INSPIRING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS IN SUPPORTING CHILD RIGHTS IN EDUCATION
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INSPIRING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS
IN SUPPORTING CHILD RIGHTS IN EDUCATION
By: H.A.
R. Tilaar
Professor Emeritus UNJ
PROLOGUE
George Ritzer suggests that today’s
globalization and the materialistic view of life have led people to empty life.[1] Such trend has also penetrated into the
world of education and changed educational institutions into ones that prepare just
for producing skilful manpower. Commercialization of education has brought up
robotic human beings with no heart. Educational institutions have become
prisons due to their being used only as facilities for human resource
investment for the sake of economic purposes. Thus, educational institutions
are not child-friendly anymore.
I.
WHAT IS A "
A child is born powerless, yet, equipped with
various capabilities to be developed to live in a human environment. Educational
institutions such as families and schools function to assist children in
developing their potentials: intellectual, emotional, moral and social. These
potential capabilities need to be developed. Development of these potentials
requires a situation of freedom that can allow education participants to make
their choices. Capability and opportunity to make choices is one human
characteristic. Therefore, the freedom education participant needs of is not freedom
in everything but one to make choices for which they will initially be assisted
by educators or parents. In this respect, educators/parents are leaders who
provide opportunities and gradually assist children in learning to make choices
on their own so that eventually they become independent human beings.
Generally, ‘
II.
THE TASK OF THE TEACHERS IN THE
Children as vulnerable human beings were
thrown into the world without power. It is the responsibility of the
parents/educators to assist these powerless children to become, gradually,
independent.
The first world experienced by education
participant is their own family. In loving environment, they begin to get to
know their world and develop their potentials as well as their preferences. In
human environment, these potentials are developed through habit and learning so
that a child can identify the kind of life that is appropriate for him/herself
in his or her respective human environment. This is the kind of education
atmosphere that is relevant to the needs of children, one that is challenging
to the development of child’s potentials. Indeed, in one’s life there are
"reward and punishment" that aim at assisting a child to become an
independent person. In such learning environment that children can gradually
become independent or mature with the loving and caring relationship between
themselves and their parents. Dialog between parents and children that exists
in a loving atmosphere is the main characteristic of the educational situation
of institutions that respect the needs of participants.
In the modern society, educational
institutions or schools are consecutive to the primary educational institution
i.e. family. In this way, educators becomes surrogates of parents, who assist education
participant in understanding the various aspects of life such as advancement in
science and technology, moral values of the changing world, aesthetic values,
and the values of sharing life with the society.
What is the function of educational
institution (school) in the today’s rapidly changing society? By respecting the
needs of children and considering the fact that the world is rapidly changing,
these institutions of modern society do not exist only as ‘transfer of
knowledge’ institutions; rather, they provide attention towards the development
of education participant’ capabilities to make own choices and develop
themselves. Thus, educational institutions are not merely ones to accommodate
the aspirations of present generation but also their needs as the heirs of
future life with its widely open possibilities. This means that development of
creativity, freedom to think and do within the framework of shared-living
morality becomes the paradigm underlying these modern educational institutions.
To sum up, CFS is not a prison for children,
where they receive indoctrination the values of the old generation, but a
‘cooking-pot’ for them in an atmosphere of freedom to study values of the past,
present and the future.[3]
This
is the kind of educational institution that is challenging to education
participant, one that prepares participants to look into their future with
complete responsibility.
III.
CHALLENGES OF FACING TEACHING PROFESSION
TODAY
What is going on in the educational
institution of today’s globalization era? As discussed earlier, the
globalization era has brought about considerable changes in educational
institutions.
1.
School
as a social institution of the modern society has been part of globalization that
is lack of spirit or character. Schools are not anymore the
place for developing the potentials and needs of children but one for meeting
the needs of the materialistic society. Educational institutions are not the
place for developing the moral quality of society members but ones that serve
as economic investment for developing required human resource. The underlying
paradigm of education is now "return to investment." Economic
considerations have been the reference of educational process existing in
modern schools.
2.
Schools
have turned to become prisons. Educational institutions of the modern society have become an arena for the
inculcation of values that are considered important to the society as of
primary ones. The values include those for achieving materialistic happiness,
values of competition that are based on Darwinism social concept: “the strong,
smart, and wealthy ones will likely survive in life.” The competition principles,
market forces, and global values in McDonaldization of education have become
the major objective of educational institutions. Internalization and
development of the local values inherent in local cultures begin to fade and
replaced by the heartless global ones. This is what so called commercialization
of educational process in the educational institutions that have changed into
prisons.
Can the above illustrated trend be changed?
IV.
PRE-SERVICE CURRICULUM IN TEACHER EDUCATION
CFS requires professional teachers who
understand and respect the needs of children. This can be achieved through the
curriculum of Teacher Education.
Teacher Education curriculum basically
consists of two components: 1). Theoretical component and 2). Praxis component.
Theoretical
component
First of all, prospective professional
educators need to be introduced to educational theories that emphasize on
educational process as the process of giving freedom. Paulo Freire’s theory
(Freirean movement)[4] needs to be comprehended by prospective
educators, among others, to make educational process a process to give freedom
to education participants rather than a banking system. In this context, the
function and responsibility of educators are not a process of indoctrination
that prepare education participants to pass in all kinds of tests and
examinations to meet the standards set out by the government, yet, to lead them
to become people of freedom. People who are aware of their own existence, among
others, realize their needs for releasing themselves from the pressure of
powers such as poverty, violation of human rights, and other kinds of
discrimination found in the life of human beings.[5]
Praxis
component
Prospective professional educators begin to
be introduced to alternative educational institutions that provide the widest
opportunities for education participants to develop thinking and acting based
on morality. Such kind of institutions can be found, either organized by the government
or society members. The forms of alternative education will be discussed
further.
V.
THE NEEDS OF PEDAGOGY BASED ON LOCAL WISDOM
Globalization tends to eliminate local
values.[6] In today educational institutions, there is
a tendency to set up global values by creating international standards; for
example, the various ISO standards in trade that also begin to be implemented
in educational field in the form of educational standards with a view to
establishing schools of international standards and a number of rank scheme for
establishing "world class education" such as "world class
university".
Can “local wisdom” in educational science
become the way out to bring back the spirit to education (in
1.
Tamansiswa Educational Institution
The principle of Tamansiswa is “Tut Wuri
Handayani”,[7] which means that educators position
themselves behind education participants. Yet, they can also be at the sides to
guide, or in front to lead education participants in their state of freedom. This
local wisdom has begun to fade in Indonesian national education although “Tut
Wuri Handayani” has been established as the coat of arms of the National
Education Ministry. Schools are not prisons but a “garden/park” where children
can actualize themselves under the guidance of their educators.
2.
Nature Functions as Teacher (”Alam takambang jadi guru”)
This is the local wisdom from
That is how local wisdom in education can
make schools of modern society to be friendly institutions to children. In this
way, they can lead education participants to the global world while remain
keeping its content, i.e. local values beneficial to share living with other
people in this globalizing world.
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