52 4.8 Ethical Considerations .................................................................................... 53 4.9 Limitations of study ........................................................................................ 53 CHAPTER 5: SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS CITIZENSHIP, RELIGION AND IDENTITY ......... 55 5.1 Chapter introduction ....................................................................................... 55 iv 5.2. The role of religion .......................................................................................
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