Pursuing Historical Truth: The Discourse of History Teachers in Teaching the History of 30 September Movement in Indonesia

Djono Djono,Moh Salimi,Nur Fatah Abidin,Ehsan Namaziandost

doi:10.1155/2021/2671682

Abstract

The most controversial issue in history teaching in Indonesia is the history of the 30 September Movement. History teachers have to deal with seven versions of the narrative presented in history textbooks and a bunch of pseudohistories invented by students from the Internet and social media outlets. This research analyzes the discourse of history teachers in teaching the history of the 30 September Movement in Indonesia. Critical discourse analysis based on the socio-cognitive approach was used to analyze the perception and attitudes of 25 history teachers in five cities in Indonesia. The findings of the research show two typologies of history teachers in dealing with the history of the 30 September Movement. The first is the conformist history teachers who try to accept and confirm the official history but feel confused when dealing with other narratives. The second is the objectivist history teachers who try to criticize the official narrative but are afraid to express it in the learning process. They tend to believe in one narrative to be the historical truth that closely relates to the narratives in history textbooks. Based on the findings, it can be pointed out that history teachers need an appropriate pedagogical approach that accommodates multiple narratives in teaching controversial histories such as the history of the 30 September Movement.

Highlights

Scholars as well as educators who concern about the issues of history education concur that the main objective of learning history in formal education is to instill historical consciousness
Conformist Teachers. e findings of the interviews showed two typologies of history teachers in dealing with the history of the 30 September Movement, namely, the conformist teachers and objectivist teachers. e conformist teachers tended to provide a narrative of the 30 September
Based on the results and discussion, it can be concluded there are typologies of history teachers in dealing with the history of the 30 September Movement. e findings of the research show that the first typology is the conformist history teachers who try to accept and confirm the official history but feel confused when dealing with other narratives

Summary

Introduction

Scholars as well as educators who concern about the issues of history education concur that the main objective of learning history in formal education is to instill historical consciousness. The main objectives of learning history to instill historical consciousness seem to be hard to achieve by the students Some researches, such as [14,15,16], have identified the abuse of history education in which the learning process tends to be used for legitimizing political power rather than educating people to be a good citizen. The objective of history education is to provoke nationalism, patriotism, and cultural heritage of the people [18] This becomes wrong if Education Research International the practice of history education is merely intended to legitimize the regime or to marginalize the other that threatens social cohesion and the process of conflict reconciliation and transformation [10, 11, 19]

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Conclusion