Language Ideologies and Educational Inequality: Linguistic Hierarchies in an Elite Multilingual School in Jakarta

Nur Asmi; Naomi Vania; Wansari Asdi

doi:10.30598/tahurivol19issue2page133-151

Nur Asmi Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta
Naomi Vania Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta
Wansari Asdi Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30598/tahurivol19issue2page133-151

Keywords: Educational Inequality, Language Ideology, Linguistic Capital, Multilingual Education, Private Schools

Abstract

This study investigates how language ideologies shape and reproduce educational inequality in an elite multilingual school in Jakarta. In Indonesia’s multilingual context, where Bahasa Indonesia functions as the national language alongside hundreds of local languages, English has assumed a dominant role in elite private schools adopting international curricula such as Cambridge. Within this setting, English serves as the primary medium of instruction, Bahasa Indonesia is used mainly for informal communication, and local languages are virtually absent. The research explores how linguistic hierarchies are constructed, practiced, and legitimized through classroom discourse and institutional policy, and how these hierarchies affect students’ learning experiences and access to educational opportunities. Using a qualitative design, data were collected through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with teachers, students, and administrators, and document analysis of language policies, syllabi, and promotional materials. Data were analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) within the frameworks of Language Ideology Theory and Bourdieu’s linguistic capital. Findings reveal that English functions as high-status linguistic capital associated with intelligence, global citizenship, and socioeconomic privilege, while Bahasa Indonesia occupies a pragmatic and subordinate role. Students from non-English-speaking backgrounds face subtle linguistic and social barriers, reinforcing educational stratification. The study contributes to Southeast Asian sociolinguistics by highlighting how elite multilingual education sustains symbolic inequality and calls for more inclusive language policies balancing global and national identities.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Anderson, T. (2019). Challenges and Opportunities for use of Social Media in Higher Education. Journal of Learning for Development, 6(1), 327–340. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v6i1.327

Artasia, M., Hartono, H., & Da Ary, D. (2022). Ethno pedagogy and conservation practices of the erai-erai dance in the Lematang Malay Community, Lahat District, South Sumatra Indonesia. International Journal of Visual and Performing Arts, 4(2), 193–200. https://doi.org/10.31763/viperarts.v4i2.899

Bailey, D. H., Duncan, G. J., Cunha, F., Foorman, B. R., & Yeager, D. S. (2020). Persistence and Fade-Out of Educational-Intervention Effects: Mechanisms and Potential Solutions. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 21(2), 55–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100620915848

Bouchard, M.-E. (2019). Language Shift from Forro to Portuguese: Language Ideologies and the Symbolic Power of Portuguese on São Tomé Island. Lingua, 228(1), 102712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2019.06.013

Bourdieu, P. (2018a). Structures, Habitus, Practices. In Rethinking the Subject (pp. 31–45). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429497643-2

Bourdieu, P. (2018b). The Forms of Capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), The Sociology of Economic Life (pp. 78–92). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429494338-6

Bouvier, G., & Machin, D. (2020). Critical Discourse Analysis and the challenges and opportunities of social media. In Critical Discourse Studies and/in Communication (pp. 39–53). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003050353-3

Coffey, S. (2018). Choosing to Study Modern Foreign Languages: Discourses of Value as Forms of Cultural Capital. Applied Linguistics, 39(4), 462–480. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amw019

Drajati, N. A., Tan, L., Haryati, S., Rochsantiningsih, D., & Zainnuri, H. (2018). Investigating English Language Teachers in Developing TPACK and Multimodal Literacy. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(3), 575–582. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v7i3.9806

Fang, F. (Gabriel). (2018). Native-speakerism revisited: Global Englishes, ELT and intercultural communication. Indonesian JELT: Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching, 13(2), 115–129. https://doi.org/10.25170/ijelt.v13i2.1453

Gephart, R. P. (2018). Qualitative Research as Interpretive Social Science. In The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods: History and Traditions (pp. 33–53). SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526430212.n3

Gouvias, D., & Alexopoulos, C. (2018). Sexist stereotypes in the language textbooks of the Greek primary school: a multidimensional approach. Gender and Education, 30(5), 642–662. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1237620

Guillen, D. E. F. (2019). Qualitative research paradigm, a key research design for educational researchers, processes and procedures: A theoretical overview. Propósitos y Representaciones, 7(1), 201. https://doi.org/10.20511/pyr2019.v7n1.267

Gustine, G. G. (2018). A Survey on Critical Literacy as a Pedagogical Approach to Teaching English in Indonesia. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(3), 531–537. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v7i3.9798

Guzmán, B. L., Kouyoumdjian, C., Medrano, J. A., & Bernal, I. (2021). Community cultural wealth and immigrant Latino parents. Journal of Latinos and Education, 20(1), 78–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2018.1541801

Haidar, S., & Fang, F. (Gabriel). (2019). English Language in Education and Globalization: A Comparative Analysis of the Role of English in Pakistan and China. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 39(2), 165–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2019.1569892

Hamied, F. A., & Musthafa, B. (2019). Policies on language education in Indonesia. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9(2), 308–315. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v9i2.20279

Harvey, A., & Mallman, M. (2019). Beyond cultural capital: Understanding the strengths of new migrants within higher education. Policy Futures in Education, 17(5), 657–673. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210318822180

Hornberger, N. H., Tapia, A. A., Hanks, D. H., Dueñas, F. K., & Lee, S. (2018). Ethnography of Language Planning and Policy. Language Teaching, 51(2), 152–186. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444817000428

Huot, S., Cao, A., Kim, J., Shajari, M., & Zimonjic, T. (2020). The power of language: Exploring the relationship between linguistic capital and occupation for immigrants to Canada. Journal of Occupational Science, 27(1), 95–106. https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2018.1534136

Khanlou, N., Vazquez, L. M., Khan, A., Orazietti, B., & Ross, G. (2022). Readers Theatre as an arts-based approach to education: A scoping review on experiences of adult learners and educators. Nurse Education Today, 116(2), 105440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105440

Khasbani, I. (2019). English as a Medium of Instruction in Indonesian Primary and Secondary Education: Theory and Reality. Englisia Journal, 6(2), 146–156. https://doi.org/10.22373/ej.v6i2.4506

Kurniasari, M. D., & Mbato, C. L. (2018). Indonesian Students’ Language Attitudes Towards Indonesian and English Through Education and Working Frame. LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 21(Suppl), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v21iSuppl.1184

Lee, C. S. (2019). Global linguistic capital, global cultural capital: International student migrants in China’s two-track international education market. International Journal of Educational Development, 67(2), 94–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2019.03.001

Lee, J. F. K. (2019). In the pursuit of a gender-equal society: do Japanese EFL textbooks play a role? Journal of Gender Studies, 28(2), 204–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2018.1423956

Lee, J. F. K., & Mahmoudi-Gahrouei, V. (2020). Gender Representation in Instructional Materials: A Study of Iranian English Language Textbooks and Teachers’ Voices. Sexuality & Culture, 24(4), 1107–1127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-020-09747-z

Lee, J. J., & Thorne, S. (2022). Interpretive Description: A Rigorous Approach to Qualitative Research in the Applied Disciplines. In The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in the Asian Context (pp. 308–324). SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529781731.n23

Loizzo, J., Goodman, R. E., & Garbacz, M. (2018). Piloting Participatory Arts-Based Methods for Exploring Indonesians’ Experiences in a U.S. Biotechnology Training Program. Journal of Applied Communications, 102(3), 2195. https://doi.org/10.4148/1051-0834.2195

Masunah, J., Dyani, P. L., Gaffar, V., & Sari, M. (2021). Production of Shadow Puppet Performances in Building Artistic Entrepreneurship. Journal of Sustainable Tourism and Entrepreneurship, 3(2), 89–100. https://doi.org/10.35912/joste.v3i2.1221

Mirhosseini, S.-A. (2018). Issues of ideology in English language education worldwide: an overview. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 26(1), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2017.1318415

Mitchell, G., Chojimah, N., & Nurhayani, I. (2022). Directions for Indonesian Language Policy in Education: Towards A Translingual Perspective. NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching, 13(2), 271–292. https://doi.org/10.15642/NOBEL.2022.13.2.271-292

Morganna, R., Sumardi, S., & Tarjana, S. S. (2020). Tertiary English students’ attitude towards intercultural language learning. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9(3), 657–665. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v9i3.23216

Muttaqin, T., Wittek, R., Heyse, L., & van Duijn, M. (2020). The achievement gap in Indonesia? Organizational and ideological differences between private Islamic schools. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 31(2), 212–242. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2019.1644352

O’Doherty, D., Dromey, M., Lougheed, J., Hannigan, A., Last, J., & McGrath, D. (2018). Barriers and Solutions to Online Learning in Medical Education – An Integrative Review. BMC Medical Education, 18(1), 130–140. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-018-1240-0

Paradewari, D., & Mbato, C. (1998). Language Attitudes of Indonesians as EFL Learners, Gender, and Socio-Economic Status. Language and Language Teaching Journal, 21(1), 114–123. https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2018.210112

Parba, J. (2018). Teachers’ Shifting Language Ideologies and Teaching Practices in Philippine Mother Tongue Classrooms. Linguistics and Education, 47(1), 27–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2018.07.005

Prameswari, N. S., Saud, M., Amboro, J. L., & Wahyuningsih, N. (2020). The Motivation of Learning Art & Culture Among Students in Indonesia. Cogent Education, 7(1), 1809770. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2020.1809770

Preece, S. (2019). Elite bilingual identities in higher education in the Anglophone world: the stratification of linguistic diversity and reproduction of socio-economic inequalities in the multilingual student population. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 40(5), 404–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2018.1543692

Sah, P. K., & Li, G. (2018). English Medium Instruction (EMI) as Linguistic Capital in Nepal: Promises and Realities. International Multilingual Research Journal, 12(2), 109–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2017.1401448

Saputra, E., & Saputra, A. (2020). A New Language Policy for Indonesia. Linguists : Journal Of Linguistics and Language Teaching, 6(1), 18–35. https://doi.org/10.29300/ling.v6i1.2969

Setyono, B. (2018). The Portrayal of Women in Nationally-Endorsed English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Textbooks for Senior High School Students in Indonesia. Sexuality & Culture, 22(4), 1077–1093. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9526-2

Sutisna, E., & Vonti, L. H. (2020). Innovation Development Strategy for Hybrid Learning-Based English Teaching and Learning. English Review: Journal of English Education, 9(1), 103–114. https://doi.org/10.25134/erjee.v9i1.3783

Verge, T., Ferrer-Fons, M., & González, M. J. (2018). Resistance to Mainstreaming Gender into the Higher Education Curriculum. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 25(1), 86–101. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506816688237

Wiesner, C. (2022). Doing qualitative and interpretative research: reflecting principles and principled challenges. Political Research Exchange, 4(1), 2127372. https://doi.org/10.1080/2474736X.2022.2127372

Winarti, O. (2018). Language Shift of Krama to Bahasa Indonesia among Javanese Youths and it’s Relation to Parents’ Social Class. Jurnal Studi Komunikasi (Indonesian Journal of Communications Studies), 2(3), 290–300. https://doi.org/10.25139/jsk.v2i3.186

Woolard, K. A. (2020). Language Ideology. In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology (pp. 1–21). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118786093.iela0217

Zein, S., Sukyadi, D., Hamied, F. A., & Lengkanawati, N. S. (2020). English language education in Indonesia: A review of research (2011–2019). Language Teaching, 53(4), 491–523. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444820000208