Call for Chapter Abstracts

Preparing Indonesian Youth for the Future:

Review of Indonesian Education in the 21st century
Edited by Anne Suryani, Hasriadi Masalam and Isabella Tirtowalujo

With a population of over 260 million and a majority of whom are under 30 years of age (Statistics Indonesia
2017), Indonesia’s productivity and economic growth potentials are faced with challenges of preparing its youth
for their full participation and contribution in ushering the nation into a dynamic and ever-changing globalized
world. The demographic bonus and the future success of Indonesia largely depends on today’s youth and the
quality of education they are able to access.

Education is tasked with the difficult role of preparing young people with relevant transferable skills that will
equip them to tackle local and global societal issues, including growing social and economic disparities,
disruptions in social cohesion within a diverse national community, and environmental degradations. The
education system is also charged with the goal of reducing low-skilled youths and youth unemployment rates
due to further industrial automation.

This book engages in the difficult questions of: What does it mean and what does it take to prepare Indonesian
children for the future? What improvements in the education system are necessary to enable all youths to learn
and reach their potentials? What are the challenges currently faced and what has been done to address these
issues?

This book is a collection of academic papers about Indonesian education focusing on the preparation of youth
for the future. Literature on youth and education in Indonesia has predominantly been in the form of country
and baseline reports, and project documentations published by international or transnational development
institutions through various development projects that have been implemented in Indonesia in collaboration
with the Indonesian government. This work has provided much insight regarding the inner workings of the
Indonesian education and political system, lack and growth of institutional and political capacities, what works
and what underlying challenges remain, as well as produced various demographic data, and data related to
schools and educational attainment and quality. This proposed book, however, contributes to another cluster
of literature based on empirical research work that has been expanding over the past 20 years. More academic
writings in the form of edited books and peer-reviewed journal articles have provided a deeper and nuanced
look into the school life and lifeworld of children and youth in Indonesia, painting the sociopolitical, economic,
and cultural contexts of policies, schooling, teaching, and youth’s work (for example Bjork, 2005, Parker &
Nilan, 2013; Robinson, 2016).

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Within the latter cluster of literature, previous works have focused on youth identities and lives in a changing
Indonesian society, while others have looked into aspects of the education system and youths’ school life
within the context of formal schooling. This book’s contribution is in a deeper exploration of the intersection of
youth and the education system, including various forms of organized learning. It highlights opportunities,
needs, barriers, and contexts within systems and mechanisms that attempts to enable youths to learn and
skill-up, as it also highlights youth’s experiences, successes and failures, and interests in participating in the
system. The book will also provide a substantial basis for future policy development.

The Editors welcome chapter submissions based on empirical work focusing on youth and education in
Indonesia. Topic areas include but are not limited to: teachers (e.g. teacher education, professional
development, teacher quality), students (e.g. achievement, assessment, the use of technology, 21st century
skills, diverse schooling experiences), educational policy (e.g. curriculum, character building, youth transition,
vocational education, formal and non-formal education), and community- or school-level initiatives toward
improving the education of Indonesian youth.

If you are interested in sharing your research findings, please send your abstract proposal in English to
anne.suryani@unimelb.edu.au, masalam@ualberta.ca and itirtowalujo@gmail.com by 30 March 2018.

Abstract proposals should include a title, author/s, institutional affiliation, email address, an abstract (300
words), keywords and a brief personal biography (150 words). Please write “preparing Indonesian youth” in
the subject of your email. We look forward to receiving your contribution.

Indicative timeline

30 March 2018 Abstracts (300 words) due

May 2018 Notification of the accepted abstracts.

Invitation to submit full chapters sent to contributors

27 July 2018 Submission of chapters (5,000-6,000 words)

September 2018 Feedback provided to contributors

November 2018 Final chapter due to editors

April 2019 Publication