Tilaar, H. A. R. (2003). Kekuasaan dan Pendidikan: Suatu Tinjauan dari Perspektif Studi Kultural (Power and Education: A Cultural Study Perspective). Tera Indonesia 

This book was launched on the occasion of Dr. Tilaar’s fortieth wedding anniversary. It presents a discussion of the development of power in the education process in Indonesia, deriving from a seminar held at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2003. In this book, Tilaar combines the concepts of the power of education in Western countries and the concepts of social and political changes in the world to discuss the ideas of the power of education in Indonesia by focusing more on the cultural study approaches and perspectives.  

This book contains a prolog entitled “Power and Education: Main Problems in Indonesia’s National Education Today,” which summarized Dr. Tilaar’s presentation at the above seminar. Along with the prolog, this book has four chapters: (a) education from the cultural study perspectives; (b) power and education; (c) boundaries of state power, multicultural education, and globalization: challenges for the new Indonesian society; and (d) national education and national unity. Tilaar concludes the discussion of the power of education in Indonesia with four important insights: 

• Indonesia contains the largest Muslim population in the world. Most of this Muslim population is moderate. 

• There is a close relationship between politics and education in Indonesia during the colonial and postcolonial periods. 

• The relation between power and education is manifested in formulating the new education law. 

• Education is part of political life, meaning that education cannot be understood as only a process of learning or schooling but as part of the whole cultural process. 

Tilaar, H. A. R. (2007). Mengindonesia etnisitas dan identitas bangsa Indonesia: tinjauan dari perspektif ilmu pendidikan (To Be Indonesia: Ethnicity and identity, an educational perspectives). Rineka Cipta. External Link.

The title of this book, To Be Indonesia denotes a process of materializing a joint agreement: the imagination of a unified, just, and prosperous Indonesia. This book focuses on exploring and discussing issues in Indonesia pertaining to ethnicity and identity as they shape national education. The book explores the critical implications of the fact that Indonesia has more than 700 ethnic groups with their respective cultures and how this fact relates to democracy and human rights.  Regarding the identity of Indonesia, especially from a pedagogical perspective, Tilaar places the issues of ethnicity and the identity of Indonesia in a modern pedagogic view, namely transformative pedagogy, which combines the elements of constructivist and critical pedagogical theories.  Tilaar emphasizes that this book is not about politics, anthropology, or sociology but an overview of the pedagogical points and perspectives relevant to national education in Indonesia. Specifically, Tilaar discusses the role of education in forming the identity of Indonesia based on Pancasila, the Five Principles that have fundamentally shaped the identity of Indonesia as a nation. Furthermore, Tilaar critically explains the process of forming the national identity of Indonesia in the theory and practice of education.  Tilaar synthesizes perspectives on the development of ethnicity and national identity from renowned theorists including Pierre Bourdieu and Lev Vygotsky, and applies these concepts to the project of multiethnic education in Indonesia.  This book has nine chapters: 

1. The meaning of ethnicity and ethnic identity. 

2. What is national identity? 

3. Ethnicity, national identity, cultural capital, and education. 

4. National identity: postmodernism view. 

5. Ethnicity and national identity in transformative pedagogy. 

6. The development of national identity: some education concepts. 

7. Indonesian ethnicity, national identity, and the role of education. 

8. Indonesian national identity: the role of youth oath. 

9. Pancasila as the foundation for national identity development and the role of education. 

Tilaar, H. A. R. (2012). 10 Windu: Pendidikan nasional arah ke mana? (10 Windu: Where is the direction of education?). Rineka Cipta. IUCAT
Note: Windu is cycle of eight years in Java (Indonesia) calendrical reckoning.

This book is a collection of 25 essays about the development of education in Indonesia written by Dr. Tilaar’s colleagues, in honor of his 80th birthday. It is intended to trigger further discussion about the future of education in Indonesia, which has always been the primary concern of Dr. Tilaar’s ideas and actions. Through this collection, Tilaar emphasizes that education has two dimensions: human rights and pedagogical processes. Both dimensions must develop simultaneously in the same direction because humans can only become humans through humanization, and humans as individuals can function only with other humans.

The book compiles different rich ideas and perspectives about the future of education in Indonesia based on the country’s ideology of Pancasila and associated principles. Based on his colleagues’ opinions presented in the book, Tilaar’s ideas about education in Indonesia and his interventions in shaping Indonesian education have permeated all micro-education fields, educational institutions, and educational philosophy in Indonesia, highlighting his never-ending dedication to thinking about how to improve various aspects of the dynamics of education in Indonesia. 

Tilaar, H. A. R. (2012). Kredo Pendidikan (My Pedagogical Credo). Lembaga Manajemen Universitas Negeri Jakarta.

This book was written 50 years after Dr. Tillar started his career in education as a teacher and a scholar. In the 50 years, Tilaar acknowledged that his ideas presented in many books and articles written in the 50 years have evolved, but they are fundamentally shaped to build on each other. In this book, Dr. Tilaar summarizes the changes in his ideas over time. Dr. Tilaar shows that his pedagogical creed, broadly viewed as a statement of principles or fundamental view about a subject or a formula of belief, resonates with the principles and aims of education elaborated through critical pedagogy and cultural studies. Dr Tilaar views education as process that changes over time. What is constant is the need for Indonesian children to develop free and responsible personalities within multi-ethnic Indonesian society. Tilaar ideas in this book are covered in 11 chapters:  

1. What is a creed?  

2. Educational processes as human processes 

3. Educational process as a communicative-dialogical action 

4. Educational process as a transformative act 

5. Responsible learners and educators 

6. Ethical educational goals 

7. Educational process: assisting the development of learner’s personality 

8. The essence of independent learners 

9. Natural and cultural environment 

10. Multicultural Indonesian people and nation: Pancasila-Indonesian people 

11. National education management. 

Tilaar, H. A. R. (2014). Sowing the seed of freedom: Ki Hadjar Dewantara as a pioneer of critical pedagogy. H. A. R. Tilaar. IUCAT

In this book, Tilaar argues that the Indonesian people have suffered from two types of poverty. The first is economic poverty, as the wealth of Indonesia had been exploited by the colonial oppressors. The second poverty is intellectual poverty, as the Indonesian people had been restrained from intellectual growth by the limitation of freedom to develop and think. This book examines the authentic thoughts of the National Education Hero in Indonesia, Ki Hadjar Dewantara, which are truly relevant to Indonesia in facing the present changes in the world, especially in education. The cultural theory of Ki Hadjar Dewantara advocates that no culture remains stagnant but continues to change in the face of global changes. Tilaar argues that the cultures of education in Indonesia have remained steadfast and self-reliant in selecting and adopting positive elements of other cultures. 

As indicated in the title, Tilaar looks back at and draws upon the fundamental ideas of Ki Hadjar Dewantara, a pioneer of critical pedagogy in Indonesia, to build relevant ideas for sowing the seed of freedom in Indonesia today. Specifically, as Ki Hadjar Dewantara based his education on the culture of people, Tilaar brought the concept of cultural equality, a fundamental principle of cultural studies, in the late 20th century. In addition, Tilaar mentions that the concept of cultural equality was discussed in December 2013 in Bali, World Education Forum, acknowledging that the role of culture in sustainable development is spurred by the increasing intelligence of the people due to their education—which is also the central perspective of Ki Hadjar Dewantara. Furthermore, Tilaar argues that principles of modern critical pedagogy and the praxis of the implementation of related regulations have started to develop and be put into practice since the early 20th century by the great Indonesian educators, the forefather of the Indonesian national education, the pioneer of Critical Pedagogy. 

To discuss how to sow the seed of freedom in Indonesia based on Ki Hadjar Dewantara’s critical pedagogy more comprehensively, Tilaar presents his ideas in 7 chapters: 

1. Education in the global flow of change. 

2. National education loses direction. 

3. The national education to prepare for the 2045 golden generation. 

4. Critical pedagogy in facing global challenges. 

5. Tamasiswa (kindergarten) teaching and critical pedagogy. 

6. The mission of the kindergarten education system. 

7. Ki Hadjar Dewantara as critical pedagogy pioneer in Indonesia and the world.