Abstract
In Indonesia, poverty forces students to pursue alternative pathways to an education. These students have dropped out of mainstream schooling for several reasons. They include lack of financial resources, distance to school and having to work to support their family. However, the provision of alternative education opportunities has meant they are now returning to re-engage with education. This creates a challenge for the Indonesian government: to accommodate a diverse group of non-traditional learners in the context of international pressure to increase education levels. For Indonesian disadvantaged youth, the choice is often not between an alternative or mainstream school, but between an alternative school or no school. Using Mezirow’s (Mezirow and Associates, 2000) theory of transformative learning, this chapter draws on the experience of students from two public alternative schools in Indonesia to problematize the challenges and tensions that individual students face and how they work against mainstream assumptions to transform their opportunities.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | International Perspectives on Alternative Education: Policy and Practice |
Editors | Martin Mills, Gillean McCluskey |
Place of Publication | U.K. |
Publisher | UCL Institute of Education Press |
Pages | 86-103 |
Number of pages | 18 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781858568829 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781858567822 |
Publication status | Published - 2018 |
Keywords
- youth with social disabilities
- alternative education
- Indonesia