Interculturality and Islam in Indonesia’s high-school EFL classrooms

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ pedagogic beliefs and practices regarding culture and interculturality and the extent to which Islamic outlook informed their instruction. Five Indonesian high-school EFL teachers participated in this study. Data were collected over a 12-week period through classroom observations, narrative frames, and stimulated-recall and in-depth interviews. Findings were analysed using a qualitative framework. Evidence indicates that participating teachers often drew on home knowledge and religious significance to make sense of ideas expressed in English. Despite realising the global prominence of English, there were hints that the teachers lumped members of the target culture together. Ambiguities surrounding the teachers’ instruction reveal paradoxes of educational exigencies and attitudinal resistance to ostensibly Western culture. This study calls for EFL pedagogies being more responsive to local linguistic repertoire and religio-cultural factors, highlighting the need to liberate the English classes from rigid ties to particular cultures.