Leiden University Student Repository

Kamphuis, K.M.J. (2015)

Constructing the Native Child. Indigenous Childhoods and Education in the Netherlands Indies (ca. 1880-1920)

Master thesis | History (MA)

In the historiography about education for Indonesian children in the Netherlands Indies, a legislative approach predominates. This causes a disregard for non-governmental educational initiatives, and for those that that occurred outside Java. In this thesis, through in-dept analysis of schools in Java, the Minahasa and South New Guinea, educational ideologies and practices are researched while focusing on the question of how, and why, native childhoods were constructed in these contexts. 'Age' is a leading category of analysis here. This thesis shows that educational projects were not about 'uplifiting' children in the sense of social mobility. On the contrary, educators aimed at maintaining social hierarchies. This conclusion opens up space for a revision of the meaning of the Dutch 'civilizing mission' in the Netherlands Indies.

Netherlands Indies

Childhood

Education

Age

Gender

Colonialism

Discourse Analysis

Author

Kamphuis, K.M.J.

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Colonial and Global History

Supervisors

Schrikker, A.F.

ECTS Credits

40

Language

en