Indonesian Cultural Heritage Day
Introduction
When I moved from Los Angeles to Indonesia last summer, my work with student-led advocacy almost entirely transformed. I spent my first several years in the classroom learning about my students’ cultures, backgrounds, and the injustices that impact young people in South Central Los Angeles. The majority of my advocacy work in the United States entailed encouraging my students to demonstrate that they could use their individual and collective assets to navigate and challenge both systemic injustices as well as inequity of opportunities. However, working in a relatively affluent suburb of Jakarta, I was not sure if my students faced the same issues. To solve this problem and identify areas of need for my current students, I determined the best place to start was to ask my students for their input.
After the conversations and classroom discussions that occurred in several advocacy lessons—described in detail below—it became evident that my students face the real-world problem of fading traditional culture caused by the aggressive dissemination of western and Korean cultures throughout Indonesia. My students expressed the need for an outlet to demonstrate that they could use their individual and collective assets to increase pride in Indonesian and Javanese cultural identity. To accomplish this task, we planned and executed an Indonesian cultural heritage day last fall. This event consisted of dressing up in traditional Javanese outfits—Batik—and enjoying a meal of traditional Indonesian foods.
Below you will find evidence that students were learning how to speak, write and think about real-world problems as well as actively engaging in each of these tasks through the various stages of planning and implementing this event. The goal of this cultural heritage day was to increase pride in cultural identity, and student, staff, and family survey responses are shown below to demonstrate that this goal was accomplished. Finally, a reflection on the positive aspects of this event as well as potential areas for growth should this event occur again in the future is included.
Student Led Advocacy Introductory Lesson
When I started thinking about how to initiate this project with my students, it became clear that many of my students had never heard of the concept of advocacy before. This concept is not nearly as present here in Indonesia as it is in the United States. Students would not be able to fully engage with an advocacy activity without first becoming familiar with the general idea of what advocacy means. Furthermore, having just moved to this country, I was unsure of the specific injustices and issues that are important to my students. The following lesson was designed and implemented to accomplish the dual goal of introducing the topic of advocacy to my students as well as helping identify real-world problems that impact my current students and the community in which they live.
One real-world problem I was aware of at the start of this advocacy project was a large amount of litter in this city and the community surrounding our school. I also knew this bothered many of my students. To act as a hook for this lesson—shown in the document on the left—and introduce my students to the concept of advocacy, students and I started class by walking around our school and picking up litter. Students were tasked with collecting a minimum of ten pieces each. This activity was designed to show students that they could use their individual assets to tackle the real-world problem of pollution. I collected all the trash from students, and we looked at the trash bag we nearly filled in just five minutes. I conducted a brief discussion about the power of using collective assets and working together. Individually, no one did an excessive amount of work, but when we combined our total effort, we had made a reasonably significant impact for such a short amount of time.
Student-led advocacy introduction lesson plan
After throwing away our bag of collected trash, we returned to the classroom to view Sam Steven's TED Talk "Moving Youth Towards Action and Activism"—shown in the video on the left—to get students thinking about real-world problems and introduce them to the four facets of social responsibility. We followed the viewing of this video with a discussion about different issues young people face in this country and this community. Through this classroom discussion, two areas of dissatisfaction were identified among my students. First, students stated they are not happy with the state of the environment in this area. Jakarta is an incredibly polluted city. There are days when smog is so bad that we all wear facemasks and litter is a huge problem. Second, I learned that while students have a deep sense of national pride and traditional Indonesian and Javanese culture is incredibly important to them, they are not satisfied with these topics in their lives. Many students said that they feel like traditional Indonesian culture is starting to be replaced by western and Korean cultures.
TED Talk shown to students during this lesson
The two primary areas of concern—identified in the previous activity—were written on one of my classroom walls. Students were tasked with thinking of as many potential solutions—that we could implement as a class—to the outlined problems as possible. The pictures below show students thinking, speaking, and writing about potential solutions to these real-world problems.
Students brainstorming solutions for selected social issues
Students putting the final solutions on the brainstorming wall
Solutions to address the fading of traditional Indonesian Culture
A student starting one of the two brainstorm walls
Solutions to address pollution and litter in Jakarta and around our school
Following this brainstorming activity, we held a class vote to determine which of the real-world problem we would like to make the focus of our classroom advocacy project. I had planned on conducting an additional discussion after the vote to reach a consensus, but this was not necessary—the vote was unanimous in favor of addressing the real-world problem of fading traditional Indonesian and Javanese culture with the goal of attempting to increase pride in cultural identity.
We concluded this lesson with a more in-depth discussion of this issue and why it was essential to my students. I used the discussion as a learning experience to get to know my students and their culture better to plan the next lesson—shown below—more effectively.
Traditional Indonesian Culture Lesson
After students identified a real-world problem and began to think, speak and write about its impact on their lives, it was time to focus on a feasible solution. As a class, we decided that having an Indonesian cultural heritage day would be a way for students to use both individual and collective assets to increase their pride in cultural identity and address the identified problem. We also decided to make this event open to all students and staff of EF as well as their family members—not just our class. The lesson plan—shown in the document on the left—was designed with this goal in mind.
Preservation of culture lesson plan
At the beginning of this lesson, students, in pairs, were asked to think of aspects of traditional Indonesian and Javanese culture that they find essential of preservation. Several student samples of these lists can be found in the document on the left. This brainstorming activity was followed by a brief discussion about similarities and differences between the student-generated lists. Two major areas were identified—food and Batik.
Aspects of traditional Indonesian culture brainstorm lists
Students, in groups, were then given several articles relating to this topic. These articles are included in the document on the left as follows: "10 Easy Ways How to Preserve Indonesian Culture" shown on page one through four; "Preserving of Traditional Culture Expression in Indonesia" on page five through 11; and "Be Proud of Indonesian Cultural Heritage Richness and be Alert of Its Preservation Efforts in the Global World" on page 12 through 23. Students were assigned either an entire article or a part of one—the third reading was split in half because it is longer than the others. Students were tasked with becoming experts on their assigned reading, and then they taught the rest of their group about what they read. While students identified the real-world problem of fading traditional Indonesian culture, this activity was designed to give students evidence and additional information about the topic, which they would be able to draw from and cite later when thinking, speaking, and writing about this real-world problem.
Resources provided to students about the preservation of culture
During the next phase of this lesson, students were asked to think about what a cultural heritage day would look like in regards to implementation. Before this lesson, I spoke to my administration and got the event approved, and we selected the date—the last day of the semester before the end of year recess. With this date in mind, students completed the action-planning chart—shown in the document on the left—to begin thinking about the steps necessary to make this plan become a reality.
Student samples of initial steps action planning chart
Students also created mock flyers and timelines for a potential event. This activity was designed to get as many ideas on the table as possible. I was then able to collect these papers, analyze them, and guide students in their planning for this event.
Mock flyers and event timelines
Until this point, students had been thinking and speaking about this real-world problem. The activity—shown in the document on the left—was designed to give them the opportunity to use the information they have learned to write about this real-world problem while citing evidence from the provided resources. In this activity, students were asked to think why the preservation of traditional Indonesian culture is important to them.
Student writing samples of the importance of preservation of traditional Indonesian culture
We concluded this lesson with a class discussion of the next steps for the implementation of this event. With the date selected, we had roughly seven weeks to plan and implement this event. Before this lesson, I thought of three necessary next steps to continue the planning process—reaching out to parents and families to solicit donations; planning the specific timeline and logistics for the event; creating advisements and flyers for the event. I divided each of these responsibilities into different committee and wrote each on the whiteboard. Students had to sign up for one or two of the committees before leaving class. These committees were just a starting point—with the idea that more could be created and responsibilities could be redistributed as we continued to plan for the event.
Family Outreach Committee—Potential Donations Flyer
Students on the family outreach committee created the save the date flyer on the left. This flyer was designed to achieve the dual goals of informing families about the upcoming event and soliciting material donations and volunteer help. While creating this flyer, students decided the two primary areas of need for donations would be food and Batik. The use of multi-media and technology is an area of weakness for myself. I told students that this is not a skill I have and turned over all the responsibility for making this flyer to the family outreach committee. This flyer was designed to be sent home with students and hung up around our lobby where family members come to pick up their students. This solicitation worked better than we ever could have expected. A few days after this flyer was sent home, our main office was contacted by the owner of a restaurant down the street from our school called Rumah Cikunir. This restaurant is designed based on visual themes of a traditional Javanese village. Patrons arrive, get dressed in traditional Javanese clothing, enjoy a delicious meal and then take pictures in front of various displays. His daughter attends our school, and he volunteered the use of his restaurant for our event. Honestly, I couldn't believe our luck. Reflecting now, we would not have been able to implement an event that was as successful as this event ended up being without this donation. The two most significant areas of concern I had were obtaining food and Batik donations and coordinating the accompanying logistics. Those concerns were alleviated with a single phone call.
Family outreach "Save the Date" flyer
Advertising Committee—Event Flyer
Once we had a date, time, and a general schedule of events, the students on the adverting committee created the flyer on the left. This event advertisement was, once again, sent home with students and hung up around our lobby where families come to pick up their students.
Event flyer created by the advertising committee
Social Media Committee—Instagram Posts
In regards to advertising for the event, I originally planned on having students stop with the event flyer—I thought that would be sufficient. However, one of my students called me "old" and informed me none of the students read the flyers that are hung out around our hallways. She suggested we create a social media post that could be shared by students in our class to advertise for the event more effectively and efficiently. I told her I thought this was a great idea—and then suggested drafting tweets to be posted to Twitter. This suggestion earned me an eye roll, and she called me old again. According to my students, "Twitter is for old people." I was informed that students only use Instagram. I was also surprised to learn that my students do not use Snapchat. This concept was a huge difference between my current students and my students in the United States. Instagram is the "only social media that matters" according to another one of my students. Based on all of this information, we formed a social media committee which created the picture in the post on the left as well as drafted the caption to go along with it.
Screenshot of a student's Instagram post advertising the heritage day
Logistics Committee—Event Timeline
On the day of the event, guests were given the flyer on the left as they arrived. The staff of Rumah Cikunir created the actual timeline a few weeks before the event and emailed it to me so my students could create the flyer shown on the left. This task was given to the original timeline and logistics committee formed in class. However, thanks to the generous donation of space, time, and expertise by Rumah Cikunir, we did not have to plan the actual logistics like we were initially anticipating.
Event schedule and timeline
Pictures from EF Indonesian Cultural Heritage Day
At EF's first ever Indonesian cultural heritage day, students were provided with an outlet to celebrate their culture with their friends from school, their families, as well as some of their teachers. EF is an English immersion school—we are designed to replicate a school in a nation where English is the primary language. Many of my students have the goal of attending university in one of these nations. For this reason, we spend a lot of time focusing on cultures where English is the native language. It was wonderful to see students so excited to embrace Indonesian and Javanese culture and share this with my western colleagues and myself. We do not get to flip the script this way often, and it was incredible to see my students pride in their cultural identity grow through this event.
As shown in the timeline above, the main aspects of this event consisted of dressing up in traditional Javanese outfits to eat a traditional meal and then take pictures in front of displays around the restaurant that looked like a traditional Javanese village. Below you will find photos from the event. The only faces that are not covered in these pictures are those of my colleagues and myself.
Ayam Goreng (lowest dish in the picture)
Tumpeng
Nasi Rames
Telur Dadlar
Ikan Goreng
Sayur Daun Singkong
Two guests of the event shortly after getting dressed into traditional Javanese outfits
A student who helped plan the heritage day
Two teachers and myself posing with several students and their family members
A student posing with her parents
Female event participants posing outside Rumah Cikunir
Group photo taken in front of one of the backdrops at Rumah Cikunir
Reflections from Survey
The goal of this event was to increase pride in cultural identity. Unfortunately, due to the set up of my current school and my required curriculum, students do not have frequent opportunities to express their thoughts about their culture and traditions. This event was designed to remedy this problem. At the end of the event students and their families were given the link to a survey intended to reflect on the day and their expression of aspects of their traditional culture. This survey was designed to allow students and me to determine the success of the event and to see if we achieved our goal of increasing pride in cultural identity. I shared some of the answers with my students during a classroom discussion to wrap up this advocacy project and event.
Reflections from post-event survey
Teacher Reflection
This event turned out better than my students or myself ever could have expected. Shortly after the implementation of the first two lessons, we encountered a roadblock that had the potential to derail this event entirely. While I was granted approval for the event from my administration, there was a situation at my school that resulted in the equivalent of my principal, assistant principal, center director, and the primary member of our office staff to resign. They did not give notice—they didn't show up one day. Our school turned in to a bit of a madhouse for the final few weeks of the semester last fall while the logistics of getting these staff members replaced was figured out. Without the donation from Rumah Cikunir, I am honestly not sure if we would have been able to organize the logistics necessary to hold the event at our school. This donation saved the heritage day and ended up making it better than we could have asked for.
If I were to implement this event again with future students, I would add a portion of the day dedicated to displays about Indonesian and Javanese culture and written samples of students expressing their pride in their culture. Early on in this process, students wrote about why the preservation of Indonesian culture is important to them. Looking back now, I would have liked to find a way to display these reflections at the event. I am a firm believer that no matter how successful an event is there is always room for growth. This change is one way I would push the heritage day to be better if it happens again in the future.
Overall, I think this day will be one of the most prominent bright spots of my time teaching in Indonesia. At the start of this project, students were exposed to the concept of advocacy for the first time. We were able to discuss issues that impact my students' lives and demonstrate that students' voices and opinions matter and can make a difference. Students were able to use their individual and collective assets to plan an event to increase pride in cultural identity for not only themselves but also for their families and staff around our school. This project was not just me teaching something to my students. Students were learning from each other, and I was learning from them as well. While I initiated this advocacy project originally, students engaged in it and then followed through with each of the steps. Students showed that they were not only able to think about real-world problems that impact their lives but also to speak and write about these problems in intelligent and mature ways while citing evidence from the resources I provided. I couldn't be more proud of what my students were able to accomplish during this event.