Becoming ‘International’: The Cultural Reproduction of the Local Elite at an International School in Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia's educational landscape has changed in the last two decades. The pressures of globalization have led to the rising popularity of international education offered by international schools, which purport to nurture ‘global citizens' who are internationally minded and skilful at engaging with the Other. This article explores the role of an international school in Indonesia in educating young people towards a peaceful existence amid diversity. It focuses on the experiences of children from local elite and upper class families. The author argues that the processes of becoming ‘international’ are embedded in national and transnational class structures. Becoming ‘international’ overlaps with becoming Westernized and represents a way for the elite to reinforce their status in Indonesia. At the same time, students learn to engage with others even as their experience of difference at the international school amplifies their sense of being ‘Indonesian’.