Locally-grounded, embodied, and spiritual: exploring alternative constructions of democratic education with/in Indonesian schools

Contemporary scholars have called for more diverse conceptions and practices of alternative ‘democratic’ education to contest the increasingly neoliberal and neoconservative educational systems. The current study responds to this call by exploring how the notion of ‘democratic’ education can be enriched using the contextual practices of education in Indonesia. Co-constructing qualitative data through site visits, document analysis, and interviews with leaders of five uniquely ‘democratic’ Indonesian schools, the current study seeks to expand the ‘thin’ understandings of democratic education characterised by ostensibly universal democratic virtues such as freedom, equality, social justice, and participation. Exploring what democratic education looks like when understood through the collective sensibilities of Indonesians, analysis revealed at least three alternative constructions of democratic education practiced by participating schools, namely, locally-grounded, embodied, and spiritual democratic education. By identifying and circulating these alternative constructions, it is hoped that the notions of democratic education might be continuously reimagined and diversified.