As part of the Teachers for Global Classrooms Fellowship, each fellow focuses their learning during the travel portion through a guiding question. This question can be related to education, culture, or another topic the fellow is interested in. My guiding question for my travel in Indonesia was How do Indonesian parents support their children’s learning at home? What does the home school connection look like? Early in our travel, we had the opportunity to ask questions of one of our in-country consultants, Dewi, and two other Indonesian teachers during a panel discussion. They shared that Indonesian parents feel that a way to show respect for teachers is to not ask many questions about what their children are learning, but to trust that the teachers are teaching them appropriately. This sentiment was echoed in my host community and in discussions we had during many school visits. I felt this was a valuable insight into the possible perspectives of some of the families in my school in Iowa. From time to time, I have heard teachers in Iowa express frustration that parents (many of whom come from other countries) are not more involved. It’s possible that many of these families share similar cultural values to Indonesia. Trusting the teacher by not asking questions can be seen as a sign of respect. During our visit to SMAN8 Jakarta, the principal told us about a parent organization that provides supplies and funds for students. It sounds similar to a PTA in the US. These parents work together to support the work the school is doing. If students are in need of supplies, they can contact the parent organization for support.
This same principal told us about an annual parent meeting he has at the beginning of each school year. He said that parent attendance at the meeting is strong. The parents receive information about the upcoming school year, as well as information about past school-wide performance on tests and in contests.
I asked several teachers about parent/teacher conferences and was told that a formal system was not in place in most schools, but if a student was struggling academically or behaviorally, the parents would be contacted for a meeting.
Many parents that I spoke with related that they encourage their children to read at home and to do well in school, but they also conveyed an idea of trust in the school and the teachers. It was important to them to show that they respect and trust the teachers by allowing them to do the work of teaching.
This question was helpful for me because it gave me a reminder of our tendency to see a situation from our own cultural perspective. In the US, we view involvement in the school and parent support of student work and activities as vital to education. We can often judge families who do not get involved in school as being negligent or lazy. The reality may be quite different. Rather than being negligent, the family may be showing respect for the school and teacher. I still wonder if the outcomes for students in Indonesia would be better with the more "hands-on" approach favored by many American schools or if the culture is different enough that the "limited-involvement" approach is better for everyone involved. Although I learned a lot about the culture of Indonesia during my three weeks in the country, I didn't come close to learning enough about the culture to answer a question as complicated as that.