History Education as Emancipatory Praxis: A Critical Pedagogy and People's Economy Approach to Realizing Social Justice

Abstract

This article aims to reconstruct history education as an emancipatory praxis through the integration of
critical pedagogy and a people-centered political economy perspective within the framework of social
justice. The study is grounded in the concern that history instruction in Indonesia remains
predominantly transmissive and insuf iciently engages students in analyzing power relations, resource
distribution, and the political-economic dynamics shaping national development. Employing a
qualitative library-based approach, this research critically examines relevant international and
national scholarship in history education, critical pedagogy, and political economy. The findings
indicate that procedural democracy does not automatically lead to economic democracy, highlighting
the need for history education to incorporate structural analysis of distribution, ownership, and social
participation across historical periods. The article formulates an operational model of history
learning based on four integrative dimensions: structural analysis, local contextualization, critical
dialogue, and democratic economic orientation. The proposed model contributes theoretically by
bridging history education studies and political economy discourse, while practically of ering a
curricular framework that fosters substantive democratic literacy. Ultimately, history education is
positioned not merely as the transmission of collective memory but as a transformative medium aimed
at advancing social justice in contemporary Indonesia.