Ethnic Idiom Articulation and Civic Education Material for
Elementary School
Development of Cultural Citizenship Literacy
Fauzi Abdillah, Solihin Ichas Hamid and Tuti Istianti
Department of Pedagogy, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Civic Education, Cultural Citizenship Literacy, 21st Century Challenges.
Abstract: This article presents the design of a conceptual learning model of the Cultural Citizenship Literacy for Civic
Education in school. Its main purpose is to revitalize custom and tradition as a source of value implementation
in Civic Education. Assuming that culture and education must go hand in hand with the current development
to face the challenges of education in the 21st century. Through semiotic analysis of the Civics content
material with the classification of the Citizenship Moral Values by Hamid (2012) on the 6 ethnic idiom
articulation, representing the large tribes in 6 large and small islands archipelago. This study recommends that
there should be further research to test the reliability of the learning model in the school context.
1 INTRODUCTION
Cultural and ethnic diversity in a country has two
dilemmatic sides, on one side it is being a socio-
cultural treasure, which if it is successfully built with
the communicative intercultural constructions
(Tilaar, 2012, Goering, 2013) and on the other side, it
can affect negatively on social cohesion and quality
of political government’s performance (Hlepas,
2013). The institutional performance also relates to
the factors of customs such as political culture, in
which there is a tradition and a path of dependence on
each other. (Arikan, 2011).
Explicitly, the Cultural Citizenship constitutes a
complex construction of language, metaphorical and
symbolic systems which strengthen the citizens to
participate and engage in broader political process
(Stevenson, 2012). Such engagement views the
individual as the full subject of an educated state not
just legally and politically, but as well as socially and
culturally (Lee, 2013). Thus, the concern of Cultural
Citizenship lies in the management and development
of cultural lineages through education, customs,
language and belief (Miller, 2002). While the socio-
political side is limited, Cultural Citizenship is a
condition of togetherness and access to cultural rights
constructed as a national and cultural identity,
especially from the side of an immigrant (Horsti and
Pellander, 2015), because cultural-based citizenship
is more acceptable than ethnicity-based citizenship
especially for immigrants (Reijerse, Acker,
Vanbeselaere, Phalet, and Duriez, 2012).
The importance of this study in a long period itself
tries to see the issue of achieving the goal of civic
education development, not only conceptual-
normative, but more than that, it becomes a living
reality in the form of spirit or at least as consciousness
reflection both personally and collectively in a unit
community. Therefore, the cultural approach is an
option - not primarily intended to chant unnecessary
local ethnicism. But finding the cultural spirit as the
basis of collective human behavior development in
the society in the name of education, which needs to
borrow the root from which the pattern or system of
culture was born. It is stated that all the nations in the
world, with the degree of civilization and all the
cultures it possesses, begins with the formation of
entities and identities in ethnic units, and although
each ethnic has its own character, it is not that it wraps
itself to be itself only, but to be opened as being part
of togetherness and progress both nationally,
regionally and globally.
Previously, the culture which is made
multicultural and intercultural has been introduced to
education (Lentin and Titley, 2011; O’Cinneide,
2012; Sandu, 2015). But the study has not yet
embodied it as a practical strategy for learning, it is
still in a conceptual outlook (Levinson, 2012). So, to
Abdillah, F., Hamid, S. and Istianti, T.
Ethnic Idiom Articulation and Civic Education Material for Elementary School - Development of Cultural Citizenship Literacy.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 1, pages 225-229
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
225

begin the dissection, this article is a preliminary study
by doing tabulation that produced classification and
verification based on the codification of basic
objective content value, namely 7 Moral Values of
Citizenship (Hamid, 2012). The results of the
tabulation became one of the modalities that support
the achievement of this study in a long period.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
There is a complex relationship between ethnicity,
culture, state and civic education in the global era. In
facing this, school education acts to accommodate the
diversity, how to educate students for the direction of
this difference for development of constructive
citizenship, respecting the other members of the
community (Levinson, 2012). In relation to the
present, there is also intercultural concept as a
multicultural alternative used in education (Lentin
and Titley, 2011; O'Cinneide, 2012; Sandu, 2015).
Although it is acknowledged that such efforts should
not be limited to the school context only (Goering,
2013), it is considered to be not sufficient enough to
wrap it in the citizenship concept and its traditionally
role because of the daily citizen political
communication (Christina Wu, 2012), for example in
social responsibility, now it can be nurtured and
linked between traditional media and lifestyle
development in the social media era (Abdillah, 2015).
Such developmental phenomena requires sufficient
literacy skills, strategically nurturing them in school,
society and as well as digital realm. So, a person's
literacy related to culture and citizenship can be
developed.
Cultural literature that implies a national culture
contains cultural competence, which includes
attitude, practice ability, and understanding of cross
cultural system (Hirsch, Kett, and Trefil, 2002;
Chrisman, 2007; Polistina, 2009). Because of that, the
Cultural Literacy in Civic Education which is used as
an instrument of political education based on
Pancasila as an Indonesian ideology in this republic,
can meet the competence to accept differences,
contribute to the social cohesion, celebrate the
difference by creating a sustainable framework in life
that can absorb all cultural identity in all aspects of
life (Plant and Devine, 2009; Sandu, 2015). By
critically assessing humanity, then, phenomena such
as the friction of neoliberalism in the form of culture
and education will be more comprehensive in
answering and designing the basis of education
(Stevenson, 2010). Thus, the development of cultural
literacy, particularly in traditional-based local and
cultural history can be a strategic choice in promoting
successful learning of Pancasila education and Civic
through a curricular processes in school and society
as supporting Community Civics (Gutiérre and
Rogoff, 2003; Hamid, 2015), because the diversity
conversion that was once a potential obstacle
becomes an opportunity for civic (Levinson, 2012).
So this study finds its theoretical and practical
moment of urgency as a solution to contribute solving
multidimensional problems in the development and
learning process of Civic Education in school.
Especially, this classification was developed for Civic
Education subject material in elementary school.
3 METHOD
In constructing the Learning Model for Cultural
Citizenship Literacy based on the Archipelago local
wisdom (ethnic) of the Civic Education learning in
Elementary school, we used semiotic analysis on
custom idiom articulation verbally and Civic
Education material content in Elementary school.
Therefore, the result of this article is the classification
and verification in the form of material concepts
formulation, which are verbally identified as the
reference of local moral values into the organizing of
curriculum development materials based on the basic
objective value from Hamid (2015), namely, 7 Moral
Values of Citizenship.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results of the categorization analysis of 7
Citizenship Moral Values or Nilai Moral
Kewarganegaraan (NMK) on a number of local
idiom values are in the form of Pepatah-petitih
(Minangkabau), Umpasa (Dayak), Paseng and
Pappaseng (Bugis), Pabasan and Paribasa (Sunda),
as mentioned above, those are the values which teach
behavior and attitude: (1). Modesty, Self-Awareness;
(2) Patience, sincerity, Pleased, Honesty, Opened; (3)
Friendliness, loyalty; (4) Well-behaved/respectful,
law-abiding, Prepared, Alert, (Dedication); (5) Smart,
Meticulous, Courage, Heroism; (6) Persistence,
Constancy, Hard-Worker, Resilient (Reliable); and
(7) Fair, Wise, Protector; which completely in its
essence is the praxis of the existed civic and live in
the society (Citizenship Education), especially
indigenous people.
Therefore, the introduction of indigenous peoples'
variety in the country, aside from being the part of the
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
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conceptual content (material) of Civic Education
learning in school curriculum processes, can be
reduced to a praxis model in articulating the message
of moral values through a cultural approach (Gutiérre
and Rogoff, 2003; Hamid, 2015). This is also called
as "the development of cultural literacy", which
conceptually and verbally has been a part of the
treasure of art-language (oral literature), and in its
daily life and preserved in a variety of local cultural
expressions, so that its existence has a function as a
custom reinforcement, and its meaning is the source
of life’s moral of the supporting society (Hirsch, Kett,
and Trefil, 2002; Chrisman, 2007; Polistina, 2009).
Because of that, it is necessary to arrange/formulate
the material concept which has been verbally
identified as a reference of local moral values into the
organization of school curriculum development
materials, namely Civic Education subject based on
the applicable curriculum.
Considering the wide diversity of local cultures
that can be appointed, and as a whole each of them
has rights and urgency which is as valuable as the
nation's cultural treasure, in the interests of this
limited study, sampling model can be done as an
example experiment in 2 models, those are: 1). The
Model of Tolerance-Diversity Reinforcement
(Bhinneka Tunggal Ika) contains of material on the
development of moral-value concept which refers to
multi-cultural local with the minimum standard of 3-
5 cultures / local languages combined as the Pelangi
Nusantara mosaic; 2) The Model of the National
Identity Reinforcement, which is done with the
development of mono-cultural local within the scope
of the location of the school. With the set of those 2
models, all moral value references are formulated into
the 7 criteria which can be reduced to two essential
demands of the model: (1). In accordance with the
urgency of the partial values of diversity-tolerance
development (Bhinneka Tunggal Ika) which can be
introduced including the values that represent the
coexistence of the receiving behavior and attitude (to
Give) as the form of the self-greatness/nobleness
contained in NMK-1 : humble, self-awareness;
NMK-2: patient, sincere, pleasure, honest, opened;
NMK-3: friendly, loyal; and NMK-4: well-
behaved/respectful, law-abiding, prepared, alert; and
(2). In accordance with the urgency of the nation’s
identity development, partial values that can be
introduced including values that represent the ability
to give (to take) the coexistence of the self-awakening
power contained in NMK-5: smart, meticulous,
brave, heroic; NMK-6: persist, steady, hard-worker,
sturdy; and NMK-7: fair, wise, protect. For further
explanation, the design prototype of curricular
material development into 2 options of the model can
be mapped as follows:
Figure 1: Model 1: The development of cultural literacy of diversity-tolerance concept.
Figure 1 above is the first model designed based
on specific considerations regarding the Tolerance
and Diversity theme circulated by NMK 1 to NMK 4,
which is then continued on a second development
model which includes NMK 5 to NMK 8 tabulated in
Figure 2 integration of models and materials of Civic
Education encountered content convergence which
was facilitated beforehand through the Citizenship
Moral Value analysis on cultural values and morals in
the existed archipelago traditions.
Ethnic Idiom Articulation and Civic Education Material for Elementary School - Development of Cultural Citizenship Literacy
227

Figure 2: Model 2: The development of cultural literacy of nation’s identity concept.
Indigenous people tradition whose value finds
relevance to the substance of Civic Education
material in school, will also be presented in
contextual local custom form. All educational devices
in the school play a role in bringing the familiar
atmosphere with the habit or customs of the place
students come from (Lentin and Titley, 2011;
O'Cinneide, 2012; Sandu, 2015). Thus, civilizing
does not mean entirely new, but it comes from what
they have and know. Starting from that point,
education has relevance as the identity and culture
facilitation of citizens.
5 CONCLUSIONS
From this study, regarding the Conceptual
Development of the Citizenship Cultural Literacy
Model on a limited sampling of 6 ethnic groups
representing large tribes in the 6 major and small
archipelago islands, surely, it needs to be proceed in
a tryout of gradually implementation model, in order
to produce scientifically responsibly generalization.
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