Multicultural Education Values in the Indonesian Textbooks: A Critical Discourse Analysis

The values of multicultural education in Indonesian middle and high school textbooks have been of great interest among researchers, for the Indonesian people have a variety of cultures, ethnicities, religions, as well as different levels of economy. Teaching the values of multicultural education in Indonesian language textbooks aims to foster solidarity and harmony in society. Multicultural education aims to achieve two objectives, namely national unity and cultural diversity, in order to adapt to the changes brought about by the country's economic progress and globalization. This study compared the dominant values of multicultural education between Indonesian language textbooks for grade 7 middle and grade 10 high schools. Based on critical discourse analysis, this study documented the values of multicultural education in three major issues: religion, culture, and ethnicity. The results of the comparative analysis show that high school Indonesian language textbooks dominate the values of multicultural education more than those middle school textbooks. Additionally, the implications and suggestions for further development of the values of multicultural education in the two textbooks are also discussed.