SOCIAL ENGINEERING THROUGH EDUCATION LAW A comparative analysis of cultural policies between the Dutch and Indonesian central Government

Abstract

Studies on art education and culture are a continuing concern within academicians and politicians. Although extensive research has been carried out on the fields, few studies exist, which concern about the use of art education for cultural hegemony. This study concerns about Acehnese culture and identity. During the time of colonisation, imperialist scholar; Snouck Hurgronje had used cultural resources as the instrument to instil false cultural identity for the interest to take control over Aceh. Stepping on the Dutch’s colonialising policies, the central government of Indonesia has, as argued, used art curriculum as a hegemonic media for similar interests. This article discusses the case of art education in Acehnese by analysing the content of the text books recommended by the central government. This work is to demonstrate the representation of Acehnese cultural identity in the “Art and Culture” curriculum of schools in Aceh. I employ Freire, Hall, Apple, and Giroux thoughts to formulate the framework of this article. The aim of this paper is to understand the mechanism of the art curriculum used to nationalise local people and to uncover the scheme of cultural hegemony in Acehnese schools, Indonesia. This work significantly contributes toward understanding the relation between cultural hegemony and education