Multisite ethnography of transnational experiences of border school students: Culture, identity, and citizenship

Jagad Aditya Dewantara
Universitas Tanjungpura, Indonesia
Dasim Budimansyah, Kokom Komalasari, Cecep Darmawan
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia
Wibowo Heru Prasetiyo
Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia
Sulistyarini
Universitas Tanjungpura, Indonesia

Schools play a crucial role in shaping the understanding of local identity, citizenship, and culture to counteract the negative impacts of transnationalism. This study aims to understand kinship systems, explore social dynamics, identity, and citizenship of students along with the factors that influence them, and review existing educational strategies in Indonesian-Malaysian border schools, especially for Dayak and Malay ethnic students. Previous findings suggest that local cultural preservation programs must be revised and may even reinforce transnational identities. Through a multisite-ethnography approach, this research focuses on the Entikong, Aruk, Sambas and Jagoi Babang Districts, strategically chosen as migrants' entry points and status as home to the Dayak-Malay tribes with cross-border kinship ties in West Kalimantan. Data collection involved direct observation, in-depth interviews, and school document analysis. The research findings reveal students' perspectives on transnationalism, the impact of circular migration, place attachment, and kinship ties on their national identity, as well as the effectiveness of educational programs in mitigating the negative impacts of transnationalism. Our research aspires to uncover more effective educational strategies to strengthen local identity and citizenship among students at the border, contributing to inclusive and adaptive educational policies in response to the complexity of the transnational social environment.
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Authors: Jagad Aditya Dewantara (corresponding author) 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 Professor Dr Dasim Budimansyah (corresponding author) is a professor at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia with expertise in the sociology of citizenship education. He also serves as the Director of the Global Citizenship Education Cooperation Center (GCC) Indonesia, focusing on global citizenship education and developing multicultural awareness. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0240-4901 Email: budimansyah@upi.edu Professor Kokom Komalasari is a lecturer in Civic Education at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, specialising in contextual learning and Living Values Education. She developed the Green Living Values Project to foster ecological citizenship within Education for Sustainable Development, and a Moodle-based blended learning model to enhance digital citizenship in the digital era. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6370-5639 Email: kokom@upi.edu Professor Cecep Darmawan is a lecturer in civic education at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. He is a specialist in the fields of politics, citizenship, and law. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3865-542X Email: cecepdarmawan@upi.edu Dr 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 Professor 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 Please cite as: Dewantara, J. A., Budimansyah, D., Komalasari, K., Darmawan, C., Prasetiyo, W. H. & Sulistyarini (2025). Multisite ethnography of transnational experiences of border school students: Culture, identity, and citizenship. Issues in Educational Research, 35(4), 1449-1469. http://www.iier.org.au/iier35/dewantara.pdf