Social and cultural agency in the practice of anti-intolerance and radicalism education in religion-based high schools

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the role of Bourdieu‘s socio-cultural agency in the practice of multiculturalism in a Religious-Based High School in the City of Surakarta. The research process uses qualitative methods with a case study approach. The results show that agencies (curriculum, educators, media, and learning strategies) have a role in the practice of multiculturalism in schools that should create conditions that are tolerant and far from radicalism. However, this contradicts existing practices. Schools are actually used as a place to include values and norms related to the understanding that has become a Doxa (erroneous) in the school environment. Doxa is an understanding that has conquered the conditions and social settings that exist in the school environment. The role of social and cultural agencies in schools shows that the influence of school elites acts as an agent for the cultivation of values and knowledge related to tolerance towards others in conditions of diversity through school education and is top-down from the school elite.