Decentralisation in education, institutional culture and teacher autonomy in Indonesia

Indonesia has seen several recent attempts to devolve control over the curriculum to the local level. Rather than catalogue all of the problems encountered in the course of their implementation, the present contribution focuses on a single reform, the Local Content Curriculum (LCC). Analysis of local responses to this reform provides insights into the state's influence on the actions and attitudes of Indonesian educators not previously detailed in research on educational decentralisation. These insights into the implementation of the LCC expand the understanding of the tangible effects of educational reform on actual learning institutions and pupils as well as inform about the central government's real ability to effect change in schools. The study also shows how the lethargy of local actors is bound to deeply engrained views about the role of Indonesian teachers in school, in the society and in the state. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.