Ms. Nadya
Cultural. Nadya shows a solid commitment to promoting gender equality. She believes girls can do activities associated with boys and brings such discussions to her class. Nadya’s sense of gender equality came from her parents’ upbringing, who treated males and females in equal treatment. Nadya was once married and confessed that the divorce was due to the conflicting value about playing an equal role in the marriage. Nadya promotes gender equality in her classroom. Nadya saw herself as an agent in an Islamic school that was sometimes interpreted as restricted to women. Nadya has a regular movie watching with students about a story that promotes equal gender participation, e.g., girls' soccer. Nadya was eager to learn more about teaching intercultural awareness in her classroom.
Structural. Nadya has been a teacher in the school for 18 years and is considered an exemplary teacher. Nadya believes that the biggest power in the classroom comes from teachers. She offered a shadow curriculum in class that promoted gender equality and learned to navigate a restricted Islamic interpretation of teachings in the school.
Material. As a private school, Nadya's school can afford to incorporate movie-watching activities suggesting that her school has physical resources.
Mr. Irza
Cultural. Irza grew up with parents who were economically struggling. As a child, Irza had to support himself and finish his education. Irza long aspired to become a teacher helping children to meet their potential and life opportunities. Irza considered himself different regarding owning life values and freedom. He used his brief marriage as an example that he refused to conform to the social pressure that, as a teacher, he should live a ‘normal’ marriage. Many of Irza’s point of view is considered strange by his family. He tends to be critical of religious conservatism (he is a Muslim). He once confronted a religious teacher whose interpretations of an Islamic scripture went against logic and humanistic value. He credited much of his intercultural awareness experience to his participation in a global citizen program sponsored by the Indonesian government. For three months, he visited Asian countries meeting teachers and students. The experience opened his eyes to diversity and exposed him to many different values. Irza’s network from the global citizen program is wide, exposing him to issues such as LGBTQ. He considered himself an ally. Irza teaches intercultural awareness values in his class. He once defended a student bullied for looking feminine and used that case to teach his students in class about respecting differences and encouraging them to speak up when they see a bully. Irza believes every individual has worth and value to contribute, so one must take the opportunity in life. For Irza, students need to hear that message from a teacher because Irza missed that life affirmation growing up.
Structural. Irza is a veteran teacher in his school and is considered an exemplary teacher with many achievements, which gained him respect from his colleagues and school leaders. Irza is known to be a very dedicated teacher and close to students. Irza confessed to being a private person, but he maintained a good relationship with his school principal and confided in her about his personal life (about ending his marriage). The principal was able to keep the matter confidential. These altogether made Irza feel safe and free to teach based on his values.
Material. Despite the school's limited resources, Irza secured a place for reading and writing workshops. It seems the respect for being a qualified and dedicated teacher allows Irza to find help around the school that can support his teaching goal. Irza used his global citizen networks as a pool of resources to invite guest speakers to his classroom. People of different cultures and faiths talk to his students, giving the students a chance to research and inquire about the culture of the guest speakers.
Mr. Yadi
Cultural. Yadi is a newcomer who called Malinau home only three years ago. He came as a literacy activist and later was selected to become the region’s public teacher. Malinau’s population is predominantly a Dayak ethnic group that follows Christianity, and Yadi’s background belongs to none of them, which seemed to influence his way of thinking. Yadi tends to be critical of the natives’ way of living. They highly value a farming tradition that they often sacrifice their commitment as government employees; they often leave their office midday to tend their lands. At times Yadi seems quite puzzled by the prevalent culture of farming among locals, who like to bring their school children to farms after school instead of doing something educational. But at the same time, Dedy profoundly cares about the people in Malinau. Yadi is motivated to see them be open to the world and be more balanced in preserving land-tending culture with the current occupation and profession.
Structural. Malinau is populated by the Dayak ethnic group, with several subethnic groups competing to influence local politics. That dynamic also enters Yadi's classroom, where the students' compositions reflect the region's population. Being an outsider, Yadi feels the natives view him as not politically threatening. Yadi earned the respect of school leaders and parents for being regularly invited to programs sponsored by the Indonesian government, which gave him a sense of freedom to teach what he valued by exposing his students to differences. As he said, his being an outsider (a minority) motivated Yadi to do something different in class. For instance, he promotes group classroom activities that enable students of mixed backgrounds to interact.
Material. Yadi feels motivated to teach intercultural awareness but struggles with the scarcity of resources. Yadi leveraged his network as a community literacy activist to compensate for the lack of resources. His literacy community club is thriving in the region. As a literacy activist, Mr. Yadi’s network can afford him to access support from nongovernmental literacy programs.
(See table 2 for a visual of the cultural, structural, and material factors of the teacher participants).