[Resensi Buku]

Islam, Budaya, dan Pendidikan

Peresensi: Imam Jahrudin Priyanto
Media: Pikiran Rakyat, Rabu, 8 Januari 2014

Sebagai ilmuwan, Profesor A. Chaedar Alwasilah sangat rajin menuangkan hasil pemikirannya lewat tulisan, baik di media nasional berbahasa Indonesia seperti Pikiran Rakyat maupun media berbahasa Inggris seperti The Jakarta Post. Menghiasi tahun 2014 ini dia meluncurkan buku berisi kumpulan tulisan berbahasa Inggris untuk edisi internasional, terutama ditujukan kepada pembaca luar negeri.

Buku berjudul Islam, Culture, and Education: Essay on Contemporary Indonesia ini secara resmi diluncurkan di Gedung Pascasarjana Universita Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) Bandung, pada Senin, 23 Desember 2013. Pembahas bukunya ialah Deddy Mulyana (Dekan Fikom Unpad) dan Don Faust (Northern Michigan University, AS). Pada Oktober 2013, buku ini juga telah diikutsertakan pada Frankfurt Book Fair, Jerman, yang merupakan pameran buku terbesar di dunia.
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INFO BUKU

Judul: Islam, Culture, and Education - Essay on Contemporary Indonesia
Penulis: A. Chaedar Alwasilah
Format: Hard cover; 437 + xxvi hal.
Penerbit: Rosda International, 2014
ISBN: 978-979-692-453-0
Harga: Rp.107.000,- (dalam negeri); US$19,90 (internasional)

Pemesanan: (022) 5200287 atau pemasaran@rosda.co.id
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Terdiri dari 78 bab mengenai berbagai topik, buku ini dibagi dalam empat bagian utama, yaitu Down to Earth with Islam, Education, Language Education, dan Culture. Dalam konteks Islam, Chaedar antara lain membahas Pancasila, haji, radikalisme, Ramadan, dan Idulfitri.  Untuk pendidikan, Chaedar membahas pengajaran, kurikulum, pragmatisme, dan kiprah guru. Dalam konteks  kebudayaan, Chaedar antara lain mengupas birokrasi, holiganisme, surat kabar komunitas, korupsi di kalangan akademisi, dan debat presiden. 

Don Faust menilai para pembaca buku ini di berbagai negara akan menjadi saksi betapa pentingnya hasil pemikiran Chaedar. Sementara Lauren Zentz (seorang linguis dari University of Houston, AS) dalam kesaksiannya menulis, Chaedar menyajikan kritik penting yang cerdik (Zentz memilih kata astute ‘cerdik’) menyangkut dunia pendidikan dan pengajaran bahasa di  Indonesia. Disajikan secara jernih dalam bahasa Inggris, buku ini akan menjadi koleksi ilmiah berharga bagi para pencinta ilmu. (Imam JP/”PR”)

Link terkait:
* Reportase launching buku Islam, Culture, and Education: http://bit.ly/19c5j4O
* Info awal buku ini: http://bit.ly/1cVgGzD

The Gateway to Indonesia
--Anwar Holid

International observers are curious about Indonesia with regard to Islam vis a vis other religions, culture and its rich manifestations, as well as education that modernizes the population. As a multicultural and multireligious archipelago from Sumatra to Papua, Indonesia has distinctive features to examine. As the world’s fourth largest nation with 250 million people and largest population of Muslims of any country in the world, Indonesia is a melting pot where different cultures transformed into a modern Indonesian culture, making it so exciting to be enjoyed and reviewed.

In his latest book: Islam, Culture, and Education, A. Chaedar Alwasilah takes readers on an illuminating yet critical journey through religion, culture, and education to investigate how Indonesia stands out differently. In a down-to-earth manner, he is recurring issues such as radicalism, religious harmony and pluralism, mudik (Idulfitri exodus), interethnic conflict, bureaucracy, Malay culture, general election, corruption, as well as his pet subjects of writing, ethnic literature, EFL teaching, Indonesian language teaching, language democratization, liberal education and multicultural education are brought to public consciousness.

A. Chaedar Alwasilah---a professor at University of Education, Bandung, West Java---is one of well-known and respected scholar in Indonesia, especially as an educator with more than 30 years of teaching experience at the university level. Obtained his doctorate from Indiana University, US, he is currently leads the Liberal Studies Task Force Committee for the Indonesian Board of Higher Education. He also a prolific author. He is a regular columnist to local and national newspapers such as Pikiran Rakyat and The Jakarta Post. His books include Pokoknya Kualitatif (2002), Pokoknya Menulis (2004), Filsafat Bahasa dan Pendidikan (2007), Pokoknya Action Research (2011), and Pokoknya Rekayasa Bahasa (2012).

This book is not only useful for academics and researchers of Indonesian studies, but could also be of extensive guide for everyone who will visit Indonesia.
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BOOK INFO

Islam, Culture, and Education - Essay on Contemporary Indonesia
Author: A. Chaedar Alwasilah
Hardcover; 437 + xxvi pp.
Publisher: Rosda International, 2014
ISBN: 978-979-692-453-0
Prices: Rp.107.000,- (domestic market); US$19,90 (international)

Purchasing: (062 022) 5200287 or pemasaran@rosda.co.id
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A. Chaedar Alwasilah and his book.

Some of early comments of the book:

Dr. Alwasilah is unmistakably the kind of intellectual his nation direly needs. He is as articulate in writing about issues on multiculturalism, democracy, Islam, political literacy, and literature as he is with his pet subjects of the English language and writing.
--Harry Bhaskara, Associate Editor The Jakarta Post

For anyone trying to come to some understanding of the problems which beset the Indonesian education system, this collection of essays is a good place to start. This book rehearsing for the reader what is actually occurring in schools and universities throughout the country year in year out, provides that synoptic view of the situation that allows one better to understand the situation on the ground in all its complexity.
--C.W. Watson, Em. Professor, School of Anthropology and Conservation University of Kent, UK

Both the Indonesian and non-Indonesian reader will find amply witnessed the importance of Professor Alwasilah work and will relish and benefit from a resulting essential interaction of close observation, local wisdom, and help for Indonesia.
--Don Faust, Ph.D. and Judith Puncochar, Ph.D., Northern Michigan University, US

Dr. Alwasilah reveals himself as a sage of the common people, a humane social philosophy that respects individual growth and diverse cultures while emphasizing higher levels of connectedness among all people.
--Sharon L. Pugh, Associate Professor of Language Education, Indiana University, US

Sure this book will provide insight into an Indonesian educational context that is unique while simultaneously sharing many of its obstacles and goals toward improvement with other national contexts around the world.
--Lauren Zentz, Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics University of Houston, US

Related Sites:
http://www.rosda.co.id
Chaedar’s profile at The Jakarta Post: http://bit.ly/18y1rYx