Bridging homes and classrooms: advancing students’ capabilities

Abstract

This paper investigates the capabilities of remote rural teachers in Indonesia’s Probolinggo Regency to make meaningful pedagogic connections between students’ homes and their classrooms. The term capabilities is derived from Sen’s to Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, which refers to substantive freedom or opportunities that a person holds to do and to be a certain thing that he or she considers valuable. Informed by the capabilities approach (CA), the study involved classroom observations, teacher interviews and examination of Indonesian curriculum documents (teachers’ syllabi and lesson plans). Making connections between homes and classrooms enables students to critically engage in their learning and makes knowledge more meaningful in terms of solving real-life issues or problems. Teachers need to accommodate ‘local’ knowledge that exists in homes and communities thereby strengthening relationships between communities and schools; something synonymous with social justice aspects of the CA. Data generated for the study indicate that teachers encounter significant impediments in making connections between homes (communities) and classrooms (schools). In addition, while participants demonstrate that they are in part committed to the notions of ‘connections’ and ‘inclusivity’, their classroom practices still need strengthening in their adherence to the general substance of the CA.