The representation of colonial discourse in Indonesian secondary education history textbooks during and after the New Order (1975–2013)

Abstract

This study aimed to analyse the text and context of history textbooks that established Dutch colonialism as a determinant factor in the New Order era and later. Two research questions were postulated: (1) Why was the discourse of colonisation maintained in textbooks after the proclamation of independence in 1945? (2) How was the colonial discourse represented in secondary education history textbooks from the six national curriculum reforms? To answer these questions, this study analysed secondary education history textbooks used during five periods of different national curricula from 1975 to 2013. The analysis was conducted using Teun A. van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The results show that modern professional historians were the producers of the colonial discourse that was reproduced by the textbook writers. These historians established western culture as the ideal model of sociocultural life and constructed Indonesian history as a westernisation process using Dutch colonialism as a determinant factor. Indonesians were narrated into being passive objects.