Democratic Culture as a Learning Ecology in Higher Education: A Qualitative Case Study of Students’ Political Literacy with Conceptual Implications for Early-Grade Indonesian Language Pedagogy

Abstract

Purpose: This study analyzes how democratic culture in the Sociology Education Study Program of Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar operates as a learning ecology that shapes students’ political literacy. It also formulates conceptual, not experimentally tested, implications for early-grade Indonesian language pedagogy. Methods: The study used a qualitative case-study design involving 24 students from semesters 3, 5, and 7. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, three focus group discussions, participatory observations in four campus democratic arenas, and analysis of student-organization documents. Data were analyzed through Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña’s interactive model by moving from initial codes to categories and five themes. Findings: Democratic culture shaped political literacy through four connected processes: dialogue spaces that trained students to speak, listen, and evaluate arguments; deliberation and negotiation that strengthened participation when facilitation was equal but weakened it when symbolic domination occurred; management of cultural, identity, and political differences through communicative norms; and reflective verification of public and social-media information. The study also found barriers in the form of apathy, seniority, domination by organizationally active students, polarization, and procedural formalism. Contribution: The article contributes a democratic-communicative learning-ecology framework that connects political sociology, cultural sociology, and dialogic language pedagogy. Its pedagogical implication is limited to a conceptual model consisting of dialogic circles, mini-deliberations, diversity-text reading, peer-response writing, and class voice projects.