Minority Ethnic Students' Experiences in Multicultural Education: A Study Based on Banks' Five Dimensions at an Elite Catholic High School in Surabaya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21009/ijlecr.v11i2.60566Keywords:
Multicultural Education, Minority Ethnic Students, Catholic School, Culturally Responsive TeachingAbstract
Multicultural education is a critical policy objective in diverse societies like Indonesia. This qualitative study explores the experiences of four minority ethnic students at an elite Catholic high school in Surabaya, where the majority of students are Chinese Indonesian. Using Banks' Five Dimensions of Multicultural Education as an analytical framework, the data were analysed through thematic analysis. The findings highlight two main dynamics within the institution. The school successfully promotes a positive social environment and provides symbolic empowerment through cultural programs and extracurricular visibility. However, significant structural inequities remain, such as a lack of teacher training in culturally responsive teaching and the implicit favouring of the majority group’s privilege, such as access to private tutoring. These factors lead to disproportionate representation, with majority students dominating leadership roles. The paper argues that while the school celebrates diversity, it must move beyond mere tolerance and adopt structural reforms to achieve true social justice and eliminate the unspoken ethnic hierarchy that persists.
References
Banks, J. A. (2010). Multicultural education: Characteristics and goals. In J. A. Banks & C. A. McGee-Banks (Eds.), Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (pp. 3–30). John Wiley & Sons.
Banks, J. A. (2016). Cultural diversity and education: Foundations, curriculum, and teaching. Routledge.
Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. M. (2007). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (6th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. M. (2016). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (9th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Benediktsson, A. I. (2022). The place of multicultural education in legal acts concerning teacher education in Norway. Multicultural Education Review, 14(4), 228–242. https://doi.org/10.1080/2005615X.2023.2164972
Blake, J. J., Fenning, P. A., & Jimerson, S. R. (2024). Building an evidence base for professional learning in prejudice reduction, racial bias, and antiracism in schools: Slow motion is better than no motion. School Psychology Review, 53(4), 341–353. https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2024.2362550
Brown, J. C., & Livstrom, I. C. (2020). Secondary science teachers' pedagogical design capacities for multicultural curriculum design. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 31(8), 821–840. https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2020.1756588
Cho, J., & Heinz, M. (2025). The intersection of faith, spirituality and interreligious engagement in Catholic schools: Teachers’ perspectives from Ireland and South Korea. British Journal of Religious Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2025.2489054
Creswell, J. W., & Guetterman, T. C. (2019). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (6th ed.). Pearson.
Dawis, A. (2010). The Chinese of Indonesia and their search for identity: The relationship between collective memory and the media. Cambria Press.
Doucette, B., Sanabria, A., Sheplak, A., & Aydin, H. (2021). The perceptions of culturally diverse graduate students on multicultural education: Implication for inclusion and diversity awareness in higher education. European Journal of Educational Research, 10(3), 1259–1273. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.10.3.1259
Harjatanaya, T. Y., & Hoon, C. (2018). Politics of multicultural education in post-Suharto Indonesia: A study of the Chinese minority. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2018.1493573
Holtz, E., Sanders, M., Johnson, V. R., Turner, M., Freitas, D., Crawford, A., Fontenot, D. C., Kwok, A., & Williams, J. A. (2025). Are they actually getting it?: Investigating preservice teachers’ conceptualization and operationalization of equality and equity in their classrooms. Multicultural Education Review, 17(2), 101–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/2005615X.2025.2498515
Latif, Y. (2020). Pendidikan yang berkebudayaan: Histori, konsepsi, dan aktualisasi pendidikan transformatif. PT. Gramedia Pustaka Utama.
Lim, S. M. (2009). Ruang sosial baru perempuan Tionghoa: Sebuah kajian pascakolonial. Yayasan Obor Indonesia.
Mahfud, C. (2016). Pendidikan multikultural. Pustaka Pelajar.
May, S., & Sleeter, C. E. (2010). Critical multiculturalism: Theory and praxis. Routledge
Ng, C. S. M., Chai, W., Chan, S. P., & Chung, K. K. H. (2021). Hong Kong preschool teachers’ utilization of culturally responsive teaching to teach Chinese to ethnic minority students: A qualitative exploration. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 42(4), 641–660. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2021.1873102
Park, S., & Cho, Y. (2020). Explaining academic achievement gaps in South Korea with multicultural education paradigms. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2020.1823315
Raihani, R. (2017). Education for multicultural citizens in Indonesia: Policies and practices. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2017.1399250
Raihani, R., Issabekova, G., Maulana, T., & Abdrakhman, G. (2025). Multicultural education in Indonesia’s “merdeka” curriculum. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2025.2.413.432
Rohman, M., & Lessy, Z. (2017). Practicing multicultural education through religiously affiliated schools and its implications for social change. Jurnal Pendidikan Islam, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.14421/jpi.2017.61.1-24
Smets, W. (2024). The purposes of historical canons in multicultural history education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 56(3), 297–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2024.2328050
Taylor, A., & Elphick, L. (2023). Religious schools: A transparent right to discriminate? Griffith Law Review, 32(3), 286–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/10383441.2023.2278363
Urban, G. S. (2013). The eternal newcomer: Chinese Indonesian identity from Indonesia to the United States. LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.5642/lux.201303.19
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Vincentia Aprilla Putri, Lucianus Suharjanto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
