Tracing the roots of decolonization of the history curriculum in Indonesia

Abstract

This study aims to trace the ideas, aspirations, and practices of the decolonization of the history curriculum in Indonesia by looking back at the beginning of the 20th century. In this study, we employed digital history. The data were collected from the digitalized materials, both the primary and secondary sources. The data were corroborated and analyzed. We found that there was a gradual shift in the history curriculum at school. Initially, the history subject was focused on the history of the fatherland or the history of the Netherlands. Due to several ideas and aspirations, the history of the Netherlands East Indie was being taught at schools even though the emphasis was on the cultural history and the perspective was mostly Eurocentric. We found that the colonial government tried to depoliticize the history curriculum in public schools, meanwhile, the indigenous private schools had their own history curriculum in a way that challenged the Eurocentric knowledge.