A policy for professionalization or professionalism?
Introduction
The teaching workforce in Indonesia has for very long been seen as unique for two main reasons. First, because becoming teacher generally means willingness to abide the higher ascribed cultural status but to earn lower payment than many other occupations. Second, because Indonesian government regards teaching as no more important than any other jobs. Indeed, only recently, through the enactment of Law on Teachers and Lecturers Year 2005, teachers are officially stated as professionals. This paper argues that the national education policy to boost teachers’ professional development through the In-Service Teachers Certification reflects professionalization more than professionalism. These two words often used as synonym and sometimes when they are conceptually seen as different they are variously defined. The author specifically refers to Hoyle’s (2001, p. 146) description of professionalization as ‘the pursuit of status’ while professionalism as ‘enhancement of the quality of service’. The social, cultural, as well as political context of teaching in Indonesia and the objectives and on going implementation of the In-Service Teachers Certification are discussed to see the possible outcomes in regard to the concept of professionalization or professionalism.
Teaching in Indonesian Context
Very few teachers in Indonesia, the author believes, do not find themselves always on the spot of people’s attention. Culturally, teachers are seen as moral guardian and source of knowledge (Lewis, 1997, p. 14). People look at teachers as being in the higher position in the hierarchy of knowledge pursuit and moral authority. People trust teachers for making their younger generations literate, educated and morally dependable. Thus, teachers traditionally get pressure not only for doing their jobs to transfer knowledge but also for behaving themselves in accordance to people perception of their high moral.
In their communities, teachers also play significant roles. Their being teachers are not limited to schools environment. People expect them to also share their knowledge and wisdom in social life. It is not unnatural to have teachers as community leaders in Indonesia. Teachers are accustomed to taking first responsibility and frequently to provide ideas for maintaining the harmony of their communities. This status of teachers in Indonesian societies put those people doing the teaching jobs in a situation where they always have to negotiate their personal needs and the needs of the communities, not only when they are at work but also when they are out of work. Many teachers eventually live in the middle of the continuum between personal and communal lives. Not many teachers are able to differentiate what are good for themselves only and what are good for the communities only because everything seems intermingled. This is probably the reason why the number of teachers leaving their jobs or taking other career steps is comparatively lower than other countries (Basikin, 2007, p.1). Teachers know they are not well paid but they feel they make good sacrifice for the welfare of their communities.
For very long time after the Indonesian independent, teachers were seen more as political agents than as educational agents. The Old Order as well as New Order Regime assigned teachers with some political agenda like being the promoters of the unity of the nation and the spoke persons for the national ideology. Both regimes paid many teachers as civil servants. In the New Order era, the government emphasized the teachers’ being civil servants rather than educators and it created a teaching culture where being faithful followers of their superiors’ instructions was more appreciated than being competent teachers (Bjork, 2004, p. 252). In this political context, Government provided the curriculum and teachers implemented them without protest; Even government controlled the teachers union and teachers training; Teachers were evaluated more on their contributions outside their classrooms that they shared an understanding that what they were teaching were not the government concerns (Bjork, 2004, p. 257). Teachers became functionaries of the state (Graham, 1998, p. 9) since the nation considered them as helpful to strengthen its power and authority but not as group of professionals that can self-manage themselves and contribute to wider purposes.
Teachers in Indonesian social, cultural, and political context are group of people that are trapped in between the opposing demands of being individuals who pursue their own happiness and of being parts of communal societies that expect them to eagerly forfeit their being individuals whenever they have to for the sake of the goodness of the community; and in between the opposing demands of being competent educators and of faithful government agents. It is not surprising that people seem not to worry too much on the outcomes of their children education; teachers themselves look as if they do their jobs for the sake of routines; and the government appears to neglect the professional development of teachers because teachers, communities, and the nation are involved in making teaching jobs fragile for too many interest outside the scope of education. On a research report on teachers’ absenteeism in 2002 to 2003, it is revealed that from Indonesian 19 % rate of teachers absenteeism annually, 45 % is without any reasons (Usman, Akhmadi, and Suryadarma, 2004, p. iii). It shows that many teachers were still unable to fulfil the least requirement of their profession; to be in their classroom on their teaching times. This of course serves as bad role model for new teaching workforce (Toh, Diong, Boo, Hong-Kwen and Chia, 1996, p. 232).
Recent Educational Policies
Consisted of 33 provinces and 440 districts and municipals, Indonesia faces huge challenges in coordinating its teaching workforce. Indonesia always finds it really difficult to guaranty the sufficient supply for teachers for all parts of the nation and to ensure that the qualification and competence gap between teachers in urban, sub urban and rural areas is not widening. In order to immediately supply teachers for regions lack of teaching workforce and to maintain ratio of student-teacher, there were times when applicants were made easy to become teachers regardless of their qualification and competence. In 2006, there were 2.7 million teachers around Indonesia and student-teacher ratios are: 18:1 for Elementary Schools, 12:1 for Junior High Schools, and 11:1 for Senior High Schools. However, the statistics also shows that 84.70 % or 1.140. 836 of Elementary School Teachers, 39.66 % or 244.437 of Junior High School Teachers, 17.39 % or 46.517 of Senior High School Teachers, and 24.46 % or 49.389 of Senior High Vocational Schools Teachers do not have bachelor or S1 degree. (Education Statistics, Ministry of National Education).
It is clear that due to the above problems Indonesia belongs to what OECD calls as countries with greatest difficulties since at the same time Indonesia needs to provide enough teaching workforce therefore it attracts as many candidates as possible and to ensure that those prospective teachers as well as current teachers have the required skills to become competent teachers (OECD, 2002, p. 66). In 1999 through the issuance of Law no 22 on Local Governance, the government started all efforts to distribute its centralized power to local governments. Since then, local authorities have exercised their autonomies in many aspects, including education. Districts and municipalities have been active to solve problems related to expanding, retaining, and improving the quality of teaching workforce but still their endeavours are only partial and unable to address the complexities of the problems.
In the year 2005, seven years after the downfall of the New Order Regime, by enacting Law no 14 on Teacher and Lecturer, the central government provided all local governments an umbrella policy for tackling various problems concerning teaching workforce. This Law immediately ignited a feeling of joy and optimism for many people, not only teachers, because it officially acknowledges teaching as profession and it requires all local government to increase teachers’ salary 100 % percent as soon as they were rewarded the educator certificate. It had been a question for many people why teachers did not deserve well payment.
Other things that not many people are aware of as consequences of the Law are: First, for getting the educator certificate, teachers must fulfil some requirements that make many of them ineligible to apply for the certificate. Second, Government needs lots of money to implement this policy therefore it needs 10 years to accomplish this project. Third, government agencies and infrastructures to support this policy are very limited in regard to the number of teachers that this policy is aimed at. Based on the Law No. 14/2005 about teachers and lecturers (UU No. 14 2005) Section IV Item No. 8 and 9 in order to realize the goal of national education, beside being healthy physically and spiritually, teachers must have academic qualification, competencies, and educator certificates. What is referred as academic qualification is a bachelor (S1) or a 4-year diploma (D4) degree. The statistics above shows that more than 1.6 out of 2.7 millions teachers are ineligible for being teachers. Even though they will not be dismissed and they have teen years to acquire the S1 or D4 degree but these teachers are surely put into more complicated situation because they have to afford the degree on their own expenses and they earn only half of the recommended national teachers’ salary before they get the educator certificate.
In-Service Teacher Certification; Objectives and Implementations
To follow up the mandate to position teachers as professionals and to ascribe them with the educator certificate, the Central Government issued Regulation No 19 Year 2005 on the National Education Standard, Ministry of Education Rule No 16 Year 2005 on Teaching Staff Qualification and Competency Standard, Regulation of the Minister of Education No 18 Year 2007 on In-service Teacher Certification through portfolio Assessment , and Regulation of the Minister of Education No 40 Year 2007 on In-service Teacher Certification through Education and Training. Those rules and regulations are the legal aspects of the In-Service Teacher Certification. Whitty (2000, p. 282) refers to this type of action as ‘professionalization’ or ‘professional project’, by which government ensures all involved in particular profession have all the required characteristics.
The rules and regulations above demand teachers who already have S1 or D4 degree to involve in all process for getting the educator certificate. They can either join the In-service Teacher Certification through portfolio Assessment or In-service Teacher Certification through Education and Training. However, teachers do not have real choice as suggested because government gives quota for each region in each certification project due to its financial limitation. In addition, teachers may have to join both types of in-service certification because when they fail in their portfolio assessment, they are highly recommended to take the education and training.
The objectives of the In-Service Teacher Certification are:
1. To fit and proper teachers in doing their jobs as the agent of learning
2. To enhance teachers professionalism
3. To boost process and outcomes of education
4. To accelerate the realization of National Education Goals
(Source: Regulation of the Minister of Education No 18 and 40 Year 2007)
These four objectives seem to address both the concepts of professionalization and professionalism as described in this paper. It looks like only the first objective is aimed at pursuing the status of teachers as professional while the remaining three are for enhancement of teachers’ quality service but the on going implementation of this policy as discussed below may prevent all stakeholders to become too optimistic in seeing the future of teaching profession.
In the year 2007, two years after the issuance of the Law, the Nominal National Education Expenditure was 135, 4 trillions from the Total Nominal National Expenditure of 785.4 trillions or 17, 2 % of Total National Expenditure. This is below what Indonesian constitution says that the minimum 20 % of national expenditure must be on national education expenditure (World Bank staff calculations base on MoF and SIKD data). In 2007, there were only 170.450 of teachers at elementary and junior high school across nation entitled the educator certificates. In 2006, the first year of the implementation, only 20.000 thousand teachers at elementary and junior high school across nation were entitled the educator certificates (http://www.sertifikasiguru.org/). Thus, they are still more than 1.5 million teachers waiting.
The time span for the accomplishment of the in-service teacher certification stated by the minister of education’s regulation is ten years, approximately 150.000 teachers every year for 1.5 million teachers who haven’t got their bachelor degree qualification. 278 teacher colleges across nation provide not enough seats for 150.000 teachers for their professional qualification upgrading because it means that at least every teacher college should have around 540 seats every year while at this moment even the biggest teacher college can only afford less than 200 students every year. To make it worse, there are only 23 teachers’ colleges plus 1 Open University assigned to cooperatively offer an in-service teacher training via distance learning mode called as HYLITE/Hybrid Learning for Indonesian Teachers in 2006-2007 (Panen, et. all. 2007, p.1). During the ten years implementation of the In-Service Teacher Certification project, the government is very likely focusing on the effectiveness of the certification process, through both portfolio assessment and education and training, so that no teachers are left behind in the project. It can be said that the government endeavours to achieve four objectives of the In-Service Certification will unavoidably focus on the first objective; To fit and proper teachers in their profession.
Professionalization or Professionalism?
The conceptual framework for the In-Service Teacher Certification project is in order to increase the quality of education in Indonesia all teaching activities in classroom must be effective; for creating teachers’ effectiveness government needs to increase teachers’ salary as incentive and teachers themselves have to develop their competencies necessary for doing their profession; educational certification is the formal document acknowledging the fit and proper of individuals in the teaching profession and a prove for their entitlement for getting the professional incentives of teachers. There are two questions to be asked regarding this conceptual framework. First, to what extent the educator certificate can be used to predict the effectiveness of teaching activities in classroom? Second, is the educator certificate an instrument for enhancing the teaching profession? Or is it in itself a final stage at the current teachers’ professional development?
Scholars may not debate on the important of teachers’ effectiveness and students’ performances as key indicators for quality teaching (Vongalis, 2005, p. 11). However, not many researches provide convincing results on the positive relation between certification project, teachers’ effectiveness in the classrooms, and students’ outcomes (Goldhaber&Brewer, 2000, Torff&Sessions, 2005, Hoyle, 2001, Ballou&Podgursky, 1998). Goldhaber and Brewer (2000, p. 130) say most researches reveal the positive relation between teachers educational background and experiences to students performance but few of them explicitly describe the influence of certification project to students performance. Torff and Sessions (2005, p. 531) argue that among the researches available on the phenomenon of teachers’ ineffectiveness, none of them focus on answering whether it is their lack of content knowledge or their lack of pedagogical knowledge that frequently cause the ineffectiveness. Therefore, there are not enough bases to confidently claim that certification is a must for improving teachers’ quality. Generally, teacher certification project emphasises on equipping teachers with adequate pedagogical skills although there are no convincing proofs that teachers with adequate content knowledge but are not certified as educators have lower performance than their counterparts who are certified as educators. Finn (1999b, p.3) argues:
…because teacher-preparation programs and state teacher-certification regulations “place low priority on deep subject matter mastery and heavy emphasis on things that colleges of education specialize in (i.e., pedagogical knowledge), many teachers get certified without having mastered the content they are expected to impart to their students”.
The complexity lies on the fact that teachers may depend on both content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge but not enough evidences to conclude which one is more important for creating teachers effectiveness and very often there are not enough time to address both knowledge in balance in certification project.
The procedures for getting the educator certificate outlined in the Rules and Regulations on In-Service Teacher Certification in Indonesia are time-consuming and indiscriminative. For obtaining the certificate through education and training the successful applicants must undergo seven steps as follow: administrative selection, academic selection, enlisted as candidate, joining the education and training, taking competencies examination, having passed the exam, getting the certificate while those candidates who have to do some remedies may undergo ten steps before finally get the certificate because they are recommended to redo the administrative selection and academic selection if they are not qualified for being the candidate for education and training and to remedy the examination until they pass. They may take the exam three times maximum. Whereas for joining the In-Service Certification through portfolio assessment, the flourishing candidates have to go through three steps as follow: portfolio assessment, having passed the assessment, getting the certificate. Once candidates’ portfolio fail the assessment, the candidates can add some more documents to the portfolio but if they fail again, they have to join professional training then take the competencies examination and still if they fail then they undergo the ten steps similar to those teachers taking the education and training type of the certification.
The procedures are indiscriminative in a sense that even teachers who graduated from teacher colleges before the enactment of the Law, they also have to undertake the same process. Their certificates as educators issued by their teacher colleges, publicly known as AKTA IV, are not valid for entitlement of their professional incentives. Ironically, the central government depends to the similar teacher colleges rather than to establish a new agency for providing the education and training as well as assessing teachers portfolios for certification. How can the central government disregard the certificate entitled to teachers who have studied in teacher colleges for four years minimum and then ask those teachers to obtain another certificate from the same teacher colleges in relatively shorter period? Those teachers certainly do all the procedures because they do not have choice. If the central government insists on implementing the procedures because of the belief that AKTA IV failed to contribute to the teachers’ effectiveness than on what base the central government now believes that the new certificate published by the consortium of 23 teacher colleges and 1 Open University will do more to create teachers’ effectiveness? It is reasonable to argue that the central government take all the risks for the sake of professionalization. All actions taken after the issuance of the Law seem to pursue the status of teachers as profession by addressing the formal requirements of professionalization, which are the enhancement of pedagogical skills through education, and training and examination rather than really changing the practices of ineffective teaching. Surprisingly, the common strategy chosen by districts and municipalities in the selection of the candidates for obtaining the educator certificates, which is so tough due to the given quota, is to prioritize teachers who are close to their retirement age, then those who have longer teaching experiences, and finally high achiever fresh teachers who have S1 or D4 degree. The consideration is perhaps to allow senior teachers to be paid doubled before they retire because for very long time they are all underpaid. If this certification project can really improve the teachers’ effectiveness, students may not get the advantages for long because soon many of those senior teachers will stop working. This certification project very likely helps teachers pursue their status as professionals but very unlikely enhances teachers’ quality service that leads to professionalism.
Conclusion
To sum up, to be happy with the central government recognition of what teachers are doing as profession is all right because it may be a good start for making huge change in the teaching practices in all schools as what Hoyle (2001, p. 149) says professionalization may create opportunities for professionalism and, conversely, deprofessionalization may constrain opportunities for professionalism. However, Indonesian teachers need to be aware that acquiring the status as professional is not enough. They have to start organizing themselves through a strong self-managed professional union and improve their professional skills in order to contribute to wider purposes of educating all human being in this world not just limited to their localities. Government needs to do lots of evaluation to ensure that the certification project can really influence teachers’ effectiveness in the classrooms and that the certification project can cover up more individuals, rather than just in-service teachers, because those individuals highly qualified and interested to become teachers are as important as in-service teachers in their potential to enhance the quality of education in Indonesia.
Word Count: 3427 words
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Sunday, May 10, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Aku adalah yang kupilih
Aku adalah apa yang kupilih
Aku teringat adagium 'aku adalah yang aku makan'
atau 'aku menjadi apa yang kupikirkan'
yang sebenarnya aku memilih yang kumakan dan kupikir
maka aku lebih menyukai perkataanku ini 'aku adalah apa yang kupilih'
Aku teringat betul
kala itu kutonton 'little house on the prairie' bukannya 'si unyil'
kubaca 'hello' bukannya 'hai'
dan sekarang aku tahu aku telah jauh hari memilih hidupku.
Aku pun teringat,sangat kuingat,
saat aku memutuskan pulang dari perantauanku mengadu nasib di Sumbawa,
meski baru sebentar saja disana,
malah belum sempat mengirimkan lamaran ke New Mount,
karena sebelumnya,
di kapal aku mendengar Iwan Fals menyanyikan lagu yang menantang pendirianku 'selamat jalan kawan, semoga kau benar'
aku memilih pulang
Aku tak melupakan, tak akan lupa,
seketika kakiku tiba di rumah, segera setelahnya aku terima jadwal mengajar,
dan aku memilih menerimanya.
Aku teringat, masih teringat,
haru biru perjuanganku memilih pendamping hidupku,
aku tak mungkin lupa,
ketika aku memilih menyerahkan anak laki pertamaku, usia dua bulan, ke dokter-dokter bedah otak.
Aku masih ingat, masih terus ingat,
doaku kepada Allah untuk mengijinkanku merawatnya kembali, apapun yang terjadi.
Aku teringat dan terus terus terus ingat aku telah memilih,
aku mengakui bahwa aku memilih dan bukan berdiam,
aku telah menjadi apa yang kupilih
dan bukan menyerah menyalahkan takdir.
Aku teringat, tak mungkin lupa, yang kupilih
Melbourne, 20 April 2009
Puisi untuk Anak Lelakiku tersayang, Senthforth Faizulhub
Senin, 2009 April 20 21:12:00 BNT
Aku teringat adagium 'aku adalah yang aku makan'
atau 'aku menjadi apa yang kupikirkan'
yang sebenarnya aku memilih yang kumakan dan kupikir
maka aku lebih menyukai perkataanku ini 'aku adalah apa yang kupilih'
Aku teringat betul
kala itu kutonton 'little house on the prairie' bukannya 'si unyil'
kubaca 'hello' bukannya 'hai'
dan sekarang aku tahu aku telah jauh hari memilih hidupku.
Aku pun teringat,sangat kuingat,
saat aku memutuskan pulang dari perantauanku mengadu nasib di Sumbawa,
meski baru sebentar saja disana,
malah belum sempat mengirimkan lamaran ke New Mount,
karena sebelumnya,
di kapal aku mendengar Iwan Fals menyanyikan lagu yang menantang pendirianku 'selamat jalan kawan, semoga kau benar'
aku memilih pulang
Aku tak melupakan, tak akan lupa,
seketika kakiku tiba di rumah, segera setelahnya aku terima jadwal mengajar,
dan aku memilih menerimanya.
Aku teringat, masih teringat,
haru biru perjuanganku memilih pendamping hidupku,
aku tak mungkin lupa,
ketika aku memilih menyerahkan anak laki pertamaku, usia dua bulan, ke dokter-dokter bedah otak.
Aku masih ingat, masih terus ingat,
doaku kepada Allah untuk mengijinkanku merawatnya kembali, apapun yang terjadi.
Aku teringat dan terus terus terus ingat aku telah memilih,
aku mengakui bahwa aku memilih dan bukan berdiam,
aku telah menjadi apa yang kupilih
dan bukan menyerah menyalahkan takdir.
Aku teringat, tak mungkin lupa, yang kupilih
Melbourne, 20 April 2009
Puisi untuk Anak Lelakiku tersayang, Senthforth Faizulhub
Senin, 2009 April 20 21:12:00 BNT
Saturday, March 21, 2009
My Piece of Life with APS
It was started with a question “have you been abroad?” It was never easy to answer when students ask me this question. Not because I could not recollect where I went, in all trips I had had so far or that I was ignorance of the geographical location of those places in the globe but because I had to admit that I was no where but in Indonesia. As an English teacher, could you imagine how unpleasant it was to say, “No, I have never been abroad”?
I promised myself a scholarship. A hard but realistic way for a low-paid civil servant like me to go overseas was to compete with hundreds or even thousands of bright individuals all across archipelago to convince the team of interviewers for getting the predicate of awardees. I made it. I got the APS Scholarship in 2007. Thank to the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs that previously I joined the International Certification of English Teachers at Indonesia-Australia Language Foundation (IALF Bali) in which I also sat for the IELTS test with the ministry’s expense. I knew I would think twice for taking IELTS test if I had to pay by my self. My monthly earning was just enough for monthly basics. When the time was right, the gate was open. The funny thing was that I told the APS interviewers exactly what I felt whenever I was asked the question “have you been abroad?” as part of my reason to further my study in Australia. I believed they were convinced by that, in addition to my 7.5 IELTS Score.
Then I was preparing myself for being away from my beloved wife and two children. My wife and I had the deal. I would go and study in Australia and my wife would stay and take care of our children. It was all for the brighter future of our family. I was occupied with the hope of being able to proudly answer, “Yes, I have been abroad” that I left my beautiful wife, my severe disabled son, and my one year old daughter who had just started calling me ‘father’.
I had all the possibilities to enrol in any universities in Australia but I chose La Trobe University in Bundoora, Melbourne for a very personal reason, its beauty. There were many two-years Educational Master programs offered in Australian Universities and I picked one of them by judging which was the most beautiful campus displayed in the internet. Luckily, La Trobe provided me more than stunning peaceful location to study. When I was just arrived at the Tullamarine Airport, a pick up chauffeur hired by La Trobe University had been waiting for me. I thought he would take me to my temporary accommodation with a yellow cab but no, he led my way to a too-expensive car for a taxi, parked near the airport. It was not all. On the same day of my arrival, I arranged a meeting with the International liaison officer of the uni and I was surprised that she had managed all of my immediate necessities for my first week living in Australia. On my first visit to the uni, I had been registered as student and I could even draw my first Australian dollar from my living allowances. It was just spectacular.
I loved all parks in Melbourne. I enjoyed commuting one and half hours from Footscray to Bundoora. First, I took tram to Footscray station then train to Flinders station and finally bus to Bundoora and all for one metcard ticket. I was always amazed by the fact that so many people representing so many cultures around the world got together nicely in Melbourne public transport. I was in a peak of excitement living in a new culture when I felt so wrong not to share this experience with my family. I knew it could be tough for me to balance my time for studying and for taking care of my family in Australia. It could be harsher indeed, if my wife and I should go to work to fill in the gap between my fortnightly stipend and my family living expense. The urge to share with my family all moments of living in Australia was untamed. I though I was not the whole person I could be without my family in my side. No matter how nice it was my life in Melbourne, it was merely a piece of life that would never become a unity of life until I had my family with me.
What a wise consideration of APS officials in Canberra to allow me alter my contract from ‘single’ to ‘with family’. Perhaps, they foresaw that I would not be able to fulfil the expectations of an AUS aid student if I kept thinking of my family back home. Elena Dagis, the IPO at La Trobe, was so professional and thoughtful. I went home that time, on my first semester holiday, with all necessary documents from the university to apply for my family visa.
My wife and I hoped for the best and prepared for the worst though. I spent most of my time that holiday to indulge my family with things they might never imagine before APS selected me as an awardee. We spent a night at a luxurious hotel in Yogyakarta. My wife wondered why I did that and I told her, “You have to experience taking a shower of hot water or lying down on the bathtub. That is part of my daily delight living in Melbourne”. Honestly, it was the easiest why to compensate to my family for the difficult time they had without me. We invited all neighbours for religious congregation and we prepared for them two goats for the barbecue. We asked them to pray for our family visa application. Three weeks before my second departure to Melbourne we got the letter from the Australian embassy telling that my son could not get the visa. It seemed like we knew that this was what would happen to us that we generated plan b. We learnt to drive and we bought a used car. By the time I flew back to Melbourne, my wife was already a confident driver and I knew I had done my best to ease her worries taking care of our children by herself. Six months of my life with APS, things had changed a lot.
Many thanks again to APS Officials in Jakarta and Canberra that I could once again adjust my contract from ‘with family’ to ‘single’. This status entitled me for a ‘reunion fee’ in the form of a return ticket when I had finished my second semester. What else could I expect? I made myself busy reading new collections of books on Educational Leadership and Management and writing opinions for an international English newspaper The Jakarta Post. I deserved a new attribute on my second semester with APS, a part time journalist. I remembered well how proud I was googling my name and I found my name on many sites. I never knew what an online article could do until after The Jakarta Post published my article online. I also got email from APS director in Jakarta appreciating my writing on the newspaper. Until now, I could not really apprehend how all this could happen. I never sent any writing to any newspapers before and the first time I sent my article to the most reputable English newspaper in Indonesia, I got it published. Was it because I introduced my self as Indonesian student studying at La Trobe or was it because I gave my opinion on the lack of critical thinking practice in Indonesian schools? It did not bother me anymore as I had published three articles in the Jakarta post so far.
I would say at this moment things went to the direction that either the IPO at La Trobe or APS Officials in Jakarta or in Canberra expected. I was very grateful with all the facilities they provided for me to be able to finish my study well. I had satisfactory results of the six subjects I had taken in my first year study. I went home twice already and the second time I did it with the ‘reunion fee’. It was on the Semarang airport on my departure to Melbourne in June that I was aware of some blessings in disguise of my situation. I found new reason why I should make frequent trips from Indonesia to Australia, in addition to balancing my professional and personal life. The airport officer checking my passport remembered me as someone who was so lucky to be able to go overseas often. He said he was the one checking my passport five months before. Then I said to my self, “Yes I have been abroad, three times”. While I was writing this ‘good news’ with APS, I was three weeks away from my other trip back home and surely I would fly overseas again for the fourth times.
I believed I would not get extra attention from IPO at La Trobe or from APS officials now. There was nothing for them to worry. Despite my longing to my family, I managed to control my stress level and I was successful in adopting the culture outside and inside the university. How could I do that? My piece of life with APS was maybe a piece of pizza but it was definitely not a piece of cake. I did many little things to remind me of my objectives studying in Australia. One little thing I did recently was to take a picture of me with Mr. Paul Johnson, the vice chancellor of La Trobe. This picture would be the most expensive souvenir I could get from La trobe and it would become an example of what action the leaders of any universities could take in order to show their leadership vision. I was given five minutes. It was enough for the photo and enough for me to believe that a leader should always have time to serve others.
I promised myself a scholarship. A hard but realistic way for a low-paid civil servant like me to go overseas was to compete with hundreds or even thousands of bright individuals all across archipelago to convince the team of interviewers for getting the predicate of awardees. I made it. I got the APS Scholarship in 2007. Thank to the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs that previously I joined the International Certification of English Teachers at Indonesia-Australia Language Foundation (IALF Bali) in which I also sat for the IELTS test with the ministry’s expense. I knew I would think twice for taking IELTS test if I had to pay by my self. My monthly earning was just enough for monthly basics. When the time was right, the gate was open. The funny thing was that I told the APS interviewers exactly what I felt whenever I was asked the question “have you been abroad?” as part of my reason to further my study in Australia. I believed they were convinced by that, in addition to my 7.5 IELTS Score.
Then I was preparing myself for being away from my beloved wife and two children. My wife and I had the deal. I would go and study in Australia and my wife would stay and take care of our children. It was all for the brighter future of our family. I was occupied with the hope of being able to proudly answer, “Yes, I have been abroad” that I left my beautiful wife, my severe disabled son, and my one year old daughter who had just started calling me ‘father’.
I had all the possibilities to enrol in any universities in Australia but I chose La Trobe University in Bundoora, Melbourne for a very personal reason, its beauty. There were many two-years Educational Master programs offered in Australian Universities and I picked one of them by judging which was the most beautiful campus displayed in the internet. Luckily, La Trobe provided me more than stunning peaceful location to study. When I was just arrived at the Tullamarine Airport, a pick up chauffeur hired by La Trobe University had been waiting for me. I thought he would take me to my temporary accommodation with a yellow cab but no, he led my way to a too-expensive car for a taxi, parked near the airport. It was not all. On the same day of my arrival, I arranged a meeting with the International liaison officer of the uni and I was surprised that she had managed all of my immediate necessities for my first week living in Australia. On my first visit to the uni, I had been registered as student and I could even draw my first Australian dollar from my living allowances. It was just spectacular.
I loved all parks in Melbourne. I enjoyed commuting one and half hours from Footscray to Bundoora. First, I took tram to Footscray station then train to Flinders station and finally bus to Bundoora and all for one metcard ticket. I was always amazed by the fact that so many people representing so many cultures around the world got together nicely in Melbourne public transport. I was in a peak of excitement living in a new culture when I felt so wrong not to share this experience with my family. I knew it could be tough for me to balance my time for studying and for taking care of my family in Australia. It could be harsher indeed, if my wife and I should go to work to fill in the gap between my fortnightly stipend and my family living expense. The urge to share with my family all moments of living in Australia was untamed. I though I was not the whole person I could be without my family in my side. No matter how nice it was my life in Melbourne, it was merely a piece of life that would never become a unity of life until I had my family with me.
What a wise consideration of APS officials in Canberra to allow me alter my contract from ‘single’ to ‘with family’. Perhaps, they foresaw that I would not be able to fulfil the expectations of an AUS aid student if I kept thinking of my family back home. Elena Dagis, the IPO at La Trobe, was so professional and thoughtful. I went home that time, on my first semester holiday, with all necessary documents from the university to apply for my family visa.
My wife and I hoped for the best and prepared for the worst though. I spent most of my time that holiday to indulge my family with things they might never imagine before APS selected me as an awardee. We spent a night at a luxurious hotel in Yogyakarta. My wife wondered why I did that and I told her, “You have to experience taking a shower of hot water or lying down on the bathtub. That is part of my daily delight living in Melbourne”. Honestly, it was the easiest why to compensate to my family for the difficult time they had without me. We invited all neighbours for religious congregation and we prepared for them two goats for the barbecue. We asked them to pray for our family visa application. Three weeks before my second departure to Melbourne we got the letter from the Australian embassy telling that my son could not get the visa. It seemed like we knew that this was what would happen to us that we generated plan b. We learnt to drive and we bought a used car. By the time I flew back to Melbourne, my wife was already a confident driver and I knew I had done my best to ease her worries taking care of our children by herself. Six months of my life with APS, things had changed a lot.
Many thanks again to APS Officials in Jakarta and Canberra that I could once again adjust my contract from ‘with family’ to ‘single’. This status entitled me for a ‘reunion fee’ in the form of a return ticket when I had finished my second semester. What else could I expect? I made myself busy reading new collections of books on Educational Leadership and Management and writing opinions for an international English newspaper The Jakarta Post. I deserved a new attribute on my second semester with APS, a part time journalist. I remembered well how proud I was googling my name and I found my name on many sites. I never knew what an online article could do until after The Jakarta Post published my article online. I also got email from APS director in Jakarta appreciating my writing on the newspaper. Until now, I could not really apprehend how all this could happen. I never sent any writing to any newspapers before and the first time I sent my article to the most reputable English newspaper in Indonesia, I got it published. Was it because I introduced my self as Indonesian student studying at La Trobe or was it because I gave my opinion on the lack of critical thinking practice in Indonesian schools? It did not bother me anymore as I had published three articles in the Jakarta post so far.
I would say at this moment things went to the direction that either the IPO at La Trobe or APS Officials in Jakarta or in Canberra expected. I was very grateful with all the facilities they provided for me to be able to finish my study well. I had satisfactory results of the six subjects I had taken in my first year study. I went home twice already and the second time I did it with the ‘reunion fee’. It was on the Semarang airport on my departure to Melbourne in June that I was aware of some blessings in disguise of my situation. I found new reason why I should make frequent trips from Indonesia to Australia, in addition to balancing my professional and personal life. The airport officer checking my passport remembered me as someone who was so lucky to be able to go overseas often. He said he was the one checking my passport five months before. Then I said to my self, “Yes I have been abroad, three times”. While I was writing this ‘good news’ with APS, I was three weeks away from my other trip back home and surely I would fly overseas again for the fourth times.
I believed I would not get extra attention from IPO at La Trobe or from APS officials now. There was nothing for them to worry. Despite my longing to my family, I managed to control my stress level and I was successful in adopting the culture outside and inside the university. How could I do that? My piece of life with APS was maybe a piece of pizza but it was definitely not a piece of cake. I did many little things to remind me of my objectives studying in Australia. One little thing I did recently was to take a picture of me with Mr. Paul Johnson, the vice chancellor of La Trobe. This picture would be the most expensive souvenir I could get from La trobe and it would become an example of what action the leaders of any universities could take in order to show their leadership vision. I was given five minutes. It was enough for the photo and enough for me to believe that a leader should always have time to serve others.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
New Teaching Style Needed
Hanung Triyoko, Melbourne[The writer is a lecturer at STAIN Salatiga and a student in the Master’s Program of Educational Leadership and Management, La Trobe University, Melbourne. He can be reached athanungina@gmail.com]
New teaching style needed (Opinion and Editorial - November 10, 2007 The Jakarta Post)
Many teachers and parents know children nowadays listen more to their iPods than to their words. Students have huge numbers of sources of information in this era of information technology. Teachers and parents are challenged by the attractiveness of computer-assisted information resources and their being more affordable for wider communities.As a consequence, it is becoming harder and harder for the traditional approach of teaching to control student behavior since students share other values offered by the multimedia.Take an example; teachers may need more than just words to ensure students read the recommended books for the following lessons. Students may spend most of their time after school utilizing advanced technology like the internet and cyber-gaming, and think that books are just out of character.It does not mean that teachers can no longer refer to books as lesson materials, but merely depending on books in today’s classroom is like going out for dinner in a Padang restaurant with no intention of spending more money. We may satisfy our hunger but may not satisfy our appetite despite the variety of food available.It is wiser to understand than to control students’ behavior. Teachers need to apply new methods of assessment that allow students to choose what they want to learn and to show in their own ways the results of their learning. Teachers also need to collaborate more with parents and other stakeholders in assuring the achievement of individual student learning objectives.Tests as the traditional way of student assessments are limited in their capacity to cover all domains of students’ abilities. Tests generally measure the students’ cognitive ability, whereas the psychomotoric as well as the affective abilities remain unseen. The main purposes of assessments are to report, to guide and to diagnose student learning.Therefore, considerations of sources of learning and preferred styles of learning are also very important in choosing appropriate kinds of assessments for students. All the high-tech stuff that students today are engaged with every day influences the development of their three skill domain sand assessing their cognitive skill only is unfair.In his thesis “Continuous Assessment in Bhutan: Science Teachers’ Perspective”, Chewang (1999) defines continuous assessment, or authentic assessment, or alternative assessment, as a special method of assessment by which teachers at regular intervals assess students over the whole course.Thus, things to assess can be diaries, videos, power point presentations, audio recordings, simulations of real-life problems and even parents’ notes and commentaries.The application of this new method of assessment allows students to develop positive feelings of achievement by showing others what they can do rather than what they do not know. Very few students perform well in all subjects they are studying but all students deserve appreciation for what they are good at.Imagine what opportunities this continuous assessment provides for students who are only average at many of their courses, but skillful in others.Besides, continuous assessment enables teachers to diagnose the relevance of their curriculum and lesson materials to students’ life outside school. Students are also in control of what they are going to learn.Students are expected to assess themselves in all stages prior to their final projects using all possible data like notations in group meetings, footage, photos and portfolios to see their progress toward the objective of their studies.Parents and other students may take part in this process through parent and peer assessments. Teachers make themselves available for giving quality feedback to highlight each student’s strengths and weaknesses on continuous scheduled assessment days.Students should clarify all commentaries given by teachers to remedy all their weaknesses and most importantly to spell out any misunderstanding of value judgment. Students are permitted to defend their own criteria of accomplishments based on their personal traits and background, and teachers should place more value on students’ critical thinking and move beyond the one-right-answer model.Continuous assessment gives teachers more responsibilities in students’ learning progress and they may have to spend much more time preparing and doing the assessments.Applying consistently the continuous assessment in one particular subject will eventually lead to students’ improving in other subjects as well. Indeed, all records of students’ performances may be retrieved for future use such as when students need to convince interviewers for job vacancies of their computer and interpersonal communication skills, as well as foreign language mastery.No matter how complicated and problematical this continuous assessment may sound in the context of our education system, consensus should be made by educational leaders to give the continuous assessment a go.
New teaching style needed (Opinion and Editorial - November 10, 2007 The Jakarta Post)
Many teachers and parents know children nowadays listen more to their iPods than to their words. Students have huge numbers of sources of information in this era of information technology. Teachers and parents are challenged by the attractiveness of computer-assisted information resources and their being more affordable for wider communities.As a consequence, it is becoming harder and harder for the traditional approach of teaching to control student behavior since students share other values offered by the multimedia.Take an example; teachers may need more than just words to ensure students read the recommended books for the following lessons. Students may spend most of their time after school utilizing advanced technology like the internet and cyber-gaming, and think that books are just out of character.It does not mean that teachers can no longer refer to books as lesson materials, but merely depending on books in today’s classroom is like going out for dinner in a Padang restaurant with no intention of spending more money. We may satisfy our hunger but may not satisfy our appetite despite the variety of food available.It is wiser to understand than to control students’ behavior. Teachers need to apply new methods of assessment that allow students to choose what they want to learn and to show in their own ways the results of their learning. Teachers also need to collaborate more with parents and other stakeholders in assuring the achievement of individual student learning objectives.Tests as the traditional way of student assessments are limited in their capacity to cover all domains of students’ abilities. Tests generally measure the students’ cognitive ability, whereas the psychomotoric as well as the affective abilities remain unseen. The main purposes of assessments are to report, to guide and to diagnose student learning.Therefore, considerations of sources of learning and preferred styles of learning are also very important in choosing appropriate kinds of assessments for students. All the high-tech stuff that students today are engaged with every day influences the development of their three skill domain sand assessing their cognitive skill only is unfair.In his thesis “Continuous Assessment in Bhutan: Science Teachers’ Perspective”, Chewang (1999) defines continuous assessment, or authentic assessment, or alternative assessment, as a special method of assessment by which teachers at regular intervals assess students over the whole course.Thus, things to assess can be diaries, videos, power point presentations, audio recordings, simulations of real-life problems and even parents’ notes and commentaries.The application of this new method of assessment allows students to develop positive feelings of achievement by showing others what they can do rather than what they do not know. Very few students perform well in all subjects they are studying but all students deserve appreciation for what they are good at.Imagine what opportunities this continuous assessment provides for students who are only average at many of their courses, but skillful in others.Besides, continuous assessment enables teachers to diagnose the relevance of their curriculum and lesson materials to students’ life outside school. Students are also in control of what they are going to learn.Students are expected to assess themselves in all stages prior to their final projects using all possible data like notations in group meetings, footage, photos and portfolios to see their progress toward the objective of their studies.Parents and other students may take part in this process through parent and peer assessments. Teachers make themselves available for giving quality feedback to highlight each student’s strengths and weaknesses on continuous scheduled assessment days.Students should clarify all commentaries given by teachers to remedy all their weaknesses and most importantly to spell out any misunderstanding of value judgment. Students are permitted to defend their own criteria of accomplishments based on their personal traits and background, and teachers should place more value on students’ critical thinking and move beyond the one-right-answer model.Continuous assessment gives teachers more responsibilities in students’ learning progress and they may have to spend much more time preparing and doing the assessments.Applying consistently the continuous assessment in one particular subject will eventually lead to students’ improving in other subjects as well. Indeed, all records of students’ performances may be retrieved for future use such as when students need to convince interviewers for job vacancies of their computer and interpersonal communication skills, as well as foreign language mastery.No matter how complicated and problematical this continuous assessment may sound in the context of our education system, consensus should be made by educational leaders to give the continuous assessment a go.
We have the right to change English
Hanung Triyoko , Salatiga Sat, 05/31/2008 12:08 PM Opinion
The Jakarta Post Sat, 05/31/2008 12:08 PM
The upcoming Asia TEFL Conference in Bali is too important to overlook.It will be held from Aug. 1-3, 2008, and this year’s theme is Globalizing Asia: The Role of ELT.What intrigues me most is to what extent this conference will contribute to Indonesian non-native English teachers’ efforts to implement successful English language teaching in classrooms across the country.Will the conference inspire us to apply new approaches and methodologies based on the belief that English evolves as it spreads, and so there is no more “English” but rather many localized “Englishes”? Are we going to follow up the conference with agreement on ways to help students become proficient in Indonesian English?For many here, the relation between language and identity is summed up in the familiar Javanese adage, Ajining diri ono ing kedaling lathi (The words you speak determine who you are). Simply put, it’s the essence of the relationship between language and identity.This conference will perhaps prompt us to seek answers to why very few people are convinced ELT (English Language Teaching) in Indonesia is successful. Many English teachers here base their lessons around strict, unbending ideals of the language, and expect students to conform to these ideals. This can create, whether intentionally or not, a hostile atmosphere that at its heart, threatens the students’ Indonesian identity.For instance, how many Indonesian English teachers find it funny when students speak English with a marked accent? I’d say far too many. Anybody would be discouraged from speaking a foreign language if all it brings is ridicule and mockery.As English teachers, the language forms an inextricable part of our social and personal lives, but the extent to which it identifies us varies. It depends on our day-to-day experiences with English and our understanding of the role of the language in our future. A similar model may be applied to our students. Do not expect all of them to want to know the intricacies of English grammar, because not all of them will grow up wanting to be English teachers.Many teachers try to mold their students into competent English speakers with an ability approaching native English speakers. Some still teach this way, but others are beginning to think critically in light of the different circumstances students now face, and because the use of English in our society has now reached a level that earlier teachers could never have anticipated.How many English learners in Indonesia face situations where the use of their mother tongue is restricted? The vast majority, one would think. Most students use English when speaking to their teachers or peers, or when reading English textbooks.And yet they should be allowed the option of reverting to their native language if it’s too difficult for them to convey their message in English, assuming the meaning is not lost in the switch.And they should be able to turn to a dictionary or friends or teachers or other sources whenever they find it too difficult to understand written English passages.The need to establish and recognize a local English — Indonesian English or Indoglish — is not without basis. Malaysian English and Singaporean English (Singlish) are already taken for granted, and the debate on whether certain nations or communities can claim ownership of their local version of English is considered moot because of the seemingly unstoppable rise of localized English worldwide.However, the realization of this dream should start with our willingness to stop prioritizing the “correctness” of pronunciations and accents even when the message remains intelligible and the meaning is not lost.We should also stop limiting students’ vocabularies to what is published in ELT books, as long as words that make up the new lexicon are widely accepted by the students. Someday, for instance, when the time is right, we may even see abbreviations such as “OIC” for “Oh, I see” in textbooks.Brutt-Griffler (1998, p. 387) defines non-native English teachers as “non-native speakers” with the “authority” to spread as well as to change English. However this authority to change the language does not mean we can do so whimsically.It should be used to enable us to express ourselves more clearly when talking to others about our cultures and beliefs. English colloquialisms mean little from an Asian perspective, but the ability to construct our own colloquialisms opens up whole new opportunities for us.Take for instance the English phrases “Excuse me” and “I am sorry”, which in Bahasa Indonesia both translate as maaf. To native English speakers, there is a world of difference between the two expressions, but for non-native speakers there is a distinct advantage in being able to use one expression to mean two different things.Many native English speakers feel their language is sufficient for all situations, and hence don’t see the benefits of switching to a localized vernacular in cases like this.Most of us would agree there are major differences between the English our students are speaking and the English we as teachers speak. However, the differences are subtle, and it’s not that easy to pinpoint any concrete examples of this gap.This can happen because very often we regard what our students write or say as mistakes or a failure to properly grasp the grammar. We judge them as such because we’ve been trained to compare them to accepted forms which we believe will never change.Alternatively, we could consider these mistakes part of an emerging localized version of English, a language molded and influenced by the students and their understanding of a foreign language. We should welcome these differences with the hope that our students will eventually speak a similar English to us. The problem is we seldom see these differences for what they really are: the seeds of our very own localized English.
The writer is a lecturer at STAIN Salatiga and a student in the Master’s Program of Educational Leadership and Management, La Trobe University, Melbourne. He can be reached at hanungina@gmail.com
The Jakarta Post Sat, 05/31/2008 12:08 PM
The upcoming Asia TEFL Conference in Bali is too important to overlook.It will be held from Aug. 1-3, 2008, and this year’s theme is Globalizing Asia: The Role of ELT.What intrigues me most is to what extent this conference will contribute to Indonesian non-native English teachers’ efforts to implement successful English language teaching in classrooms across the country.Will the conference inspire us to apply new approaches and methodologies based on the belief that English evolves as it spreads, and so there is no more “English” but rather many localized “Englishes”? Are we going to follow up the conference with agreement on ways to help students become proficient in Indonesian English?For many here, the relation between language and identity is summed up in the familiar Javanese adage, Ajining diri ono ing kedaling lathi (The words you speak determine who you are). Simply put, it’s the essence of the relationship between language and identity.This conference will perhaps prompt us to seek answers to why very few people are convinced ELT (English Language Teaching) in Indonesia is successful. Many English teachers here base their lessons around strict, unbending ideals of the language, and expect students to conform to these ideals. This can create, whether intentionally or not, a hostile atmosphere that at its heart, threatens the students’ Indonesian identity.For instance, how many Indonesian English teachers find it funny when students speak English with a marked accent? I’d say far too many. Anybody would be discouraged from speaking a foreign language if all it brings is ridicule and mockery.As English teachers, the language forms an inextricable part of our social and personal lives, but the extent to which it identifies us varies. It depends on our day-to-day experiences with English and our understanding of the role of the language in our future. A similar model may be applied to our students. Do not expect all of them to want to know the intricacies of English grammar, because not all of them will grow up wanting to be English teachers.Many teachers try to mold their students into competent English speakers with an ability approaching native English speakers. Some still teach this way, but others are beginning to think critically in light of the different circumstances students now face, and because the use of English in our society has now reached a level that earlier teachers could never have anticipated.How many English learners in Indonesia face situations where the use of their mother tongue is restricted? The vast majority, one would think. Most students use English when speaking to their teachers or peers, or when reading English textbooks.And yet they should be allowed the option of reverting to their native language if it’s too difficult for them to convey their message in English, assuming the meaning is not lost in the switch.And they should be able to turn to a dictionary or friends or teachers or other sources whenever they find it too difficult to understand written English passages.The need to establish and recognize a local English — Indonesian English or Indoglish — is not without basis. Malaysian English and Singaporean English (Singlish) are already taken for granted, and the debate on whether certain nations or communities can claim ownership of their local version of English is considered moot because of the seemingly unstoppable rise of localized English worldwide.However, the realization of this dream should start with our willingness to stop prioritizing the “correctness” of pronunciations and accents even when the message remains intelligible and the meaning is not lost.We should also stop limiting students’ vocabularies to what is published in ELT books, as long as words that make up the new lexicon are widely accepted by the students. Someday, for instance, when the time is right, we may even see abbreviations such as “OIC” for “Oh, I see” in textbooks.Brutt-Griffler (1998, p. 387) defines non-native English teachers as “non-native speakers” with the “authority” to spread as well as to change English. However this authority to change the language does not mean we can do so whimsically.It should be used to enable us to express ourselves more clearly when talking to others about our cultures and beliefs. English colloquialisms mean little from an Asian perspective, but the ability to construct our own colloquialisms opens up whole new opportunities for us.Take for instance the English phrases “Excuse me” and “I am sorry”, which in Bahasa Indonesia both translate as maaf. To native English speakers, there is a world of difference between the two expressions, but for non-native speakers there is a distinct advantage in being able to use one expression to mean two different things.Many native English speakers feel their language is sufficient for all situations, and hence don’t see the benefits of switching to a localized vernacular in cases like this.Most of us would agree there are major differences between the English our students are speaking and the English we as teachers speak. However, the differences are subtle, and it’s not that easy to pinpoint any concrete examples of this gap.This can happen because very often we regard what our students write or say as mistakes or a failure to properly grasp the grammar. We judge them as such because we’ve been trained to compare them to accepted forms which we believe will never change.Alternatively, we could consider these mistakes part of an emerging localized version of English, a language molded and influenced by the students and their understanding of a foreign language. We should welcome these differences with the hope that our students will eventually speak a similar English to us. The problem is we seldom see these differences for what they really are: the seeds of our very own localized English.
The writer is a lecturer at STAIN Salatiga and a student in the Master’s Program of Educational Leadership and Management, La Trobe University, Melbourne. He can be reached at hanungina@gmail.com
The teaching of critical thinking skills
Opinion and Editorial - August 14, 2007 The Jakarta Post
Hanung Triyoko, Melbourne
Indonesian students need to make some essential adaptations in order to succeed academically in Australian universities. These adaptations are not just about English proficiency but differences in academic culture.
There are more issues to address about our study in Australia universities beside our continuous effort to upgrade our English to a stage where we may be said to be competent users of English for academic purposes.
Australian universities, as part of the Anglo-Saxon university system, demand students, among other things, be able to exercise critical thinking, which is believed to be the most distinctive feature of the differences between the non-Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Saxon universities.
Universities in Australia have made critical thinking a focus in various bridging programs especially provided for international students. While it is expected that the explicit teaching of critical thinking and the acknowledging of our previous learning experiences may optimally upgrade Indonesian students’ study skills, it may also make some of us feel inferior.
Many of us may feel reluctant to actively get involved in discussions and debates not because we are afraid of using English but because we are not accustomed to the culture of discussion and debate in Australian universities. The fact that we are more familiar with memorizing tasks than the analyzing ones in our past studies can hinder inquiry and advocacy tasks in good discussions and debates.
We value group orientation more than the individual orientation and thus group harmony is more valuable than individual progress. Hence, it seems hard to us to adopt the different learning styles where individual knowledge development, not the group’s accumulation of knowledge, is emphasized.
For example, in Indonesia we are encouraged to receive as much information as we can from our teachers and store that in our mind as evidence of truth because we know that our teacher would not mislead us in seeking knowledge. Meanwhile, in Australia, students are expected to develop critical thinking by questioning and analyzing all the information they get from all sources including those from teachers.
Recently there is an increasing demand in universities in Australia to explicitly require students to work out their critical thinking in the assignment by putting it as an element of the grading. Critical thinking has been a compulsory subject in most universities’ bridging programs.
Australian universities provide bridging problems to ensure that we are aware of the different academic expectations and that we in certain degree have been exposed to these different practices before we really engage in our study.
A bridging program like the Introductory Academic Program (IAP), organized by many international universities in Australia, is also designed to facilitate us to develop various study skills necessary for our adaptations, including critical thinking skills.
It has been general knowledge for academics in Australia that due to the different practices of education in Indonesia, Indonesian students are treated as students who lack critical thinking skills and therefore need special training in it.
There are too many things to cover about critical thinking in the relatively short period of the IAP. To be able to apply critical thinking skills, we are required to exercise skills related to questioning, analyzing, debating, putting arguments, making issues, an so on, which are all dependent on our competency in English.
Indonesian students joining the IAP cannot be said to have the same level of English and if we do, the IAP is inclusive for the non-native students that make the IAP classes different to real classes in Australian universities. In IAP we may not be able to really experience real class situations. We may still find lots of surprises in the practices of critical thinking in real class situations.
We may find our exposure to critical thinking in IAP beneficial when we are aware that critical thinking is similar to computer skills and also driving skills in that the maximum benefit of these skills depends on certain proper situations.
We can perhaps avoid feeling inferior if we are able to negotiate with ourselves what cultural practices of the universities we should adopt. In addition, through comparing learning practices in Australia and Indonesia we may think that critical thinking is one technique among many ways of good science and see that the acquisition of critical thinking is necessary to gain academic success in Australian universities without feeling that our educational backgrounds are deficient.
Teaching critical thinking in the bridging programs is not an easy task because it may place students exercising different learning styles in a situation where we feel inferior.
However, weighing the benefits and the drawbacks of teaching critical thinking to Indonesian students as mentioned above, there should be more critical thinking practices introduced to our education system at any level so that there will be more Indonesian students who are ready to study in English speaking countries.
The writer is a lecturer at STAIN Salatiga and is now studying in the Master’s Program of Educational Leadership and Management at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.
Readers’ comments
From Rey Edi
Hello Sir
I am surprised that obviously almost nothing has changed since 1981, when I studied Bahasa at Satya Wacana in Salatiga . I remeber very well how difficult if not impossible it was for me as a Westerner to really openly discuss topics. You are absolutely right. If Indonesian students want to be sucessful at overseas universities, they should be taught the skill of debate and how to defeend their opinion.
From Ibrahim Isa Alias Bramijn
You have made an inmportant remark.
Critical thinking for Indonesian students, are especially of utmost inmportant on the question of modern Indonesian history.
For more than 3 decades , during the entire period of the Orba, students were made to believe of the lies and manipulation by the regime of Indonesian modern history, as the only truth.
Students followed blindly the Orba scholars interpretation about the ‘bad governance’ during the Sukarno era, and of the ‘excellent economic policy’ of the the Orba, etc.
Critical thinking should be practiced by Indonesian students, as well as (especially) by the professors and lecturers themselves.
Sincerely yours,
Ibrahim Isa
14 August 2007
Hanung Triyoko, Melbourne
Indonesian students need to make some essential adaptations in order to succeed academically in Australian universities. These adaptations are not just about English proficiency but differences in academic culture.
There are more issues to address about our study in Australia universities beside our continuous effort to upgrade our English to a stage where we may be said to be competent users of English for academic purposes.
Australian universities, as part of the Anglo-Saxon university system, demand students, among other things, be able to exercise critical thinking, which is believed to be the most distinctive feature of the differences between the non-Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Saxon universities.
Universities in Australia have made critical thinking a focus in various bridging programs especially provided for international students. While it is expected that the explicit teaching of critical thinking and the acknowledging of our previous learning experiences may optimally upgrade Indonesian students’ study skills, it may also make some of us feel inferior.
Many of us may feel reluctant to actively get involved in discussions and debates not because we are afraid of using English but because we are not accustomed to the culture of discussion and debate in Australian universities. The fact that we are more familiar with memorizing tasks than the analyzing ones in our past studies can hinder inquiry and advocacy tasks in good discussions and debates.
We value group orientation more than the individual orientation and thus group harmony is more valuable than individual progress. Hence, it seems hard to us to adopt the different learning styles where individual knowledge development, not the group’s accumulation of knowledge, is emphasized.
For example, in Indonesia we are encouraged to receive as much information as we can from our teachers and store that in our mind as evidence of truth because we know that our teacher would not mislead us in seeking knowledge. Meanwhile, in Australia, students are expected to develop critical thinking by questioning and analyzing all the information they get from all sources including those from teachers.
Recently there is an increasing demand in universities in Australia to explicitly require students to work out their critical thinking in the assignment by putting it as an element of the grading. Critical thinking has been a compulsory subject in most universities’ bridging programs.
Australian universities provide bridging problems to ensure that we are aware of the different academic expectations and that we in certain degree have been exposed to these different practices before we really engage in our study.
A bridging program like the Introductory Academic Program (IAP), organized by many international universities in Australia, is also designed to facilitate us to develop various study skills necessary for our adaptations, including critical thinking skills.
It has been general knowledge for academics in Australia that due to the different practices of education in Indonesia, Indonesian students are treated as students who lack critical thinking skills and therefore need special training in it.
There are too many things to cover about critical thinking in the relatively short period of the IAP. To be able to apply critical thinking skills, we are required to exercise skills related to questioning, analyzing, debating, putting arguments, making issues, an so on, which are all dependent on our competency in English.
Indonesian students joining the IAP cannot be said to have the same level of English and if we do, the IAP is inclusive for the non-native students that make the IAP classes different to real classes in Australian universities. In IAP we may not be able to really experience real class situations. We may still find lots of surprises in the practices of critical thinking in real class situations.
We may find our exposure to critical thinking in IAP beneficial when we are aware that critical thinking is similar to computer skills and also driving skills in that the maximum benefit of these skills depends on certain proper situations.
We can perhaps avoid feeling inferior if we are able to negotiate with ourselves what cultural practices of the universities we should adopt. In addition, through comparing learning practices in Australia and Indonesia we may think that critical thinking is one technique among many ways of good science and see that the acquisition of critical thinking is necessary to gain academic success in Australian universities without feeling that our educational backgrounds are deficient.
Teaching critical thinking in the bridging programs is not an easy task because it may place students exercising different learning styles in a situation where we feel inferior.
However, weighing the benefits and the drawbacks of teaching critical thinking to Indonesian students as mentioned above, there should be more critical thinking practices introduced to our education system at any level so that there will be more Indonesian students who are ready to study in English speaking countries.
The writer is a lecturer at STAIN Salatiga and is now studying in the Master’s Program of Educational Leadership and Management at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.
Readers’ comments
From Rey Edi
Hello Sir
I am surprised that obviously almost nothing has changed since 1981, when I studied Bahasa at Satya Wacana in Salatiga . I remeber very well how difficult if not impossible it was for me as a Westerner to really openly discuss topics. You are absolutely right. If Indonesian students want to be sucessful at overseas universities, they should be taught the skill of debate and how to defeend their opinion.
From Ibrahim Isa Alias Bramijn
You have made an inmportant remark.
Critical thinking for Indonesian students, are especially of utmost inmportant on the question of modern Indonesian history.
For more than 3 decades , during the entire period of the Orba, students were made to believe of the lies and manipulation by the regime of Indonesian modern history, as the only truth.
Students followed blindly the Orba scholars interpretation about the ‘bad governance’ during the Sukarno era, and of the ‘excellent economic policy’ of the the Orba, etc.
Critical thinking should be practiced by Indonesian students, as well as (especially) by the professors and lecturers themselves.
Sincerely yours,
Ibrahim Isa
14 August 2007
Kabar Burung Indonesia
Tiba-tiba terasa ada yang lain. Meski semuanya masih sama. Padang rumput yang luas di kampus La Trobe, pepohonan gum yang barusan menghijau selepas winter, danau-danau kecil dan sebagian mereka yang berebut menikmati cuilan-cuilan santap siang dari tangan mahasiswa-mahasiswi. Agak sepi sih memang tawaran muffin atau kebab atau pizza hari ini karena sepertinya mahasiswa-mahasiswi kali ini lebih senang buru-buru menyantap makan siang, lalu kembali ke perpustakaan untuk mengejar due date tugas kuliah atau kalau sedang ditemani kekasih, memilih beradu ciuman untuk mengimbangi hangatnya mentari awal summer ini. Tapi ini juga bukan hal baru. Hanya burung dara yang terkenal pamer kemesraan yang merasa tersaingi melihat kompaknya muda-mudi dalam menjadikan padang rumput di awal bulan November arena ritual percintaan mereka.
Tak ada gerombolan gagak disana. Tak satu gagak pun terlihat. Rupanya mereka sedang punya acara sendiri. Ada tamu dari Indonesia. Si tamu, gagak hitam, terlihat sangat lelah tapi dia teruskan cerita tentang dirinya. Dia merasa banyak hal yang perlu dia bagi. Paling tidak itu akan membuat beban dalam dirinya berkurang.
“Aku lelah bersembunyi. Aku sungguh iri dengan kalian disini. Kalian terbang kemana saja kalian suka, hinggap dimana saja kalian mau, bahkan sering kulihat kalian berbagi santapan dengan mereka” jelas dia tidak sedang berbasa-basi.
“Aku simbol kematian. Aku tidak melakukan apapun yang kalian tidak lakukan tetapi setiap kali aku terbang, aku hinggap, aku bersuara ‘frak, frak, frak’ seperti juga suara kalian aku melihat mereka cemas, aku melihat mereka bertanya-tanya siapa kiranya yang akan mati. Kalau aku memaksakan berdiam diri sekedar melepas lelah, aku melihat ketakutan dimata mereka, semenjak lahir aku dibayang-bayangi dengan suasana mencekam itu, pandangan tidak bersahabat dari mereka, aku segera terbang, bukan untuk menghindar dari kekonyolan mereka, tetapi untuk menyudahi ketidaknyamanan karena kehadiranku. Anehnya mereka semakin meyakini aku ada sebagai pembawa berita petaka karena kemudian ada yang mati, satu dua tetangga sekitar yang sudah tua, atau yang sakit, kalau nggak, yang mati kerabatnya yang tinggal jauh dari tempat aku hinggap, tetapi tetap saja aku lah yang jadi pertanda, mereka banyak jumlahnya, mereka terhubung satu sama lain karena darah, tempat tinggal, atau kerja, dan diantara mereka ada yang mati, setiap hari, aku dan etnisku tetap menjadi pertanda kematian” lanjut si tamu. Yakin dirinya masih disimak, dia teruskan …
“Sedikit sekali yang mereka ketahui tentang aku, mereka nggak ngerti apa yang aku makan, mereka kira aku hidup dari jiwa-jiwa yang lepas dari raga mereka, aku ada tetapi keberadaanku ditiadakan, aku heran bagaimana mereka bisa begitu bersahabat dengan kalian disini, tidak terganggu dengan suara kalian yang parau, bahkan terdengar seperti umpatan sumpah serapah mereka ‘frak, frak, frak’ (dalam otaknya ada huruf ‘u’, ‘u’,” si tamu tersenyum geli mencoba sedikit mencairkan forum yang mulai tegang.
“Apa yang akan kusampaikan selanjutnya ada hubungannya dengan etnis yang lain disini, so kalau nggak keberatan, mohon undang mereka” si tamu yakin akan kontribusinya di negeri baru ini maka dia menginginkan ajang yang lebih besar.
Serempak, seolah-olah menunjukkan kebebasan bersuara dan kepercayaan diri, semua gagak di La Trobe berteriak “frak, frak, frak” dan etnis yang lain pun berdatangan, dalam penyambutan parakit hijau lebih senang dipanggil ‘sahabat’, para jalak minta disapa ‘kawan’, kakatua raja akrab dengan sebutan ‘ikhwan’ burung dara dengan ‘saudara’ dan sebutan lain untuk etnis yang lain.
“Begini ‘semua’ (itulah panggilan yang akhirnya si tamu pilih, kawatir kalau menggunakan salah satu sapaan tadi dianggap berpihak, atau bahkan kurang nggerti audien dan tidak multikulturalis) aku gagak hitam dari Indonesia, simbol kematian” sekejap si tamu melihat keterkejutan di mata para hadirin
“jangan berlebihan dan jangan berprasangka, simbol seringkali menyesatkan dan jelas simbol diciptakan dan dipahami oleh mereka yang sepakat saja” si tamu mulai berbicara akademis untuk menjaga jarak dirinya dengan apa yang akan dia omongkan.
“Aku terbang jauh dari negeriku kesini pertama karena aku sumpek dengan yang kuhadapi di negeriku, kedua karena fasilitas yang kalian berikan kepadaku memungkinkanku untuk melakukan perjalanan ini, terimakasih (si tamu membiasakan diri mengucapkan kata sakti itu disini, meski di negerinya dia diajarkan perasaan hutang budi lebih penting dari kata itu) ketiga, karena aku juga punya sesuatu yang bisa kuberikan kepada kalian (si tamu yakin betul, keseimbangan take and give inilah yang menjiwai semua interaksi di dunia yang pragmatis ini), dan pada kesempatan inilah aku ingin bagikan apa yang kupunya”.
“bangsa kita, di negeriku, menderita” singkat kalimat si tamu tetapi ini cukup menjadi pengantar presentasi yang menarik.
“Empat macam penderitaan, pertama, terperangkap dalam sangkar selamanya menunggu mati, kedua, dalam pelarian dari satu pohon ke pohon lainnya di bawah ancaman senapan angin, ketapel atau pulut perangkap dan saat naas tiba mati tertembus peluru, terhantam batu atau berakhir ke penderitaan nomor satu, masuk sangkar sampai mati, ketiga, kebebasan semu, kamu boleh terbang kemanapun kamu suka, tetapi saat ada mereka yang lapar atau menginginkan menu baru, kamu mati di piring mereka, keempat, terpanggang dihidup-hidup di hutan” si tamu mengutarakan poin-poin pembicaraannya.
“Derkuku, jalak, muray, cucak rawa, cendrawasih, kakatua raja, semua parakit, dan yang lain, keindahan suara, dan warna bulu-bulu kalian akan membuat kalian berakhir di sangkar-sangkar kecil di rumah mereka, atau sangkar besar di kebun binatang” hadirin yang disapa si tamu mulai merinding membayangkan dirinya sebagai pelakon cerita.
“Semua dari kita, yang kebetulan terlahir di luar sangkar, dari ayah-bunda kita yang pejuang dan bernasib baik setidaknya sampai kita lahir, setiap hari selalu dibekali nasehat ‘berhati-hatilah nak, perhatikan sekelilingmu, jangan rakus menikmati santapanmu sehingga lupa dibawah sana mereka membidikmu, jangan hinggap di satu tempat terlalu lama dan jangan pamerkan suaramu, bahkan untuk menyapa kami ayah-bundamu, dan kalau kita tidak lagi bertemu sore nanti, jangan cari kami, perhatikan saja keselamatan kalian” masih ada tangis juga di mata si tamu meski dia berusaha keras menahannya, sekarang malah lebih deras dari biasanya karena para hadirin menunjukkan empatinya dan tidak kuasa juga membendung airmata.
“kalian burung dara, dijadikan teman mereka, dibikinkan tempat berteduh dan disediakan makanan kesukaan kalian, kalian boleh terbang kemana saja tetapi pasti kalian akan kembali kepada mereka karena itu lebih baik bagi kalian daripada menjadi burung liar. Mereka suka melihat kalian bercumbu, kalian punya anak, kalian bercumbu lagi, punya anak lagi, lalu mereka datang kepadamu suatu petang, mengambil seberapa banyak dari kalian yang mereka butuhkan, menyisakan sepasang dua pasang dari kalian yang masih muda untuk bercumbu dan beranak lagi, kalian tidak sempat berpamitan pada anak cucu kalian karena kalian terlena dengan kebebasan semu yang mereka tawarkan” si tamu, gagak hitam, seolah ingin menasehati kawanan burung dara, dia lupa burung dara disini beda dengan di negerinya. Burung dara disini buuanyaak sekali, bahkan mereka ada di stasiun-stasiun tanpa rasa takut berakhir mati di piring-piring.
“diantara yang terlahir di hutan, kakatua raja, cendrawasih, dan yang lainnya, dari ayah-bunda yang lugu, yang tidak tahu seperti apa sesungguhnya mereka itu, tumbuh dengan nyanyian kasih sayang, yang terlalu indah untuk disimpan saja di telinga, semua menyanyikannya, semua menari, semua pamerkan warna-warni bajunya, dan tiba-tiba saja panas dimana-mana, api mengejar, memanggang semuanya” rupanya untuk poin yang keempat ini, si tamu kurang banyak punya data, observasi dan researchnya tidak begitu menunjang dan terlebih lagi dirinya terlahir di kebun kelapa, dekat dengan desa, sekali waktu ke kota tetapi hutan belum pernah disinggahinya.
“Aku pikir akan lebih baik kalau kemudian kita berdiskusi, sehingga aku tidak terjebak dalam fenomena teacher-centered dan kalian pun dapat mengembangkan critical thinking, percayalah aku mulai terbiasa dengan cara kalian disini” si tamu secara terbuka menghormati pendekatan keilmuan disini dan bersiap diri untuk tidak mengganggap pendapatnya sendiri yang benar.
“Menurutmu apakah mereka jahat? Mengapa mereka begitu tega terhadap bangsa kita? Apakah kamu akan kembali ke negerimu? Atau kau juga akan menjadi warga baru kami?” langsung saja banyak pertanyaan kritis dilontarkan, si tamu tenang.
“Aku jawab tidak urut. Aku mulai dari yang mendasar. Aku tidak akan menjadi warga baru kalian dan aku akan kembali ke negeriku” terdengar hadirin sedikit ribut dengan jawaban ini, ada yang menganggap si tamu sok nasionalis, tidak rasional, dan kolot karena takut dengan perubahan.
“Aku meyakini mereka tidak jahat, aku melihat mereka sebagai korban juga. Setiap kali aku melihat anak-anak kecil dari mereka, aku merasakan persahabatan, aku merasakan kekaguman mereka, aku sering sempatkan tengok bangsa kita di kebun binatang, dan sumber kebahagiaan mereka yang tersisa adalah anak-anak kecil mereka itu. Mata mereka berbinar saat melihat warna-warni kita, nyanyian kita, kepakan sayap kita dan kalian pasti rasakan itu, ada energi disana, yang membuat kita pengin terus hidup meski terpenjara” kata si tamu antusias.
“Aku juga mengerti ketika kemudian anak-anak kecil itu tumbuh besar, ada bayang-bayang di kepala mereka seperti juga yang terus ada dikepala-kepala bapak-ibu mereka, yang tiba-tiba saja mengubah mereka menjadi bengis saat mereka lapar, menjadi rakus saat kenal uang yang dihasilkan dari melombakan kita, atau menjadi dungu dengan apa yang mereka sendiri lakukan karena kalau bukan mereka yang menembak, atau memburu bangsa kita, ada mereka-mereka yang lain disana yang menembak dan memburu kita sehingga mereka tidak kebagian rejeki dari kita, mereka terlanjur masuk dalam perangkap kesalahan bersama yang tidak akan hilang sampai mereka sendiri secara bersama-sama menghancurkannya” si tamu lancar sekali mengatakannya selayaknya ahli dalam bidangya.
“Nah, untuk itulah aku kembali. Ada perjuangan yang harus kumenangkan. Harus ada yang memberi mereka kesempatan untuk menyadari kesalahan mereka, harus ada yang mengingatkan mereka bahwa hidup ini tidak berpusat pada kepentingan mereka saja, aku ingin terus terlihat disekililing mereka meski sekejap dan terus berpindah dan bersuara, agar mereka perlahan sadar aku bukan berita kematian tetapi berita kehidupan, agar mereka mulai merindukan suaraku dan mendengar kepak sayapku, saat ini akulah yang paling punya kesempatan untuk itu karena yang lain ada disangkar-sangkar. Mungkin aku berlebihan meminta ini, tetapi lain kali kalianlah yang harus datang ketempatku, berikanlah fasilitas untuk sebanyak-banyak kalian berkunjung ke negeriku dan bersama-sama kita ramaikan langit Indonesia dengan kepakan sayap kita, dan nyanyian kita, nyanyian kehidupan untuk semua” tidak terdengar gemuruh applauses dari hadirin tetapi gagak hitam dari Indonesia yakin didada hadirin ada genderang, perasaan tertantang untuk berbuat lebih demi dunia”
Tak ada gerombolan gagak disana. Tak satu gagak pun terlihat. Rupanya mereka sedang punya acara sendiri. Ada tamu dari Indonesia. Si tamu, gagak hitam, terlihat sangat lelah tapi dia teruskan cerita tentang dirinya. Dia merasa banyak hal yang perlu dia bagi. Paling tidak itu akan membuat beban dalam dirinya berkurang.
“Aku lelah bersembunyi. Aku sungguh iri dengan kalian disini. Kalian terbang kemana saja kalian suka, hinggap dimana saja kalian mau, bahkan sering kulihat kalian berbagi santapan dengan mereka” jelas dia tidak sedang berbasa-basi.
“Aku simbol kematian. Aku tidak melakukan apapun yang kalian tidak lakukan tetapi setiap kali aku terbang, aku hinggap, aku bersuara ‘frak, frak, frak’ seperti juga suara kalian aku melihat mereka cemas, aku melihat mereka bertanya-tanya siapa kiranya yang akan mati. Kalau aku memaksakan berdiam diri sekedar melepas lelah, aku melihat ketakutan dimata mereka, semenjak lahir aku dibayang-bayangi dengan suasana mencekam itu, pandangan tidak bersahabat dari mereka, aku segera terbang, bukan untuk menghindar dari kekonyolan mereka, tetapi untuk menyudahi ketidaknyamanan karena kehadiranku. Anehnya mereka semakin meyakini aku ada sebagai pembawa berita petaka karena kemudian ada yang mati, satu dua tetangga sekitar yang sudah tua, atau yang sakit, kalau nggak, yang mati kerabatnya yang tinggal jauh dari tempat aku hinggap, tetapi tetap saja aku lah yang jadi pertanda, mereka banyak jumlahnya, mereka terhubung satu sama lain karena darah, tempat tinggal, atau kerja, dan diantara mereka ada yang mati, setiap hari, aku dan etnisku tetap menjadi pertanda kematian” lanjut si tamu. Yakin dirinya masih disimak, dia teruskan …
“Sedikit sekali yang mereka ketahui tentang aku, mereka nggak ngerti apa yang aku makan, mereka kira aku hidup dari jiwa-jiwa yang lepas dari raga mereka, aku ada tetapi keberadaanku ditiadakan, aku heran bagaimana mereka bisa begitu bersahabat dengan kalian disini, tidak terganggu dengan suara kalian yang parau, bahkan terdengar seperti umpatan sumpah serapah mereka ‘frak, frak, frak’ (dalam otaknya ada huruf ‘u’, ‘u’,” si tamu tersenyum geli mencoba sedikit mencairkan forum yang mulai tegang.
“Apa yang akan kusampaikan selanjutnya ada hubungannya dengan etnis yang lain disini, so kalau nggak keberatan, mohon undang mereka” si tamu yakin akan kontribusinya di negeri baru ini maka dia menginginkan ajang yang lebih besar.
Serempak, seolah-olah menunjukkan kebebasan bersuara dan kepercayaan diri, semua gagak di La Trobe berteriak “frak, frak, frak” dan etnis yang lain pun berdatangan, dalam penyambutan parakit hijau lebih senang dipanggil ‘sahabat’, para jalak minta disapa ‘kawan’, kakatua raja akrab dengan sebutan ‘ikhwan’ burung dara dengan ‘saudara’ dan sebutan lain untuk etnis yang lain.
“Begini ‘semua’ (itulah panggilan yang akhirnya si tamu pilih, kawatir kalau menggunakan salah satu sapaan tadi dianggap berpihak, atau bahkan kurang nggerti audien dan tidak multikulturalis) aku gagak hitam dari Indonesia, simbol kematian” sekejap si tamu melihat keterkejutan di mata para hadirin
“jangan berlebihan dan jangan berprasangka, simbol seringkali menyesatkan dan jelas simbol diciptakan dan dipahami oleh mereka yang sepakat saja” si tamu mulai berbicara akademis untuk menjaga jarak dirinya dengan apa yang akan dia omongkan.
“Aku terbang jauh dari negeriku kesini pertama karena aku sumpek dengan yang kuhadapi di negeriku, kedua karena fasilitas yang kalian berikan kepadaku memungkinkanku untuk melakukan perjalanan ini, terimakasih (si tamu membiasakan diri mengucapkan kata sakti itu disini, meski di negerinya dia diajarkan perasaan hutang budi lebih penting dari kata itu) ketiga, karena aku juga punya sesuatu yang bisa kuberikan kepada kalian (si tamu yakin betul, keseimbangan take and give inilah yang menjiwai semua interaksi di dunia yang pragmatis ini), dan pada kesempatan inilah aku ingin bagikan apa yang kupunya”.
“bangsa kita, di negeriku, menderita” singkat kalimat si tamu tetapi ini cukup menjadi pengantar presentasi yang menarik.
“Empat macam penderitaan, pertama, terperangkap dalam sangkar selamanya menunggu mati, kedua, dalam pelarian dari satu pohon ke pohon lainnya di bawah ancaman senapan angin, ketapel atau pulut perangkap dan saat naas tiba mati tertembus peluru, terhantam batu atau berakhir ke penderitaan nomor satu, masuk sangkar sampai mati, ketiga, kebebasan semu, kamu boleh terbang kemanapun kamu suka, tetapi saat ada mereka yang lapar atau menginginkan menu baru, kamu mati di piring mereka, keempat, terpanggang dihidup-hidup di hutan” si tamu mengutarakan poin-poin pembicaraannya.
“Derkuku, jalak, muray, cucak rawa, cendrawasih, kakatua raja, semua parakit, dan yang lain, keindahan suara, dan warna bulu-bulu kalian akan membuat kalian berakhir di sangkar-sangkar kecil di rumah mereka, atau sangkar besar di kebun binatang” hadirin yang disapa si tamu mulai merinding membayangkan dirinya sebagai pelakon cerita.
“Semua dari kita, yang kebetulan terlahir di luar sangkar, dari ayah-bunda kita yang pejuang dan bernasib baik setidaknya sampai kita lahir, setiap hari selalu dibekali nasehat ‘berhati-hatilah nak, perhatikan sekelilingmu, jangan rakus menikmati santapanmu sehingga lupa dibawah sana mereka membidikmu, jangan hinggap di satu tempat terlalu lama dan jangan pamerkan suaramu, bahkan untuk menyapa kami ayah-bundamu, dan kalau kita tidak lagi bertemu sore nanti, jangan cari kami, perhatikan saja keselamatan kalian” masih ada tangis juga di mata si tamu meski dia berusaha keras menahannya, sekarang malah lebih deras dari biasanya karena para hadirin menunjukkan empatinya dan tidak kuasa juga membendung airmata.
“kalian burung dara, dijadikan teman mereka, dibikinkan tempat berteduh dan disediakan makanan kesukaan kalian, kalian boleh terbang kemana saja tetapi pasti kalian akan kembali kepada mereka karena itu lebih baik bagi kalian daripada menjadi burung liar. Mereka suka melihat kalian bercumbu, kalian punya anak, kalian bercumbu lagi, punya anak lagi, lalu mereka datang kepadamu suatu petang, mengambil seberapa banyak dari kalian yang mereka butuhkan, menyisakan sepasang dua pasang dari kalian yang masih muda untuk bercumbu dan beranak lagi, kalian tidak sempat berpamitan pada anak cucu kalian karena kalian terlena dengan kebebasan semu yang mereka tawarkan” si tamu, gagak hitam, seolah ingin menasehati kawanan burung dara, dia lupa burung dara disini beda dengan di negerinya. Burung dara disini buuanyaak sekali, bahkan mereka ada di stasiun-stasiun tanpa rasa takut berakhir mati di piring-piring.
“diantara yang terlahir di hutan, kakatua raja, cendrawasih, dan yang lainnya, dari ayah-bunda yang lugu, yang tidak tahu seperti apa sesungguhnya mereka itu, tumbuh dengan nyanyian kasih sayang, yang terlalu indah untuk disimpan saja di telinga, semua menyanyikannya, semua menari, semua pamerkan warna-warni bajunya, dan tiba-tiba saja panas dimana-mana, api mengejar, memanggang semuanya” rupanya untuk poin yang keempat ini, si tamu kurang banyak punya data, observasi dan researchnya tidak begitu menunjang dan terlebih lagi dirinya terlahir di kebun kelapa, dekat dengan desa, sekali waktu ke kota tetapi hutan belum pernah disinggahinya.
“Aku pikir akan lebih baik kalau kemudian kita berdiskusi, sehingga aku tidak terjebak dalam fenomena teacher-centered dan kalian pun dapat mengembangkan critical thinking, percayalah aku mulai terbiasa dengan cara kalian disini” si tamu secara terbuka menghormati pendekatan keilmuan disini dan bersiap diri untuk tidak mengganggap pendapatnya sendiri yang benar.
“Menurutmu apakah mereka jahat? Mengapa mereka begitu tega terhadap bangsa kita? Apakah kamu akan kembali ke negerimu? Atau kau juga akan menjadi warga baru kami?” langsung saja banyak pertanyaan kritis dilontarkan, si tamu tenang.
“Aku jawab tidak urut. Aku mulai dari yang mendasar. Aku tidak akan menjadi warga baru kalian dan aku akan kembali ke negeriku” terdengar hadirin sedikit ribut dengan jawaban ini, ada yang menganggap si tamu sok nasionalis, tidak rasional, dan kolot karena takut dengan perubahan.
“Aku meyakini mereka tidak jahat, aku melihat mereka sebagai korban juga. Setiap kali aku melihat anak-anak kecil dari mereka, aku merasakan persahabatan, aku merasakan kekaguman mereka, aku sering sempatkan tengok bangsa kita di kebun binatang, dan sumber kebahagiaan mereka yang tersisa adalah anak-anak kecil mereka itu. Mata mereka berbinar saat melihat warna-warni kita, nyanyian kita, kepakan sayap kita dan kalian pasti rasakan itu, ada energi disana, yang membuat kita pengin terus hidup meski terpenjara” kata si tamu antusias.
“Aku juga mengerti ketika kemudian anak-anak kecil itu tumbuh besar, ada bayang-bayang di kepala mereka seperti juga yang terus ada dikepala-kepala bapak-ibu mereka, yang tiba-tiba saja mengubah mereka menjadi bengis saat mereka lapar, menjadi rakus saat kenal uang yang dihasilkan dari melombakan kita, atau menjadi dungu dengan apa yang mereka sendiri lakukan karena kalau bukan mereka yang menembak, atau memburu bangsa kita, ada mereka-mereka yang lain disana yang menembak dan memburu kita sehingga mereka tidak kebagian rejeki dari kita, mereka terlanjur masuk dalam perangkap kesalahan bersama yang tidak akan hilang sampai mereka sendiri secara bersama-sama menghancurkannya” si tamu lancar sekali mengatakannya selayaknya ahli dalam bidangya.
“Nah, untuk itulah aku kembali. Ada perjuangan yang harus kumenangkan. Harus ada yang memberi mereka kesempatan untuk menyadari kesalahan mereka, harus ada yang mengingatkan mereka bahwa hidup ini tidak berpusat pada kepentingan mereka saja, aku ingin terus terlihat disekililing mereka meski sekejap dan terus berpindah dan bersuara, agar mereka perlahan sadar aku bukan berita kematian tetapi berita kehidupan, agar mereka mulai merindukan suaraku dan mendengar kepak sayapku, saat ini akulah yang paling punya kesempatan untuk itu karena yang lain ada disangkar-sangkar. Mungkin aku berlebihan meminta ini, tetapi lain kali kalianlah yang harus datang ketempatku, berikanlah fasilitas untuk sebanyak-banyak kalian berkunjung ke negeriku dan bersama-sama kita ramaikan langit Indonesia dengan kepakan sayap kita, dan nyanyian kita, nyanyian kehidupan untuk semua” tidak terdengar gemuruh applauses dari hadirin tetapi gagak hitam dari Indonesia yakin didada hadirin ada genderang, perasaan tertantang untuk berbuat lebih demi dunia”
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