Researching religious tolerance education using discourse analysis: a case study from Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Complementing existing studies on religious tolerance education which have mainly evaluated interventions using pre–post designs, this article argues that discourse analysis can be a viable alternative methodology for generating new knowledge in this field. To illuminate the potentials of discourse analysis, the article also presents a case study of the application of this methodology in analysing a religious tolerance education project in an under-represented Global South country, Indonesia – where religious conservatism and intolerance are on the rise. Following the contact hypothesis, the project involved students from different religions working on a film-making group assignment about religious tolerance. Three key discourses drawn upon by students in giving meaning to religious tolerance within these films are identified, namely, a discourse of nationalism, tolerant theologies, and romantic love; and their implications are discussed with regard to the promotion of religious tolerance in education.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious tolerance
• religious education
• discourse analysis
• Indonesia

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Centre for Humanity and Social Studies (Dept. MKU), University of Surabaya, for enabling this project; to the Director, Aluisius Hery Pratono, for commenting on drafts of this article; to the Centre for Learning and Curriculum Development (PPKP) for funding the project; and to all RE lecturers involved in this project for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Centre for Learning and Curriculum Development (PPKP), University of Surabaya.

Notes on contributors

Teguh Wijaya Mulya

Teguh Wijaya Mulya is a lecturer in the Faculty of Psychology and the Centre for Humanities and Social Studies (Departemen Mata Kuliah Umum) at the University of Surabaya, Indonesia. He specialises in critical research in the areas of sexuality, gender, religion, and neoliberalism. His work is inspired by the work of Michel Foucault, post-structuralist feminism, and discourse theories.

Anindito Aditomo

Anindito Aditomo is a lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Surabaya, Indonesia. He holds a bachelor degree from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia, and master and doctoral degrees from the University of Sydney, Australia. With a background in both psychology and education, he is particularly interested in how the sciences of learning can inform instruction and broader educational processes. Anindito is currently a guest researcher at the DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Germany. His research at DIPF is funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and focuses on the analysis of international large-scale assessments of learning data.