Exploring the Contemporaneity of Taman Siswa: Alternative Education in Indonesia

Abstract

Founded in 1922 in Yogyakarta, Taman Siswa was an alternative school to the Dutch colonial education system. During the post-independence period, Taman Siswa had been engaging a tug of war between the debates of �traditional education� & �national education�. What position should the school take to preserve its uniqueness during the postcolonial period? Decades later, contemporary Yogyakarta is home to alternative art and cultural spaces. They more or less, like Taman Siswa, look for autonomous, independent space outside the authoritative education system. In 2016, Kunci Cultural Studies Center founded a �School of Improper Education� (it was named "Sekolah Salah Didik" in Bahasa, literally "school of wrong education�). It invites participants to learn �how to learn� together. Kunci�s method is said to be inspired by Taman Siswa, and they seek to experiment the possibility of building a postcolonial alternative education in contemporary times.