Presence in Teaching: Intended Practices and Remaining Challenges of Teachers in Indonesia

Abstract

The Indonesian government has continuously pursued to improve the quality of its education. One of the crucial factors in empowering the education is through strengthening the quality of teachers and teaching profession. This article aims to explore teachers’ professional practices and expertise in Indonesia by considering the theory of ‘presence’ in teaching. Presence can be defined as the capability of teachers to connect and engage with students mentally, emotionally and physically in the learning environment for teachers to be able to meet the needs of students in learning. This article is divided into two sections. Firstly, it addresses the current educational practices and explores the problems of teachers’ pedagogies in Indonesia. Using data from existing research and surveys, it reveals that the requirements for standardised test and ranking system, the culture of transmission model in teaching and the hierarchical relationship between teachers and students bring the education further away from the essence of what it means to teach. Therefore, in response to these problems, the second part of this article suggests the needs of teachers to reconceptualise their current understanding of pedagogy and to employ the concept of teacher presence in teaching. In doing so, teachers are expected to build connection with students, connection with pedagogical and content knowledge and connection with parents and communities.