Pedagogy of Freedom: Van-Dijk’s Socio-Cognitive Discursive Analysis on Nadiem Makariem Endgame Podcast

Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology initiate Merdeka Belajar (Independent Learning) policy since 2020 to improve education quality. Education holds a crucial role in human capital development of nation to respond structural transformation challenges, global industrial revolution, and disruptive changes in many dimensions of human life. Indonesian education quality still needs to be improved, since the Indonesia 2018 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) rank in lower quartile compare with other 78 countries. Nadiem Makariem, the Education, Culture, Research and Technology minister, convey the discourse about Independent Learning through Endgame podcast series 113, hosted by Gita Wirjawan, an Indonesian investment banker, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former Indonesian minister of trade. This study aims to analyse the podcast uses Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach to demystify ideology behind the policy through critical analysis of language, cognition, and social-cultural context, from macro (context) to micro (social cognition, ideology) level. Freire’s pedagogy of freedom and Bourdieu’s concept about social structure of educational system used as a framework. This study found that Independent Learning policy strive to break the social domination of banking education system that already practiced in Indonesian education and resulting in low quality of education that withheld the competitive index of Indonesian human capital. Symbolic violence and power in the education bureaucracy system hinder the implementation of the Independent Learning policy in Indonesian schools and universities, leading to resistance among stakeholders.