Dewi Candraningrum, Nur Hidayat, Fitriya Dessi Wulandari
English language teaching (ELT) in postcolonial societies is never merely a pedagogical enterprise; it is embedded in colonial histories, nationalist language planning, cultural production, and global power relations. In Indonesia, English occupies an ambivalent position. Although it was not the language of formal colonial administration, it has become the most dominant foreign language shaping educational policy, institutional prestige, academic mobility, and access to global literary circulation. This article examines how English has been historically positioned and institutionally negotiated within Muhammadiyah universities, a network of Islamic modernist higher education institutions that play a significant role in Indonesia’s educational landscape. Adopting a decolonial perspective, the study draws on qualitative document analysis of national education laws, ministerial regulations, curricular frameworks, and internal Muhammadiyah higher education documents to trace the shifting ideological functions of English from the late colonial period to the post-authoritarian era. Rather than treating English as a neutral global skill or a purely neo-colonial imposition, the article conceptualizes ELT–including the teaching of literature and fiction–as a contested site of negotiation in which religious institutions mediate colonial legacies, national aspirations, moral education, and global linguistic hierarchies. The findings show that Muhammadiyah universities neither reject nor uncritically embrace English. Instead, English is strategically reframed as a resource for institutional modernization, international engagement, literary education, and dakwah [Islamic proselytization and missionary outreach], while being discursively aligned with Islamic values and nationalist educational goals. Literary texts function as pedagogical spaces through which global English is ethically re-signified. By foregrounding Muhammadiyah as an institutional actor in language planning, this article contributes to decolonial debates by showing how faith-based institutions reshape the meanings and limits of global English in postcolonial contexts. © 2026 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
English Department, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Surakarta, Indonesia; English Department, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Depok, Indonesia
