A Semiotics Analysis of the Interior Design of an Indonesian Elementary and Junior High School Classroom

Abstract

This study interrogates the relationship between the interior design of a classroom and the teaching-learning process of primary and junior high school students. The investigations of the learning processes are rarely associated with classroom designs as their key variable in achieving the learning objectives. In fact, from a semiotic perspective, interior design has a hidden dimension related to human character formation. It employs Saussure's structural semiotics and Peirce's pragmatic semiotics to uncover the hidden dimension based on survey data from 260 primary and secondary schools across several regions and cities in Indonesia. It also carries out interviews with 100 students and 50 teachers, including school principals. The findings reveal that the classroom interior design refers to the Western modernism paradigm, which is systemic, formalistic, and static method on the one hand, and meets the state supervision system through regulations and semiotic devices in the classroom on the other. As a result, schools have become ideological institutions that tend to stifle students' and teachers' creativity. This study contributes to the future development of the education system by investigating student classroom designs.