Abstract
Schools are not “innocent” sites of cultural transmission. They play an active and significant role in transmitting values and inculcating culture. Schools also serve as a site for the maintenance of boundaries and for the construction of identities. Previous studies have recognized the relationship between education and identity. Building on existing literature, this study examines the ways in which Christian schools can be a site for the construction and maintenance of religious, ethnic and class identities of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. The study surveys four prestigious “Chinese” Christian schools in Jakarta. Through a brief but thorough profiling of the schools, the study explores the complexity of and identifies issues associated to religion, ethnicity and class, in relations to Chinese-Indonesians and the Indonesian society at large.
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Notes
It should be acknowledged that the identification of a Christian school as “Chinese” is problematic because all Chinese schools (or more precisely, Chinese-medium schools) were closed down since 1965, after which ethnic Chinese students entered either state or private schools with a national curriculum. “Chinese Christian schools” here refer not to Christian schools with a Chinese curriculum but those that are owned by ethnic Chinese and attended predominantly by ethnic Chinese students. When referring to the context of Indonesia, this paper uses the terms “Chinese”, “ethnic Chinese” and “Chinese-Indonesians” interchangeably to refer to Indonesians of Chinese descent.
This article is the result of the findings in an earlier stage of an ongoing research on Chinese Christian schools in Indonesia, for which the author conducted fieldwork in Jakarta over an intermittent period of 8 weeks between 2009 and 2010. The larger project deploys fieldwork techniques of participant observation, interviews, focus group discussions and classroom and school yard ethnography to examine the complex relationships between religion, ethnicity and class in faith schools. This article is derived from materials collected in the “survey” stage of the research.
For further details, see www.schooloftomorrow.com.
Due to ethical considerations, pseudonyms are used for schools and informants to protect their identity and confidentiality.
The historical overview documented here is derived from annual reports and anniversary magazines of the church and the school.
By December 1949, the Dutch government has given a diplomatic recognition of a sovereign and independent Indonesia as represented by the RIS (Republik Indonesia Serikat).
Pancasila is the state ideology of Indonesia, which consists of five principles: the belief in one supreme God, humanism, nationalism, popular sovereignty and social justice.
The term “calling” synonymous to “vocation” originates from the Christian concept of being selected by God for a particular occupation.
The term “fundamental” is used in the school’s hiring statement when describing its faith: “The school might be considered ‘fundamental’ from the point of view of basic Christian truth”.
Christopher Bjork’s research on a Chinese Catholic school in East Java attests to this assertion, as he observes, “The high monthly fees prevented many [pribumi] families from even considering sending their children to St. Timothy’s. Religion might also have deterred students from applying to St. Timothy’s. In a country that is roughly 90% Muslim, many families might have viewed a Catholic school education as an unappealing option (Bjork 2002: 471).
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Acknowledgments
This study was funded through a research grant (C242/MSS8S011) from the Office of Research, Singapore Management University. It contributes to the research conducted under an Australia Research Council Discovery Grant project on Education for a Tolerant and Multicultural Indonesia, in which the author is a partner investigator along with Professor Lyn Parker and Dr Raihani in the team. Special thanks go to all the informants for showing me various kindnesses during my fieldwork and to Jean Bernard Sampson for tirelessly proofreading the manuscript. Any outstanding flaws in this essay are wholly my own.
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Hoon, CY. Mapping ‘Chinese’ Christian schools in Indonesia: ethnicity, class and religion. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 12, 403–411 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-010-9144-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-010-9144-7