This study is intended to understand teaching quality of English student teachers when they conduct their teaching practicum. Teaching quality is conceptualized based on the principles of effective teaching resulted by teacher effectiveness studies. Thes


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The Representation of Indonesian National Identity in English 
Textbook 
 

ELLA MASITA*  

 

Abstract  
 

This article interrogates the conceptualization of Indonesian national identity from 
the point of view of the Indonesian government. The data were taken from a 
mandatory English textbook for Grade XI. Through the lens of Representation 
theory, this research explores the key issues within the textbook. In analyzing the 
data, a multimodal discourse analysis is utilized, specifically through the verbal 
analysis and visual analysis of the texts within the textbook. The results of analysis 
reveal that there are four themes namely: spirituality and morality, personal attribute, 
nationalism, and knowledge and scientific attitude. However, the research results 
indicate the inclusion of selected values and norms of personal attributes, the 
unbalanced portion of the themes within the textbook and minimal representation of 
the knowledge development, specifically in regards to the development of English 
skills. Apart from that, it is realized that textbook is only one part of elements in 
English teaching process. Therefore, further studies with a broader scope of 
investigation are required to achieve more comprehensive information about how 
Indonesian national identity in conceptualized in English teaching. 

 
Keywords 
English textbook, multimodal discourse analysis, national identity 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

* Associate Professor, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Jambi, Indonesia; 
ellamasita@unja.ac.id   

mailto:ellamasita@unja.ac.id


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Introduction 

 

The 1945 Basic Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia (Government of the 
Republic of Indonesia, 1945) mandates that government shall manage and organize a national 
education system that enhances faith and piety and good morals in the context of the 
intellectual life of the nation. This mandate has a significant implication for the national 
education system in Indonesia. Faith to God, along with good morals and intellectual ability, 
should be the ultimate focus of education in Indonesia. In line with the constitution, the Law 
No 20 of 2003 on the National Education System (Government of the Republic of Indonesia, 
2003) states that education in Indonesia aims at developing national identity of Indonesian 
students by encouraging students to become people of religion, creativity, productivity, and 
at the same time, to also have affection and innovation for the needs of the community, the 
nation, and humankind. Both two aforementioned constitutions become the fundamental 
basis of the development of Indonesian education curriculum. The policy statements imply 
that national education system should be organized by the Indonesian government, in the 
context of educating the nation, aiming to develop students' potential to become valuable 
human capital assets for the nation. However, a number of prior studies show that to 
achieve that such aim in the context of Indonesian educational system is quite challenging; 
with the heterogeneity of the population as well as the rapid and dynamical development of 
globalization the national education system is a far more complex and contested process 
(Alwasilah, 2001; Yulaelawati, 2007; Hamied, 2014; Gunantar, 2017).  

One of the urgent problems that become the concern of Indonesian government is 
the declivity of Indonesian national identity among Indonesia youths. The government 
claims that this crisis leads to the declivity of youths in building a good relationship with 
others and the escalated numbers of juvenile negative attitudes such as brawls and criminal 
issues. Wide range areas as well as the complexities in understanding such crisis require 
different focuses of studies and various points of view; one of them is through English 
textbook. This is due to the fact that despite the rapid development of digital technology, 
textbooks are still the main resources of most Indonesian teachers in delivering their 
teaching materials at schools while academic studies about the contribution of English 
textbook in the development of students‟ national identity is still underdeveloped (Ena, 
2016). Therefore, the research within this article tries to fill in the gap. More specifically, it is 
intended to seek the answer the research problem in regards to how the Indonesian national 
identity is conceptualized at the textbook for teaching English at senior high school.  

 
Literature Review 
 
Textbooks dominate what students learn and think. Relating to the statement, Apple 

and Christian- Smith (1991) describe that the words and pictures within textbooks do not 
only as the expression of ideas, but are parts of the educational experience that shapes ideas 
for many students. Lee and Collins (2009) address significant contributions of English 
textbook as an integral part in English teaching by justifying that textbooks do not only 
transmit facts, figures, and linguistic skills in English. Textbooks are also a means to transmit 



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ideas, ideologies, and cultural values. Apple and Christian-Smith (1991) explain: “This is a 
distinct problem since texts are not simply „delivery system‟ of „fact. They are at once the 
results of political, economic, and cultural activities, battles and compromises. They are 
conceived, designed, and authored by real people with real interests” (p. 2). Similarly, the 
research conducted by Horsley and Wikman (2010) argue that despite the evidence that 
English textbook is very fruitful to guide English learning activities and achieve their 
educational objectives, there is a concern about another role of the textbook as the resource 
of ideas, orientation, values, and identity beyond English linguistics and language skills.  

In Asian context, Siraj (1990) has conducted a study in regards to the portrayals of 
identities in English textbooks in Malaysian schools by examining how identity is 
constructed. More recently, Liew‟s research (2007) has also investigated how both verbal and 
visual texts within English textbook represent identities of Malaysian people. Despite the 
seventeen years range of those studies, the findings of both studies are quite similar. The 
textbooks do not either present a balance portrayal of gender or ethnicity identities in 
Malaysia. In Indonesia, research paper about how English textbooks view identities in a 
multicultural setting is conducted by Ena et al., (2016). Similar to the previous research in 
Malaysia, the analysis of gender bias also advocates that there are gender bias and gender 
stereotypes. Additionally, the results analysis of their study shows the unbalanced proportion 
of how Indonesian identity is presented in the textbooks. She claims that the Melanesian 
ethnic groups, the ethnic of majority of Indonesian people, are significantly 
underrepresented in the English textbooks, compared to Austronesian ethnic groups and 
Caucasian race. 

The notion of national identity itself has a complex and abstract nature and 
comprises a complex of similar conceptions and perceptual schemata, of similar dispositions 
and attitudes, and of similar behavioral conventions (Hall, Held, & McGrew, 2005; 
Anderson, 2006). As further explained by Anderson (2006), national identity refers to the 
narrative of a nation which is socially constructed and imagined by the people who perceive 
themselves as part of the community. A nation in this view is then defined as: “an imagined 
political community and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” (Anderson, 
2006, p. 6). This does not mean the nation is imaginary. Instead, a nation is imagined 
because it is usually too large for direct interaction between most members. It is not possible 
for a member of a nation to talk, know or even hear about most of other members. In 
addition, despite distinguishing a nation from others not by its authenticity, it should be 
recognized through the ways it is imagined. Anderson argues: “Communities are to be 
distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined” 
(Anderson, 2006 p. 6). It implies that being a member of a nation is not merely about 
becoming the legal citizens of a nation. Instead, they are also bound by the idea of how the 
nation is imagined. In line with Anderson, Hall (2005) argues that that the concept of nation 
is more than just as a political entity. A nation should not be conceptualized based on its 
nature. In contrast, the concept should be based on the representation of the nation. 
Moreover, Hall envisions national identity as a mental construction among a group of people 
that promotes the notion of being part of a nation through the sharing of a common 
imagery and the creating of a sense of solidarity. Accordingly, Hall (2005) suggests that 
national identity is a discourse of the imaginative form of solidarity among the members. 



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In the case of Indonesia, however, the aforementioned description of national identity 
appears to be a challenging concept. As a country with the population of nearly reaching 300 
million, Indonesia comprises thousands of islands with more than 300 ethnic groups and 700 
different native languages (Central Bureau of Statistics, 2018). Consequently, Indonesia is 
not only multi-ethnic but also multi-ideology. This might lead to the different 
conceptualization of what it meant by Indonesian national identity (Stockton, 2017). This 
situation is explained by Idris (2014) based on his investigation on how the term national 
identity is conceptualized in Indonesian language. The research results shows there is 
vagueness about what Indonesian national identity really means due to the lack of clarity of 
how the notion identity is explained. Idris mentions a number of terms are used to refer to 
the concept of identity such as jati diri (identity), identitas (identity), kepribadian (personal 
attribute), watak (character), karakter (character), and jiwa bangsa (soul of the nation). 
However, there is a lack of satisfactory explanation such as further definition, clarification, 
or description of what each term refers to. For that reason, this article seeks to fill in this 
gap, specifically in regards to how national identity is conceptualized in the textbook used to 
teach English in Indonesian schools.  
 

Methodology 
 
The research within this article is a qualitative analysis of written document 

comprising verbal and visual data analysis for the textbook to teach English at senior high 
school, specifically at Grade XI. This grade is preferred since based on a preliminary analysis, 
the learning materials in Grade XI are more comprehensive than the other two grades in 
Senior high school. While some of the learning materials of the English textbook for Grade 
X comprise the reviews of learning materials from junior high school, the English textbook 
in Grade XII appears to prepare students for the school final exams and contains more 
written exercises for students to do. The English textbook for Grade XI itself consists of 
two volumes with eleven chapters. The first volume comprises Chapter One to Chapter Five 
with 112 pages (Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, 2014a) while the second 
volume consists of Chapter Six to Chapter Eleven with 128 pages (Indonesian Ministry of 
Education and Culture, 2014b).  

A multimodal discourse analysis focusing on Gee‟s model of Discourse Analysis 
(Gee, 2014b) and Kress and Van Leeuwen‟s visual analysis (2006) is utilized to carry out the 
analysis of the research data. The analysis of the data then integrates data from multi modes 
comprising verbal analysis and visual analysis of textbook. At the first stage, five general 
steps of analysis as suggested by Gee (2014b) have been conducted to analyze the verbal 
data: (1) working with raw data, (2) analyzing selected building task, (3) applying selected 
inquiry tools, (4) Designing preliminary discourse models, and (5) reviewing the discourse 
model. Then, Kress and van Leeuwen‟s (2006) model of analysis is adapted to analyse the 
visual texts within the textbook. It is started by selecting images within the textbooks that 
appear to be able to illuminate important issue or question in regards to national identity, 
both Indonesian national identities and identities from countries or regions other than 
Indonesia. Then, the interrelations between two types of participants of visual images are 
investigated. The first is the represented participant, referring to people, places, and things 



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depicted in images, while the other is the interactive participant referring to viewers of 
images. As the third stage of analysis, any possible interrelation between verbal and visual 
texts is examined such as whether or not they repeat, clarify, support or conflict each other.   
To support the arguments achieved from the results of data analysis, four key components 
of Lincoln and Guba‟s model of trustworthiness (1985) is implemented namely credibility 
(the stability of data over time and under different conditions), transferability (the potential 
for extrapolation), dependability (the stability of data over time and under different 
conditions), and confirmability (the potential for congruence between two or more 
independent people about the data‟s accuracy, relevance, or meaning). Then, based on the 
aforementioned analytical results, a thematic analysis is conducted by adapting to identify 
themes through the recognition of important or interesting patterns in the data. In doing 
this, a six-phase framework of Clarke and Braun‟s model of analysis (2013) is outlined as (1) 
becoming familiar with the data, (2) generating initial codes, (3) searching for themes, (4) 
reviewing themes, (5) defining themes, and (6) writing up (Clarke & Braun, 2013).  
 

Findings  
 
Quantitatively, the English textbook for Grade XI consists of two volumes with 

eleven chapters. The first volume comprises Chapter One to Chapter Five with 112 pages 
(Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, 2014a) while the second volume consists of 
Chapter Six to Chapter Eleven with 128 pages (Indonesian Ministry of Education and 
Culture, 2014b). Each of the chapters has a title written on the first page of the chapter. The 
title of the chapter becomes the theme of the learning materials within the chapter, especially 
the reading section. 

Each chapter in this textbook comprises eleven sections. The learning activities of 
the first three sections of Pre-reading Activities, Reading Activities, and Post-reading 
Activities are designed with the main basis of the reading text within the chapter. The 
remaining sections, however, are not based on the reading text. Despite that, the remaining 
sections are still somehow interrelated with the reading text. Firstly, it is connected to the 
sub-section of personal connection. For instance, the topic of the reading text of Chapter 
Three is about President Sukarno‟s hopes and dreams for a better world while the question 
within the Personal Connection of the chapter is: “What are your hopes and aspirations?” (p. 60). 
Additionally, the remaining learning materials are interrelated with the reading text by the 
genre of the text. This is illustrated in Chapter Seven. In this chapter, the genre of the 
reading text is an information report. Accordingly, this genre type becomes the focus of the 
learning materials within the chapter. Finally, there are one or more elements of the reading 
content that interrelate to the sub-section. This can be related to the main topics or another 
element of the reading text. For instance, from the scene of Monsieur Loisel being handed a 
formal invitation to a dance ball occasion from the Minister and Madame Ramponneau (p. 
72), the students are guided to learn about how to make oral and written invitations, both 
formal and informal, in the remaining parts of the learning activities. Apart from the 
aforementioned sections, however, the remaining learning activities in the textbook have a 
focus on the language skills which this research does not intended to evaluate nor assess in 



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regards to their the qualities. Consequently, not so much information in relation to 
Indonesian national identity is identified from such learning activities.  

Moreover, the results of data analysis unravel four themes emerged from the verbal 
and visual texts within the English textbook in the textbook as the representation of 
Indonesian national identity, they are:  (1) moral and disposition, (2) personal attribute, (3) 
nationalism, and (4) knowledge and scientific attitude. Among the eleven chapters, two 
chapters (18%), Chapter 1 and Chapter 5 are categorized under the theme of moral and 
disposition. Additionally, four chapters (36%) namely Chapter 2, Chapter 4, Chapter 8 and 
Chapter 10 highlight personal and attribute as the theme of the learning materials within 
those chapters In line with that, the theme of Chapter 3 and Chapter 9 (18%) is nationalism 
while the remaining three chapters (27%), Chapter 6, Chapter 7, and Chapter 11 have 
knowledge and scientific attitude. In a similar vein, it is noteworthy to mention that most of 
themes within each chapter do not stand by itself. Apart from the main theme, a trace of any 
other theme might also be identified even they are not highlighted as the main theme. For 
instance, the development of spiritual attitude is mainly represented through the theme of 
morals and disposition which becomes the theme of Chapter 1 and Chapter 5. In addition to 
the two chapters, the trace of spiritual attitude is also identified in the learning tasks of 
almost all book chapters.  
 

Discussion 
 

As discussed earlier, the eleven chapters of this textbook contain four different 
themes. Among the same themes, there are a variety of perspectives of how the themes are 
developed. Based on the prior analytical results, then, this following section discusses how 
the textbook‟s authors develop the themes and perspectives in every chapter. 
 

Theme 1: Moral and disposition 
 

As shown in Table 1, there are two chapters that construct moral values and 
disposition as their theme. Both of them are in the first volume of the English textbook for 
semester one. They are: Chapter One entitled “Can Greed ever be Satisfied” (Volume 1, pp. 
1-25) and Chapter Five entitled “Benefit of Doubt” (Volume 1, pp. 90-110).  Although 
those two chapters share the same theme, the perspective of each of them is different. The 
first chapter‟s perspective is regarding the danger of greediness while the fifth chapter has 
the perspective of unflinching faith in God.  In Chapter One, the attribute of spirituality is 
not explicitly stated in the reading text. No textual or visual statement in the reading text 
refers to the spirituality theme or relates to God. However, the attribute of being greedy as 
the moral of this text is identified from the reading text. For example from the statement 
between the fisherman (F) and his wife (W) regarding the wife‟s desire for more wealth 
(Volume 1, p. 4):  

 
F : “We should be happy with what the fish has given us and not to be greedy.” 
W : “Nonsense. The fish will do it very willingly, I know. Go along and try.” 



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This conversation shows that the fisherman had warned his wife about her excessive 
covetousness. However, the wife was not happy and still insisted the fisherman try to fulfil 
her eager desire for wealth. The negative impact of the wife‟s greediness is inferred in the last 
paragraph as well: “What does she want now?” said the fish. The fisherman replied, “I am truly 
ashamed of my wife's greed but I can't do anything. She wants to be Lord of the sun and the moon. “Go home,” 
said the fish, “to your small hut.” And it is said that they live there to this very day (Volume 1, p. 
5). In this conversation, the fisherman stated that he realized that his wife was being greedy 
by insisting that he request the fish to provide her with an impossible goal: that of being “the 
Lord of the sun and the moon.” The response of the fish did not directly address what the 
fisherman said about his wife‟s excessively desire for wealth and power. However, the reply 
“Go home, to your small hut” implies that the fish took back what had been given to the 
fisherman and his wife as the negative impact of the wife‟s avidity. This paragraph becomes 
the punch line of the story. It infers the intended moral of the reading text; that is, being 
greedy ruins the comfortable lives of the fisherman and his wife. Moreover, the attribute of 
the negative impact of being greedy in the visual text is identified through the comparative 
analysis between the first and second images of the reading text. In the first one, there is a 
big and beautiful castle on the left upper side of the image. On the other hand, the second 
image portrays a small and ugly hut instead. In line with the textual text, the image of the 
castle refers to the fisherman‟s big castle given by the fish. In contrast, the small hut is the 
house of the fisherman and his wife after the fish has taken back everything it had given to 
them.  

The moral in the reading text is furthermore inter-related to the questions in the 
reading discussion. The questions show that seven out of nine questions discuss the eager 
desire of the wife for wealth and power (Volume 1, p. 6). Only Question 2 and Question 3 
have a different focus. They discuss the transformation of the prince into the fish. The next 
post-reading activity, “Personal Journal writing‟ also relates to the theme of the reading text. 
In this writing activity, the students are asked to write down eight clauses to complete the 
sub-ordinate clause of “I am grateful to God for…” (Volume 1, p. 7). Besides presenting the 
moral of the text, this learning activity also promotes students‟ spirituality through the 
insertion of the theme of gratefulness to God. Unlike the discussion questions that mostly 
focus on the moral value of greediness, the sub-section of personal journal writing explore 
the attributes of spirituality in its learning activities.  

Moreover, the attributes of spirituality are identified in Chapter Five of the textbook, 
both in the reading text and discussion questions (Volume 1, pp. 90-110). The theme of 
spirituality is identified even from the first page of that chapter. The spirituality is portrayed 
through the image of a letter with white wings. The wings as pictured in this image appear to 
be very similar to the ones usually seen in the painting of angels in old churches. 
Additionally, the background of the wings as clouds and blue sky also amplify the Christian 
spirit of the image. The same image but in a smaller size is identified on the reading text 
page. It is located on the upper right part of the textual text. The inclusion of the image is 
interesting considering that it represents Christian religion while the majority of Indonesian 
students in many areas are Moslem. However, no attribute of a specific religion is identified 
in the textual text. 



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The investigation of the textual text reveals that spirituality is the main topic of the 
reading text. In the reading text, personal letters are written by Racho, the farmer, and are 
addressed to God (Volume 1, pp. 92-95). In the letter, he requests God to help him by 
sending him money due to the hailstorm that destroyed his farm. The attribute of spirituality 
is identified through the repeated mentions of the term “God” in the textual text. Besides, 
other attributes are identified in Racho‟s statement to his son: “My sons, nobody dies of hunger. 
Always remember we have God. I am sure he will help us” (p. 93), in the part of the reading text 
regarding to what motivates Racho to write a letter addressed to God as “God knows everything 
but I think I should write to Him and ask directly what I want” (p. 93), and in the closing statement of 
his letter: “So dear God, please help me. I know you will not disappoint me” (p. 93).  In addition, the 
theme of spirituality in the text is also inter-related with the discussion questions of the 
Post-reading Activity section. There are four out of eight questions that focus on faith to 
God. In line with the aforementioned learning materials, the inclusion of these questions 
confirms that spirituality becomes the main themes of the learning activities.  

As addressed earlier, the aforementioned two chapters of the English textbook have 
spirituality and moral values as the major theme of the reading sections. However, it is 
represented in different ways between those two chapters. The reading text in the first 
chapter does not directly mention any attributes of God or any specific religion. Despite 
that, it contains a moral of the story regarding the negative impact of being greedy.  
Moreover, the learning materials in the inter-related learning activities within Chapter One 
explicitly motivate students to develop their awareness of this moral value through the 
questions in its sub-section. Additionally, the attribute of moral value is further developed in 
the writing sub-section by relating the topic of moral values to the personal attribute of 
gratefulness to God. On the other hand, the attributes of spiritual values are explicitly stated 
in both verbal and visual texts in the reading passage of Chapter Five. No specific religion or 
religious affiliation is mentioned in the verbal texts of the reading passage.  However, the 
identity of Christian religion is implicitly identified through the image of both the title page 
and reading text page. Furthermore, spirituality is also the main theme of the discussion 
questions and writing section in this fifth chapter that constitute the post-activities of the 
reading section.  

The analytical results of moral and disposition theme through the concept of 
religious texts within the English textbook indicates the importance of religion as an 
expected Indonesian national identity to develop through the learning process in English 
class. Apart from development of students‟ religious values, another emerging theme 
identified within the textbook is the development of students‟ personal attributes. Different 
from the previous theme that highlighting good deeds based on religion-based commands 
and prohibitions, the latter theme is more about person-to-person interrelationship. Further 
thematic analysis of how personal attribute is conceptualized within the textbook is provided 
at the following sub-section. 
 

Theme 2: Personal attributes 
 

Personal attributes refer to character traits of a person that differentiate that person 
from others (Althop & Berkowitz, 2006). Quantitatively, four of the eleven chapters in the 



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textbooks have the theme of personal attributes (Indonesian Ministry of Education and 
Culture, 2014a; 2014b). There are four perspectives of this theme, they are: (1) The 
Importance of Social Awareness and Empathy, (2) The Danger of Ungratefulness and 
Vanity, (3) love, sacrifice, and hope, and (4) Courage and Optimism. 

Social awareness and empathy is the theme of Chapter Two, specifically the reading 
text section entitled “Bullying: A Cancer That Must be Eradicated” (Volume 1, pp. 27-310). As 
stated in the introduction of the chapter, the objective of this chapter is to improve students‟ 
awareness of social issues through the discussion of bullying. Through the reading text, the 
authors present their opinion of the danger of bullying. There are a number of attributes of 
social awareness and empathy in this text. For instance, this is seen through the diction, and 
in the words chosen by the authors to describe the negative effects of children‟s bullying, 
such as  “tragic end”, “depressed”, violent beating”, “traumatic experience”, and “cruelly bullied” (p. 
28). Moreover, the ways in which the reading text is developed shows the authors‟ stand 
against bullying. The text also asserts the importance of positive campaigns toward the 
development of public awareness on the issue through statements such as “Children should not 
be living in constant fear” and “Everyone should be working together, against it, to stop it.” The author even 
addresses bullying as a “social evil” (p. 29) in this paragraph. As the concluding remark, the 
authors encourage the reader to develop social awareness against bullying through the 
statement: “So next time if you see someone getting bullied, would you try to stop it or let it happen? Remember, 
bullying is everyone‟s problem; therefore everyone has to be the part of the solution” (p. 30).  Furthermore, 
the theme of the reading text interrelates with both the pre-reading and post-reading 
activities. The sub-section “personal question” in the pre-reading activity asks: “Have you ever 
bullied or have you ever witnessed someone being bullied? How did you feel? Can you express your 
feelings/opinion on the issue of bullying?” (p. 27). Similarly, the sub-section of personal journal 
writing in this chapter guides students to write down their feelings if they are bullied through 
the statement: “Place yourself in shoes of a person who gets bullied everyday at school. How would you feel? 
Write down your feelings and what would you do about it” (p. 31). It appears that the questions in the 
sub-section of discussion questions are intended to develop students‟ awareness toward 
bullying such as: “Did this opinion article raise/change your awareness about bullying? Please explain” and 
“What can young people like you do to prevent or stop bullying?” (p. 30).  

The textual text of “Vanity and Pride” in Chapter Four (Volume 1, pp. 70-74) is about 
a couple that had to get through difficult times after losing a necklace they had borrowed 
from their friend. The moral of this reading text is the importance of being grateful for what 
we have. Another important message is to be honest. This reading text has an inter-related 
connection to the aforementioned reading text of “Enchanted Fish” in the first chapter. The 
inter-relation is not only regarding the characters in the story but also the moral of the story. 
Similar to the reading text in “Enchanted Fish”, the main characters in “Vanity and Pride” 
comprise a couple of husband and wife. In both reading texts, the wives are addressed by the 
authors as ungrateful wives who are not happy with what they have had in their lives. In 
“Vanity and Pride”, however, there is another moral of the story included in the text, that is, 
the danger of vanity. The ungratefulness of the wife is described through attributes of the 
text. For example, the character of Madame Loisel is described in the narrator of the script 
text as “Madame Loisel was a pretty girl born into a poor family…. She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born 
for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its bare walls, worn chairs, and 



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ugly curtains” (p. 70). In addition, another attribute of the ungratefulness is also presented in 
how she talks to her husband as, “I'll be humiliated in that old gown. It's so tattered and completely out of 
style. I can't go to the ball wearing that rag” (p. 71). Moreover, the attribute of vanity is characterized 
from her other reaction when her husband says that she is already beautiful with the new 
gown: “You just don't understand! It's so annoying! I don't have a single piece of jewelry to wear with my gown” 
(p. 72). In a latter part of the script, the consequence of Madam Loisel‟s vanity to their life is 
described as “The replacement cost them everything. Madame Loisel came to know the ghastly life of abject 

poverty. Their previous life seemed downright 
luxurious compared to what they had now” (p.  (p. 75)73).  
The theme of gratefulness is related to the discussion questions. There are four out of 

ten questions designed to encourage students to discuss the theme. They are: “What do you 
think of Madam Louisel? Do you know anyone who has the same personality as Madam Louisel? How are they 
alike? Please describe” (Question One), “In the beginning of the play, Madame Louisel was very sad and 
unsatisfied. Why was she sad and unsatisfied? What did she want? Support your answer with examples from the 
play” (Question Two), “Why do you think Madame Louisel borrowed the necklace from her friend?” 
(Question Three), and “Do you think she had a good time at the ball? Support your answer with examples 
from the play” (Question Four). In addition, the sub-section of personal journal writing 
addresses another moral of the story regarding the attribute of honesty. The statement is “Do 
you think being honest is very important in life?” (p. 76). As mentioned earlier, the questions in the 
post-activities address the theme of the reading text as the main topics of the questions.  

The third chapter regarding the theme of personal attributes is entitled “The Last Leaf” 
(Volume 2, pp. 45-62). In this chapter, the title of the chapter becomes the title of the 
reading text of this chapter. In the short story, Johnsy was described as an artist lived in New 
York City who was dying of Pneumonia. She believed that she would die very soon and no 
medical care would save her from death (pp. 47-49). The attribute of love and sacrifice as a 
theme of this text is illustrated from the character of Sue, Johnsy‟s flatmate, who takes care 
of her during her illness. Sue‟s character is implicitly described in the text. For example, after 
the doctor said that Johnsy was very ill and appeared to have no desire to live, Sue “went into 
the workroom and cried…” (p. 47). Further evidence of Sues‟ affection for Johnsy is explained in 
the reading text through statements about how Sue helped to prepare Johnsy‟s meal and help 
with the medicine. Another moral of the story is presented through the character of Mr. 
Behrman, a neighbour who sacrificed himself to help Johnsy develop her positive attitude 
against the disease. In the beginning of the story, it appears that Mr. Berhman did not 
believe in supporting Johnsy‟s irrational thought that she would die at the same time the last 
leaf fallen. This point of view was described in the text: “Old Berhman, with his red eyes plainly 
streaming, shouted his contempt and derision for such idiotic imaginings” (p. 48). However, the latter part 
of the story showed Mr. Berhman‟s sacrifice for Johnsy, as he secretly painted the image of 
an ivy leaf to replace the real last leaf that fallen during a thunderstorm at night. Moreover, 
the discussion questions of the reading text indicate the support for the themes of the 
reading text. They are designed to describe those three characters; for instance, “If you were in 
Sue‟s shoes, how would you have reacted to Johnsy‟s irrational thoughts?” and “Why do you think Mr. 
Berhman made such a sacrifice?” (p. 50). However, the learning activity in the sub-section of 
personal journal writing does not relate to the theme of the reading text. 

The last reading text for this theme is identified in Chapter Ten (Volume 2, pp. 
79-105). In this chapter, the reading texts consist of three song texts and three poem texts. 



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They are on different pages with their own post-reading activities. All are English songs and 
poems, all in English language, with the song/poem‟s authors mentioned. I classify the 
perspective of this chapter as courage and optimism. This is because the songs and poems 
share the same moral story, that is, not to give up or feel sad about troubles. Through the 
song “We shall Overcome” by Peter Sager (p. 84), and the poem entitled “Invictus” by William 
Ernest Henley (p. 89), the authors set the moral of the chapter, that is, to have courage and 
persistence toward any problems in life. Additionally, the contents of the texts also have the 
message of being optimistic in life. 

Regarding the visual elements, there are three images identified in this chapter. The 
first is an image of a wood with two roads divergent on the title page of the chapter. It 
appears that is image is a visual interpretation of one of the poems in the chapter entitled 
“The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost (p. 88). The next is a full-page image of a night view 
with a partial figure of a tree on the left, a falling star in the middle of the page, and the big 
moon on the left upper part of the page. This image appears not to represent the theme of 
the reading texts that propound encouragement and optimism. Instead, the image provides 
the impression of a peaceful and silent night. Last but not least, the third image is at the 
smallest size compared to the other two. This image portrays the silhouettes of three people 
walking together hand-in-hand. There is a statement of “We Shall Overcome” on and under 
the image. The same statement of what is written on the image and the previously 
mentioned song title of “We Shall Overcome” indicates that the third image is the 
representation of the song. Unlike other chapters that have only one reading text, however, 
Chapter Ten has a number of texts in the forms of song and poem lyrics. Although not all 
lyrics have post-learning activities, consequently, there are a different number of 
post-reading materials. However, they share similar characteristics of questions; for example 
asking students‟ opinion regarding contents of the song/poem: “What do you think the title 
„Stand by me‟ means?” (p. 83), whether students agree or disagree with the song or poem: “Do 
you agree with what the poet is saying?” (p. 89), and even whether or not students like them: “Do you 
like the poem „Invictus‟?” (p. 89). 

As articulated from the analytical results, the theme of personal attributes is the 
mostly used theme in the English textbook. With four out of eleven chapters, this is 
becomes the theme of majority of learning texts with various perspectives among those 
chapters. For instance, Chapter Two highlight the importance of social awareness and 
empathy while chapter Four justifies the negative effects of being ungrateful. Despite the 
varieties of perspectives, the results of data analysis reveals the personal attributes within 
then textbook signify certain personal attributes such as being disciplined, hard-working, 
polite, faithful, honest, and polite, as well as to obey and show high respects to parents and 
show unquestioning loyalty to respectful parties such as parents and elderly people. No 
traces of personal attributes that highlighting otherwise such as the importance of 
democratic values, good respect for human right, or appreciation toward multiculturalism 
awareness. To conclude, the thematic analysis of personal attributes of the verbal and visual 
texts within the textbook comprise selective values and beliefs.  
 

 
 



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Theme 3: Nationalism 

 
Among the chapters, there are two chapters that focus on nationalism as their themes. 

Both of them discuss Indonesian heroes. Chapter Three presents the transcript of a speech 
by Sukarno (Volume 1, pp. 50-51), the first president of Indonesia, in his speech at the first 
Asia-Africa conference as its reading comprehension text. In addition, the reading text of 
Chapter Nine comprises the biography of Ki Hadjar Dewantara (Volume 2, pp. 65-66), a 
pioneer of national education in Indonesia who has been officially declared by the 
Indonesian government by the Presidential Decree of 305 Year 1959 as the Father of 
Indonesian Education. The same decree also acknowledges Ki Hajar Dewantara‟s birthday 
as the Indonesian National Education Day (Detail Biodata Pejabat Menteri, 2017). 

Although both chapters are about Indonesian heroes, how each of those two 
Indonesian heroes is articulated in the textbooks is not the same. Among those two chapters, 
the articulation of Sukarno appears to be more dominant than Ki Hadjar Dewantara. This is 
identified in the elements of: the position of each chapter in the textbooks, learning activities 
that relate to the heroes, and size and position of the images of those two heroes within the 
textbooks. Regarding the position of each chapter, Sukarno is the main topic of Chapter 
Three. This is the third chapter of the textbook teaching English for senior high school in 
grade XI in semester 1 (Volume 1, pp. 49-67). On the other hand, the text regarding Ki 
Hadjar Dewantara is located at the reading text of Chapter Nine. This is the fourth chapter 
in the second textbook that is used to teach English for Grade XI‟s students in semester two 
(Volume 2, pp. 63-79).  

Additionally, the analysis of the learning activities that relate to the heroes shows that 
Sukarno‟s speech regarding his hopes and dreams for a better and stable peace in the world 
is not limited on reading section only. On the other hand, the theme of hopes and dreams, 
specifically in relation to the hopes of a better world, along with hopes for the nation of 
Indonesia and future personal achievements becomes the theme of the remaining learning 
sections within the chapter. For example, in the learning activity focusing on the 
development of students‟ speaking skills under the “Active Conversation” section (pp. 
60-63), the students are asked to interview their classmates and make a report on that. The 
topics for the interview are regarding their own hopes for their personal life and for the 
world through the directional questions of “What are their hopes and dreams for themselves?” and 
“What are their hopes and dreams for the world?” (p. 60). Additionally, the same topic appears in the 
“Let‟s Contribute” section (p. 65) in which students are requested to make posters about 
their hopes for themselves, their countries, and their significant ones. The same topic is also 
presented in the practice section (pp. 57-58). In this section, the students are required to 
firstly identify whether or not each sentence among ten pre-determined sentences is 
grammatically right or not. Then, any grammatical errors in the sentences need to be fixed. 
Among those sentences, there are statements such as “I hope we can change the world for better” (p. 
57) and “Hope I will do able something beneficial for my country” (p. 58).  

Unlike Chapter Three, however, the theme of Chapter Nine regarding the biography 
of Ki Hadjar Dewantara becomes the topic of the reading comprehension of the chapter 
only. There are a number of learning activities that still relate with the reading text. They are 



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positioned as pre-reading activities (p. 64) and post-reading activities (p. 67). However, the 
remaining learning materials within Chapter Nine are focused on the development of 
biography texts in general. They are not related to the content of Ki Hajar Dewantara‟s 
biography in the reading text.  In addition to the learning activities regarding the general 
information of how to develop biography texts, the students are guided to write short 
biographies about two Indonesian national heroines. They are: Cut Nyak Dhien (p. 72) and 
Raden Ajeng Kartini  (p. 73). Besides being identified in the topics of the two Indonesian 
heroines above, the attribute of nationalism is also identified through the description of the 
achievements of the two heroines stated in their pre-determined available data. Both of their 
accomplishments are stated in this sub-section as: Indonesian “national hero” (pp. 72-73). 
Similar to the sub-section of Active Conversation in Chapter Three, the attributes of 
nationalism are identified in the form of statements in the sub-section of Active 
Conversation of Chapter Nine. They are: “Do you have any dreams for your country and future?” (p. 
75) and “ If you had to do one thing for your country, what would it be?” (p. 75).  

The third element that differentiates both chapters is regarding the images in the 
chapters. As within most of the chapters, the main images in the reading text and on the first 
page of that chapter are the same. The only difference is the size. Unlike the image in the 
first page of the chapter that usually has a significantly bigger size, the image in the reading 
text is smaller. But the images on both pages remain identical. In contrast, Chapter 9 has 
different images on its first page compared to the page on which the reading text appears. In 
contrast to the image of Sukarno that has been presented both on the first page of the 
chapter and in the reading text, the image of Ki Hadjar Dewantara is only provided on the 
reading text page (Volume 2, p. 63). The first page of Chapter Nine comprises an image of a 
group of people in front of a building. On the lower right of the page, it is stated “Taman 
Siswa 1

st
, August 1939”. Based on the information, it can be concluded that the picture was 

taken on August 1
st
, 1939 in the front yard of Taman Siswa. Later in the reading text, it is 

described that Taman Siswa is an educational institute founded by Ki Hadjar Dewantara in 
1922 as a school for native Indonesians during colonial times (Volume 2, p. 66).  

The aforementioned results of verbal and visual texts of Chapter Three and Chapter 
Nine advocate that both chapters have the same main theme of nationalism. The theme then 
is represented by Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, and Ki Hadjar Dewantara as the 
father of Indonesian national education system. It is noteworthy to mention that the analysis 
of the position of the chapter, learning activities within the chapters, and the images of both 
Indonesian heroes indicate that Sukarno has higher level of salience than Ki Hadjar 
Dewantara. Despite the different proportions of Sukarno and Ki Hadjar Dewantara, the 
ways of how those two Indonesian heroes are portrayed in the textbook along with the 
inclusion of learning materials that encourage the positive attitudes toward the achievement 
of Indonesian famous people advocate the significance values of nationalism as an expected 
Indonesian identity for students to build. Apart from the themes of moral and disposition 
and personal attributes that have been addressed at the prior sub-sections, there is another 
theme identified within the textbook namely knowledge and scientific attitude. Then, the 
remaining part of this article is intended to overview the latter thematic analysis as provided 
below.  
  



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Theme 4: Knowledge and scientific attitude 

 
There are three chapters in the textbook that have knowledge and scientific attitude 

as their themes. They are: Chapter 6, entitled “The Story of Writing!” Volume 2, pp. 1-25), 
Chapter 7, entitled “Natural Disaster” (Volume 2, pp. 26-44), and Chapter 11 entitled 
“Man-made Disaster” (Volume 2, pp. 106-124). All of those chapters are in the Volume Two 
textbook for teaching English for Grade XI students at semester 2. The theme is 
“Knowledge” as the texts provide facts and information on an issue in relation to the theme 
of the chapter. In addition to the facts and information, a number of statements within the 
texts appear be designed to promote students‟ scientific attitude. That is to develop students‟ 
positive attitude toward the issues of the texts based on the scientific evidences presented in 
the texts. In addition, it also refers to the learning activities that support students to use a 
scientific approach to answer the questions; such as through the activities of collecting and 
analysing required data. Additionally, the attributes in relation to facts and information in the 
texts are identified from the historical background of human writing systems in the world as 
well as description of technical writing (pp. 3-4). Additionally, the facts and information are 
presented in the form of the information and a table of earthquake magnitude levels (p.29). 
The authors also highlight the negative impact of global warming by quoting the report 
results from Greenpeace in 2007 (pp. 108-109).  

As addressed earlier, in addition to the knowledge, the reading texts within the three 
chapters are also intended to raise students‟ awareness of the problems faced not only by 
Indonesian people but also by people all around the world. Moreover, the reading texts 
encourage the application of a scientific approach in learning the English textbook. For 
example, these sections of the textbook aim to raise students‟ awareness of the problems 
that have been presented in the texts about the devastating impact of earthquakes in Chapter 
Seven (Volume 2, pp. 28-30) and the negative effects of global warming on the earth in 
Chapter Eleven (Volume 2, pp. 108-109). In Chapter Six, however, the attribute regarding 
scientific attitude does not appear in the reading text. The text focuses on the historical 
background of writing systems as well as the definition and characteristics of technical 
writing (pp. 3-5). The scientific attitude in Chapter Six is identified in the post-reading 
activities. In the sub-section of discussion questions, through the question of “Do you think 
writing changed our society?” (p. 6) students are encouraged to present their analysis regarding 
how writing has changed society. This information is not provided in the reading text. In 
addition, the students are guided to investigate the relationship between technical writing and 
human invention through the question: “Need is the mother of invention”. Do you think this saying is 
applicable to the development of technical writing?” (p. 6). In the sub-section of personal journal 
writing, the scientific attitude is formed in the way that students are guided to build their 
own hypothesis of what might have happened to the world without the development of 
human writing systems. The direction of the writing activity is: “Do you think advent of writing has 
had a major influence in making our world as it is now? If writing had not been invented what would our world 
be like? Reflect on it for a few minutes. Write your reflections here” (p. 7). The statement refers to the 
learning activity which asks students to reflect on the influence of human writing systems on 



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the world. This is more a high-order philosophical question than one designed to measure 
English skills such as Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. 

On the other hand, the theme of scientific attitude appears both in the reading texts 
and post-reading activities in both Chapter Six and Chapter Eleven. In the reading text of 
earthquake in Chapter Six, there are a number of attributes of the development of students‟ 
scientific attitude. Firstly, there is the title of the text: “Earthquakes: The Most Deadly 
Natural hazards” (p. 28). The phrase “most deadly natural hazard” as the description of 
“earthquakes” might raise students‟ awareness of how disastrous an earthquake can be. This 
is supported by the information and facts about the impacts of earthquakes for human 
beings. In addition, the text also explains the danger of earthquakes in Indonesia to support 
the development of students‟ awareness about the impact of earthquakes for Indonesian 
people. This is especially presented through the phrase: “Indonesia as the ring of fire” (p. 30). 
According to the text, this geographical background makes Indonesia “more prone to 
earthquakes” (p. 30). Furthermore, the text provides argument to develop students‟ positive 
attitudes to the importance of further research. After the presentation of information and 
facts in the text, the last paragraph addresses the possibility of better management of 
earthquakes in order to minimize the impact of earthquakes through the statement: “In future, 
perhaps scientists will be able to predict earthquakes exactly but for now science has yet to provide answers”  (p. 
30). Scientific attitude in the text has an inter-textual relationship with the learning 
post-reading questions. For example from the questions: “Which of the following disasters do you 
think is the most horrifying: earthquake, tsunamis, thunderstorms, or flood?” and “Do you know anything 
about the „Ring of Fire‟? Can you find information and discuss with your classmates?” (p. 31). The 
questions require students to investigate and collect some scientific information and data to 
be able to answer the questions. Therefore, it relates to the development of students‟ 
scientific attitude.  

Chapter Eleven, entitled “Man Made Disaster” (pp. 106-124), has the attributes of 
knowledge and scientific attitude in both reading text (pp. 108-109) and post-reading 
activities (pp. 110-111). There are statements within the texts to develop students‟ attitude 
toward the negative effect of the issues presented. In this text, it is the danger of global 
warming. Many facts and data are provided in the text to support the theme of the reading 
text. In addition, the discussion questions also aid the development of students‟ scientific 
attitude by providing learning activities that require students to use a scientific approach to 
answer the questions; for example by collecting data, analysing the data, and presenting the 
result of the analysis. Regarding the analysis of the visual texts in these three chapters, none 
of them presents human figures within the images. This is in line with Kress and Van 
Leeuwen‟s model of analysis (2006) that human figures are usually used to develop social 
inter-connection between image and viewer of the image. Analytical scientific texts are 
usually focused on factual information rather than inter-personal relationships. Therefore, a 
number of scientific texts do not have human figures in the images related to the texts.  

In Chapter Six there are three images. The biggest one is located on the title page (p. 
1). It consists of figures of two rolls of papers, two books, and an inkbottle. The papers are 
on the left, the bottle and the pen are in the middle-front position, and the books are on the 
right. In line with Kress and Van Leeuwen‟s theory of visual analysis, the image appears to 
be a description of a writing process. It starts from the starting point of the process that is 



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represented by the pieces of papers on the left side of the image; then through the writing 
process itself through the representation of the pen and ink. Then, the final result of the 
process is pictured by the figure of the books on the right. The other two images within the 
reading texts of Chapter Six are the images of early stages of human writing systems namely 
Hieroglyphics and Cuneiform Script (p. 5). The function of these two images is as visual 
information to support the text. They also provide information about what the early stages 
of a writing system looks like. This is related to the theme of the reading text as discussed 
before, that is, knowledge and scientific attitude.  

Unlike the symbolic image on the title page in Chapter Six, the image of the title page 
in Chapter Seven is in a form of a picture (p. 26). Additionally, there is another image on the 
page of the reading text (p. 27). Both of the images are similar; they portray the results of 
earthquakes on people. The images show houses that have been destroyed by the earthquake 
and tsunami. The image on the reading text of Chapter Eleven, on the other hand, is a 
symbolic image of the impact of global warming. It is pictured by a figure of a tree (p. 106). 
The left side of the tree is green with many leaves and grass all around. In contrast, the right 
side shows leafless branches and dry soil. In addition, there are other images on the first 
page of the reading text in this chapter. The first one comprises of two images with the 
information of “Glacier AX010 Nepal” on the image (p. 108). The top image shows a glacier 
with full snow cover on almost all parts of the glacier. The year “1978” is written below the 
image. On the contrary, the bottom image shows the same glacier but with significantly 
lesser snow (p. 108). The snow only covers a small part of the glacier. The year “2004” 
appears on this lower image. This image appears to present the result of global warming on 
the glacier.  

Moreover, it is articulated earlier that the development of knowledge at the textbook 
is implemented under the theme of knowledge and scientific attitudes. The reading texts are 
presented with the focus of presenting facts and information. In addition, the 
comprehension questions of the reading texts accommodate a number of questions that 
might enable students to develop their critical thinking abilities. However, the analysis of the 
question items discloses that most of the questions are out of the contexts of the reading 
texts. The questions that supposed to develop students‟ scientific attitudes are more related 
to high-order philosophical questions that are not related to the reading texts preceding the 
questions nor English language skills. Apart from that, there are limited learning activities in 
the textbooks that are related to the learning of English language skills. Even there are some, 
the learning activities are in the low level of thinking only, mostly in the level of recalling. 
Therefore, the questions do not support the teaching of English language as a means of 
communication. Even though the findings underpins the gap between the low level of 
English language skills and the fact that the textbook is for Grade XI, the discussion 
regarding it is beyond the scope of this dissertation as this article is intended to investigate 
how Indonesian national identity is represented in English textbook. Therefore, no further 
conclusion can be drawn about those issues. 
 

 
 
 



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Conclusions 

 
To sum up, the analytical results confirms four main themes of how Indonesian 

national identity is conceptualized in English textbook namely (1) morals and disposition, (2) 
personal attributes, (3) nationalism and (4) knowledge and scientific attitudes. Among them, 
the trace of moral and disposition theme is identified in the learning tasks in almost all book 
chapters. In addition, there are two chapters that specifically make spirituality as the main 
themes of the chapters. Regarding the personal attributes theme, a number of chapters 
within the textbook underscore the promotion of good deeds such as honesty, discipline, 
responsibility, tolerance, and politeness. Additionally, the representation of the attributes 
toward nations and country‟s pride are presented in the form of learning materials about 
Indonesian heroes. In line with that, the attitudes toward the society and the world are in the 
form of awareness toward global issues such as social awareness, colonialism-free world, 
natural disasters, and global warming. 

Apart from the identified themes, the results of analysis also reveal some interesting 
points such as the unbalanced proportion of how each theme is represented in the textbook, 
the infusion of selected values and norms in the development of students‟ personal 
attributes, the gap between the reading comprehension questions and the reading texts or 
English language skills, the minimal representation of the knowledge development, 
specifically in regards to the development of English skills. Despite the aforementioned 
research results, however, English textbook is merely an element among various factors in 
English teaching. Further studies with a broader scope of investigation that might involve 
other parties such as, but not limited to, curriculum documents, interviews with curriculum 
development personnel, interviews with the teachers of English, and classroom observation 
are strongly suggested. Thorough such studies, more comprehensive information of how 
Indonesian national identity is conceptualized in English language teaching might be 
achieved. 

 
Disclosure statement 

 
The authors declare no conflict of interest in the design of the study; in the collection, 

analysis, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish 
the results. 

 
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Biographical note 
 
ELLA MASITA is an Associate Professor at Faculty of Teacher Training and 

Education, Universitas Jambi, Jambi, Indonesia. Her research interests are in English 
teaching Curriculum and Pedagogy, TESOL, and English for young Learners. Email: 
ellamasita@unja.ac.id       
 
 

mailto:ellamasita@unja.ac.id