Militaristic discourse in secondary education history textbooks during and after the Soeharto Era

• Published in: Journal of educational media, memory, and society Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 36 - 53
• Main Author: Purwanta, Hieronymus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Berghahn Journals 22-03-2017; Berghahn Books, Inc
• Subjects: Critical discourse analysis; Discourse Analysis; Education history; Educational aspects; Foreign Countries; Geschichte (Histor); Geschichtsunterricht; Government; High school textbooks; Historical Interpretation; Historical text analysis; History education; History Instruction; Indonesien; Militarism; Militarismus; Military aspects; National Curriculum; Political discourse; Politics of Education; Schulbuch; Secondary Education; Social studies textbooks; Sociocultural factors; Textbook Content; Textbook Research; Textbooks; War; Indonesia
• ISSN: 2041-6946; 2041-6938; 2041-6946
• DOI: 10.3167/jemms.2017.090103

This study examines the year-to-year development of militaristic discourse in Indonesian secondary education history textbooks since 1975. Historical descriptions written since the fall of Soeharto's military regime and its replacement by a civilian government in 1998 tend to emphasize Indonesia's military history and pay little attention to its civilian leadership. To what degree did political change influence the production of historical discourse in recent textbooks in Indonesia? This article attempts to answer this question by applying Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to textual sources, in order to expose their historical and socio-cultural dimensions. The results show that in the post-Soeharto era, militaristic perspectives continue to dominate discourse production in history textbooks, denying the role of civilian leadership. This glorification of the military demonstrates that the Indonesian army continues to influence the country's history textbook production in the modern era.