The Multiculturalism of Children's Literature: A Study about Children’s Poems in Surakarta and Yogyakarta

Abstract

Multiculturalism substantially contains the values of cultural diversity which includes tolerance among religious groups. Internalizing the values of multiculturalism needs to be given to students from an early age. One of the efforts to internalize the values of multiculturalism is through literacy literature, namely writing poems with multiculturalism. This study discusses the students' understanding of the values of multiculturalism and tolerance for cultural diversity found in a collection of the students' poems. The focus of this study is multiculturalism and children's poems. This study aimed to explain the content of multiculturalism in the poems expressed by the elementary school students in Surakarta and Yogyakarta. This study used the qualitative research paradigm with content analysis method. The data in this study were the poems produced by the students. The data analysis technique used in this study was the interactive analysis technique consisting of data reduction, data display, and verification. To obtain data validity, data verification was done through data triangulation. The results showed that the poems made by elementary school students in Surakarta and Yogyakarta contained the values of multiculturalism. The themes of the poems are religion, cultural diversity and mutual respect. The students' works show their understanding of multiculturalism, so that they are expected to appreciate differences in religion, ethnicity, skin colour, race, culture, respect among the same, and uphold a sense of unity. Multiculturalism that is embedded in students early on is very helpful for them as a means of living side by side in diversity.

Multiculturalism in Children's Literature: A Study of a Collection of Poems by Elementary School Students in Yogyakarta

“…However, not all literature provides the teachings of multiculturalism Therefore, it is necessary to introduce the value of multiculturalism through children's literature. Sudigdo (2019) states that the presence of literature for children has a great psychological impact on the child's psyche. The experiences that a child has from childhood will affect the life and development of the child.…”