“Totto-Chan: the Little Girl at the Window” by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi Based on Paulo Freire’S Perspective
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PANYONARA: Journal of English Education Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2020 DOI: 10.19105/panyonara.v2i1.3127 AN ANALYSIS OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES IN “TOTTO-CHAN: THE LITTLE GIRL AT THE WINDOW” BY TETSUKO KUROYANAGI BASED ON PAULO FREIRE’S PERSPECTIVE Jamaluddin1 1English Teaching Learning Program, Tarbiyah Faculty, Institut Agama Islam Negeri Madura ([email protected]) Abd. Ghofur2 2English Teaching Learning Program, Tarbiyah Faculty, Institut Agama Islam Negeri Madura ([email protected]) Abstract: The novel "Totto Chan: The Little Girl at the Window" is a novel in which some parts of its story reflect the concept of education that is unique and different. The concept of education in this novel related to an educational value according to Paulo Freire’s perspective. Therefore, this research is mainly purposed to search about what are the educational values found in "Totto Chan: The Little Girl at the Window"? and how educational values appear in "Totto Chan: The Little Girl at the Window" based on Paulo Freire’s perspective? This research is a qualitative one by using the content analysis method. Two data sources were chosen, the primary data source is the novel its- self and the secondary data are books, literature, official websites, and other relevant materials. In general, the result found 52 educational values contained in the novel, and 28 educational values based on Paulo Freire’s perspective. Those are divided into 6 points: liberating education, pedagogy of the oppressed, dialogic education, the concept of conscientization, contextual education and critical education. Through this research, it is expected that teachers can implement the positive things that exist in this study and in the novels at school and also encourage students’ interest in literature. Keywords: Educational Value; Literature; Novel; Paulo Freire First Received: Final Proof Received: (March 11, 2020) (March 20, 2020) INTRODUCTION The RI Constitution No. 20 in 2003 about National Education System (UU Sistem Pendidikan Nasional) explains that, education was a conscious and deliberate effort to create an atmosphere of learning and the learning process so that learners are actively developing the potential for them to have the spiritual strength of religious, self-control, personality, intelligence, noble character, and skills needed by them, society, nation and state (Undang-Undang Nomor 20 tahun 2003, 2003). The reality of education in Indonesia apparently is not as beautiful as the education purposes the government declared. It is not only in Indonesia, education in many parts of the world seemed to lose the spirit of 'freedom' in its implementation. Since elementary school, students was designed to be same each-others. Their dresses, books 31 Jamaluddin, and Abd. Ghofur, An Analysis of Educational Values in ... and what is taught was the same. It seems that the students led to think the same way each other. The teacher becomes a kind of conductor that connects knowledge with the students. As a recipient of knowledge, students only served to listen, do what the habits of 'good' and behave as expected of them. Education is like the factory, which produces educational products through educational machines that completely rigid. Education is often practiced as a series of instructions from the teacher to the student. So, education with a model like this will produce a ready-made men required by the headhunter. All students are considered equal in this kind of education model, though each student has a uniqueness and different potentials. Paulo Freire saw this phenomenon as the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed. Freire assumed that education must be a path of permanent liberation, and he acknowledged that the process consists of two stages. First, human beings become conscious (aware) about the persecution that happened to him; he should run praxis to change the state of the oppressed. Second, build stability based on what has been done in the first stage; this stage is a permanent process that is filled with cultural actions that liberate (Dale & Hyslop-Margison, 2010). The thought of Paulo Freire supported indirectly by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. Through her novel entitle Totto Chan: A Little Girl at The Window, Tetsuko shows a description of the lives of students named Totto Chan that are limited by the existing education system. If we correlate it with the thought of Freire, Totto Chan in this novel as the oppressed and the teacher in her old school and also the educational system is the oppressor. In this research, the researcher will analyze a novel entitled “Totto- Chan: The Little Girl at The Window” by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi by using Paulo Freire’s perspective about educational value. There are some reasons why the researcher picks up this novel to analyze. First, the researcher think that by reading this novel the readers will know the educational value contained in this novel. Second, the readers will know the educational value in this novel based on Paulo Freire’s perspective. Third, the readers can increase their understanding about educational value in interesting way, by reading a novel. Finally, the readers can apply the values consist in the novel in their own lives in the real world. Therefore, An Analysis of Educational Values in “Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at The Window” by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi based on Paulo Freire’s Perspective will be very interesting to be studied. LITERATURE REVIEW Literature Literature is a rival record of what men have seen in life, what they have experience of it, what they have thought and felt about those aspects of it which have the most immediate and enduring interest for all of us (William, 1913: 10). 32 PANYONARA: Journal of English Education Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2020 Novel is one of literary works with a more or less complex plot or not pattern of even about human being, their feeling, thought, and human action (Natia, 2010: 42). Novel represents the real world and linked it into imagination world. The relation between those two worlds will bring the readers into the new world that full of stuffs. Educational Values a. Education Crow (in Natia, 2010) said that education is a process which contain some activities for an individual to social life and help continue the tradition and culture and also social institution from generation to generation. Individual and social life cannot be separated from education. Both connected and synergize each other, mutual support for the development of learners. Applying the values of society needs to be done so that education that occurred not only glued in a mere formality, but is also capable of forming individuals who are ready to interact with the community. b. Value There are some definition of value comes from references the researcher get. Kluckhohn said that values are conceptions, explicit or implicit, distinctive of an individual or characteristic of a group, of the desirable which influence the selection from available mode, means, and ends of action (Haydon, 2007: 8). Shaver and Strong said that values are our standards and principles for judging worth. They are the criteria by which we judge things to be good, worthwhile, desirable, or on other hand, bad worthless despicable (Halstead & Taylor, 2005: 5). c. Educational Values Sastrapreteja states that educational value is the cultivation and development of values in a person. Mardimadja defines the educational value as an aid to the learners to realize and experience the values and place them integral to his whole life (Mubarak, 2008). Educational values are the results of valuing process of comprehension and implementing of God and humanity values in life. So, these values will guide human knowledge and creativity appropriately. Relation between Literature and Education According to Collie and Slater, one of the aims of teaching literature is to encourage learners to feel that they can read and enjoy books on their own (Collie & Slater, 1992: 12). Reading literature can make students understand the wider world. Students do not only enjoy literature they read, the values contained in it will also be absorbed by them. Biography of Tesuko Kuroyanagi Tetsuko Kuroyanagi was born on August 9, 1933 in Tokyo, Japan and she is a famous person. She was born in Tokyo. Tetsuko Kuroyanagi is the daughter of a celebrated 33 Jamaluddin, and Abd. Ghofur, An Analysis of Educational Values in ... violinist. She becomes the chief of opera at the Tokyo College of Music and then trained in theatre at Tokyo’s Bungakuza Theatre and in New York at the Mary Tarcai Studio. Her childhood memoir, Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window has sold more than 7 million copies. With royalties from her book sales she established the Totto Foundation to train professional actors with hearing impairments. She is also the author of Totto Chan’s Children: A Goodwill Journey to the Children of the World based on her UNICEF missions (“Goodwill Ambassador | UNICEF People | UNICEF,” 2014). Paulo Freire and His Perspective Freire’s concept of education up to now remained suitable for continuously studied and developed. It is indeed a challenging idea, though expressed in a simple style, and keep it open to test its validity according to the reality of time, place, and those in which it is applied (Freire, 2004). There are six concepts of education according to Paulo Freire, they are as follow: Liberating Education Freire says that education is the most vital value to the process of human liberation. For him, education becomes a permanent path of liberation, and it is in two stages. First, education makes people aware of their oppression and through practical action to change the situation. Second, education is a process of permanent liberation of cultural action. Freire (1973: 190) says that education at this level should be a process of liberation (humanization), not taming (domestication) socially as often happens in the third world countries (such as Brazil), which is often used as educational tool to legitimize the ruler against the will of the people who are not in power.