PISA, Public Participation and Policy Making in Education : the Impact of Online Social Movements and the Shift in Public Involvement in the Basic and Secondary Education Decision Making Processes in Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract What was social mediaa s role in the establishment of online activism in the education sector? Can this online movement affect policy making in the education sector? The utilization of social media as an alternative to raising a social movement aimed to change a political system is not a new phenomenon in social sciences. The Arab Spring, Tunisian revolution, Egypt revolution, and the Tsunami Blanco in Guatemala are some examples of how powerful online activism can be in forcing a change in the sociopolitical life of a country. The current study focuses on exposing the phenomena of online movements resulting in the shift of public positions in policy making. While previous research usually talks about online activism in political revolutions, natural preservation, or human rights, I elucidate further the correlation among social media, online movements, and the improvement of public participation in the decision-making process in the education sector. For that reason, I analyze the emergence of the phenomena in Indonesian basic and secondary education as a case study. Moreover, the existing research rarely discusses the struggle of developing countries in improving education quality as well as their competitiveness level internationally, especially those which perform poorly in the Rankings&Ratings, namely the PISA survey. In this dissertation, I build a theoretical framework developed to answer two research questions: How did the online movement, stimulated via social media, affect and shift both the paradigm of the policy makers and the public in the basic and secondary education policy making processes in Indonesia? What was the impact of social media in driving the online movement as well as changing the policy making process in Indonesia? Theoretically, the output of the study contributes to understanding the emergence of online activism affecting policy making processes in the field of education. To explain the phenomena, I use a theoretical framework emphasizing three components of social movement proposed by Meyer (2004): organizational consciousness, resources, and political opportunities. I also apply four main theoretical approaches, which are public participation, collective identity, resources mobilization theory, and political opportunity structure. Additionally, I use relative deprivation, rational actor theory, and advocacy 2.0. as supporting theories to explain the possible driving reasons behind the occurrence of the three elements of social movement. Methodologically, this study was performed with the qualitative technique of process tracing of the basic and secondary education policy making process from 2002 to 2013. In the data collection and analysis, I conducted semi-structured and in-depth models of expert interviews involving 22 interviewees consisting of government officials, legislative members, teacher association members, NGOs, Academics, Activists, and Media experts. I also applied document analysis to policy documents, international documents, and news material related to the topic of study. From the study, it is concluded that the online movement can change the education policy making process because of three reasons: the pre-existing activists as entrepreneurs successfully evoked the public awareness to educational issues, social media created internal and external collaboration between stakeholders, and a more opened of current political opportunity in Indonesia. Furthermore, the research also reveals three roles of social media in the online movement in the Indonesian education sector, mainly in the increase of public involvement, resources mobilization, and the change of political communication. Additionally, the study revealed several other important factors. First of all, the shared feeling of deprivation in the society caused by the previous authoritarian regime had been an important entry point used by the entrepreneurs of the online movement to raise an online-based collective action. Second, the existence of pre-existing activists as top leaders in the government increased the openness of the political institutions and created a more collaborative policy making process. Finally, the political communication change resulting from the social media era created a condition where the public perception directly influences the policy making process in Indonesia.