Multiculturalism in History Learning: Students’ Experiences at SMAS Tunas Markatin Jakarta
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29408/jhm.v11i4.32472Keywords:
history education, inclusive identity, multiculturalismAbstract
Ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity is a distinctive characteristic of Indonesia that can serve as both a strength and a challenge in maintaining social cohesion, particularly in schools where stereotypes, subtle discrimination, and prejudice often disrupt student interactions. This study aims to describe students’ experiences in understanding, internalizing, and practicing multicultural values through history education, as well as to assess the role of schools as transformative spaces for shaping inclusive identities. The research employed a qualitative approach with the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method, focusing on students’ subjective interpretations of their learning experiences. The participants consisted of 20 students from grade XI and XII at SMAS Tunas Markatin Jakarta as the main subjects, supported by three history teachers, the principal, and teaching documents such as syllabi, lesson plans, and textbooks. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis, and validated through triangulation, member checking, and audit trails. The findings indicate that students perceive multiculturalism not merely as the recognition of differences but as an active attitude of tolerance, empathy, and collaboration in daily life. History teachers play a pivotal role by employing multivocal strategies that incorporate contributions from diverse groups into the historical narrative, enabling students to feel their identities are acknowledged within the nation’s history. Nevertheless, challenges remain in the form of stereotypes and subtle discrimination, particularly related to dialects and cultural practices, which require continuous pedagogical interventions and inclusive school policies. This study highlights that history education plays a strategic role in fostering students’ critical awareness, social solidarity, and inclusive identity in a multicultural society.
References
Angrosino, M. (2007). Doing ethnographic and observational research. London: Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849208932.
Banks, J. A. (2008). An introduction to multicultural education (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.
Banks, J. A. (2015). Cultural diversity and education: Foundations, curriculum, and teaching (6th ed.). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315666311.
Barton, K. C., & Levstik, L. S. (2004). Teaching history for the common good. Mahwah. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410610508.
Berry, J. W. (2017). Mutual intercultural relations. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 38(6), 675–693. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2017.1372780.
Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3316/QRJ0902027.
Carretero, M., Asensio, M., & Rodríguez-Moneo, M. (Eds.). (2012). History education and the construction of national identities. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Denzin, N. K. (2012). Triangulation 2.0. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 6(2), 80–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689812437186.
Eatough, V., & Smith, J. A. (2017). Interpretative phenomenological analysis. In C. Willig & W. Stainton-Rogers (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research in psychology (pp. 193–211). London: Sage Publications.
Epstein, T. (2009). Interpreting national history: Race, identity, and pedagogy in classrooms and communities. New York: Routledge.
Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.
Gorski, P. C. (2009). What we’re teaching teachers: An analysis of multicultural teacher education coursework syllabi. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(2), 309–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.07.008.
Haryanto, T., & Zuhri, S. (2025). Pendidikan Multikultural di Indonesia Sebagai Upaya Meningkatkan Toleransi dan Pemahaman Antar Budaya. SYAIKHONA: Jurnal Magister Pendidikan Agama Islam, 3(1), 32-47. https://doi.org/10.59166/syaikhona.v3i1.286.
Hoon, C. Y. (2013). Putting religion into multiculturalism: Conceptualising religious multiculturalism in Indonesia. Asian Ethnicity, 14(4), 485–502. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2012.710074.
Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2009). InterViews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Merry, M. S. (2013). Equality, citizenship, and multicultural education. Multicultural Education Review, 5(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/2005615X.2013.11102866.
Nieto, S. (2010). The light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities (10th anniversary ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.
Parekh, B. (2000). Rethinking multiculturalism: Cultural diversity and political theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research & evaluation methods (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Phillion, J., He, M. F., & Connelly, F. M. (2005). Narratives of multicultural education: Windows into classrooms and cultures. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Shinebourne, P. (2011). The theoretical underpinnings of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis, 22(1), 16–31.
Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory, method and research. London: Sage Publications.
Smith, J. A., & Osborn, M. (2015). Interpretative phenomenological analysis as a useful methodology for research on the lived experience of pain. British Journal of Pain, 9(1), 41–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/2049463714541642.
Suparlan, P. (2002). Menuju masyarakat multikultural. Jakarta: LP3ES.
Tilaar, H. A. R. (2004). Multikulturalisme: Tantangan-tantangan global masa depan dalam transformasi pendidikan nasional. Jakarta: Grasindo.
Tracy, S. J. (2013). Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Wibowo, A. (2018). Pendidikan multikultural sebagai upaya membangun kohesi sosial. Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan, 7(1), 12–22.
Wulandari, R. (2020). Pendidikan sejarah kontekstual untuk membangun kesadaran kebangsaan. Jurnal Pendidikan Sejarah, 9(1), 55–66.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Andi Andi, Agus Mulyana, Wawan Darmawan, Murdiyah Winarti
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
All writings in this journal are the full responsibility of the author. Jurnal Humanitas provides open access to benefit anyone with valuable information and findings. Jurnal Humanitas can be accessed free of charge at no cost, following the creative commons license. Authors who publish articles in the Jurnal Humanitas must comply with the following conditions:
The author retains the copyright and grants the right of first publication with the work licensed simultaneously under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license, allowing others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors may make additional separate contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the published journal version of the work (for example, posting it to an institution or publishing it in a book), acknowledging its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (for example, on institutional repositories or websites) before and during the submission process, resulting in a productive exchange and earlier and more extensive citations of the published work.
All articles in this journal are the sole responsibility of the author. Jurnal Humanitas provides open access to benefit anyone with valuable information and findings. Jurnal Humanitas can be accessed and downloaded for free, following the creative commons license.
Jurnal Humanitas: Katalisator Perubahan dan Inovator Pendidikan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
