Between National Identity and Global Mindset: A Cross-Grade Cultural Analysis in Indonesia’s State-Endorsed English Textbooks
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26877/eternal.v7i2.3427Keywords:
Cultural representation, Coursebook analysis, Intercultural competence, English TextbookAbstract
The present study examined three English coursebooks published by the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (MoECRT) for Grades 6, 9, and 12 in 2022. Using a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design, cultural occurrences were coded with Cortazzi and Jin’s (1999) framework, and the official documents were analyzed using directed content analysis to interpret and explain the identified cultural patterns. The result found that the source (Indonesian) culture dominated every coursebook, accounting for 97.5% of content in Grade 6, 90% in Grade 9, and 70% in Grade 12. Although the inclusion of target and international cultures increased with grade level, their representation remained limited. Target culture rose from 0% in Grade 6 to 3% in Grade 9 to 19% in Grade 12, and international culture from 2.5% to 7% to 11%. The document analysis showed that this source-culture dominance aligned with the Merdeka curriculum’s emphasis on preserving national identity and local culture. On the other hand, the absence of target culture at the primary level and the scarcity of both target and international cultures across all three grades contradicted the curriculum's stated objective of developing a global mindset and intercultural competence. The study offers the first cross-grade comparison of cultural representation within a single Indonesian curriculum and recommends a meaningful increase in the inclusion of content on target and international cultures in future state-endorsed English coursebooks in Indonesia.References
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