School teachers, national identity and an Indonesian-Malaysian border community: A case study in Entikong

Jagad Aditya Dewantara, Sulistyarini
Universitas Tanjungpura, Indonesia
Wibowo Heru Prasetiyo
Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia
Efriani, Dwi Riyanti, Afandi and Maria Ulfah
Universitas Tanjungpura, Indonesia

The concept of national identity in the nation-state is influenced by ethno-cultural identity. However, the decline in understanding and awareness among the younger generation in Indonesia has led to a national identity crisis, especially in the border areas. This research becomes a pioneer study investigating the forms and teachers' involvement in strengthening students' national identities at the border areas. The ethnographic approach reveals the depth of teachers' involvement, including students and school communities on the Indonesia-Malaysia border. This study shows that teachers' involvement is mainly through cultural festival activities, in which ethno-cultural identities that contain knowledge of ethnic groups in Indonesia are introduced. The teacher's success brings psychological changes shown in students' awareness and behaviour. This study provides insights and solutions that can be used to reduce the impact of the crisis and reflect views related to national identity. As input, ethno-cultural identity is paramount to strengthen the concept of national identity in the nation-state, especially for the younger generation.
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Authors: Jagad Aditya Dewantara is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Civic Education at Universitas Tanjungpura, Indonesia. His research relates to racial and ethnic topics, citizenship studies, nationality, ethnology, and the anthropology of citizenship. He is Head of Study Center of Ethnic, Racial, and Cultural Heritage, Universitas Tanjungpura. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3734-4283 Email: jagad02@fkip.untan.ac.id Dr Sulistyarini is a lecturer in the Department of Civic Education at Universitas Tanjungpura, Pontianak, Indonesia. Her research interests are in character education, social education and citizenship education. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0770-9285 Email: sulistyarini@fkip.untan.ac.id Wibowo Heru Prasetiyo (corresponding author) is a lecturer in the Department of Civic Education at Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia. His research is focused on character education, citizenship education, digital citizenship, moral education and ecological citizenship. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9146-063X Email: whp823@ums.ac.id Efriani is an anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology at Universitas Tanjungpura, Indonesia, and a member of the Study Center of Ethnic, Racial, and Cultural Heritage, Universitas Tanjungpura. She is a lecturer and researcher who is interested in cultural studies, and issues of border communities. She has experience in conducting ethnography on ethnicity in the border areas between Indonesia and Malaysia. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1087-9429 Email: efriani@fisip.untan.ac.id Dr Dwi Riyanti completed her PhD study in 2017 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. She has been teaching English since 2005 in the Department of English Language Education, University of Tanjungpura, Indonesia. Her research interests are in the areas of English teacher education, English language teaching and learning, language learning strategies, and English language teacher identity. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4140-3637 Email: dwi.riyanti@fkip.untan.ac.id Afandi is a lecturer and educational researcher in the Department of Biology Education at Universitas Tanjungpura, Indonesia, and a member of the Center for the Study of Ethnic, Racial, and Cultural Heritage, Universitas Tanjungpura. He is interested in 21st century educational studies and ethnoscience research in biology learning, and is experienced in conducting studies on the use of ethnoscience in the field of education. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3172-1797 Email: afandi@fkip.untan.ac.id Maria Ulfah is a lecturer in the Department of Economics Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, UniversitasTanjungpura, Pontianak, Indonesia. Email: maria.ulfah@fkip.untan.ac.id Please cite as: Dewantara, J. A., Sulistyarini, Prasetiyo, W. H., Efriani, Riyanti, D., Afandi & Ulfah, M. (2023). School teachers, national identity and an Indonesian-Malaysian border community: A case study in Entikong. Issues in Educational Research, 33(2), 510-528. http://www.iier.org.au/iier33/dewantara.pdf