Lived Experience Ketidaksetaraan Pendidikan Di Daerah 3T: Sebuah Fenomenologi Kritis Tentang Akses, Identitas, dan Relasi Kuasa

Muhammad Arif Luthfi Arif

Authors

Muhammad Arif Luthfi Arif Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Tarbiyah Makrifatul Ilmi Bengkulu Selatan Author

Keywords:

critical phenomenology, educational inequality, 3T regions, social identity, power relations, symbolic resistance

Abstract

This study aims to explore the lived experiences of educational inequality in Indonesia’s 3T (frontier, outermost, and underdeveloped) regions, focusing on how access, identity, and power relations shape the meaning of education within local sociocultural contexts. Educational disparity in these areas is not merely a geographic problem but also a reflection of power relations that position peripheral regions as “the marginalized.” Employing van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenology within the framework of critical phenomenology, this study interprets the subjective experiences of educational actors in relation to oppressive social structures. Fifteen participants—including teachers, principals, students, parents, and local education officials—were selected through criterion-based purposive sampling and engaged in in-depth phenomenological interviews, reflective observation, and document analysis. The hermeneutic thematic analysis revealed four essential themes: (1) obstructed access, (2) identity constructed through deficiency, (3) internalized power relations, and (4) resilience and the desire for recognition. Findings indicate that education in 3T areas is experienced as an existential struggle for social recognition amid structural limitations. Education becomes both a symbolic form of resistance against inequality and a means of negotiating identity within hierarchical systems. The study asserts that educational inequality represents a dialectical phenomenon between material conditions and critical consciousness. Theoretically, this research enriches the discourse of critical phenomenology from a Global South perspective; practically, it advocates a paradigm shift from “equal access” to “equal meaning,” emphasizing existential recognition and community-based participation in educational policy.

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