Altruism in English Language Education Documents of Indonesia Open University

Abstract

Altruism refers to devotion to the welfare of others, regard for others, as a principle of action, opposed to egoism or selfishness. It is a natural part of us all and innate from a very young age. However, to put that belief into practice it needs to be cultivated from primary school to university. Indonesian government has stipulated it in educational-related documents. This study investigated whether altruism is implanted in the documents of English language education in Indonesia Open University. Content Analysis was carried out to analyze two textbooks used in the Master Program of English Language Education. The data was all altruism-related words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and illustrations in the books. The study revealed that altruism-related words were unequally distributed throughout the books, from learning activity to assessment. They were not even explicitly stated that the lecturers might not be aware of them, let alone implanted them in the teaching-learning activities. The limited number of face-to-face meeting also contributed to the lack implantation as well. It could be tentatively concluded then that altruism was not deliberately implanted in the documents of English Language Education under this study.