Indonesian Pre-service Biology Teachers’ and Biology Education Professors’ Views on Evolution

Indonesia is a religious country that values local wisdom and customs. Although the characteristics of the Indonesian people may provide novel insight into and distinguished views on the theory of evolution by natural selection, few studies have explored how Indonesians view the theory of biological evolution. Thus, this study aimed to examine the views on evolution of undergraduate students and their professors majoring in biology education. A multiple-case approach was used as the method of this study. Three pre-service biology teachers and three biology education professors were interviewed. The interview results revealed that the six participants embraced creationism without accepting the theory of evolution by natural selection. One intriguing result was that Indonesian professors in this sample tended to see no conflict between evolution and religion. Instead, they believed in seeking harmonization by compartmentalizing evolution and religion. The participants connected their views to the current state of the science curriculum that embraced the idea of harmonization between science and religion. In addition, four categories were found in terms of how the participants approached evolution acceptance and its relation to religion. How the participants negotiated the dilemma between evolution and personal or cultural values is discussed, and suggestions for teaching and learning evolution are presented.