Challenges in Interpreting Birrul Walidain Values in Children’s Literature in Indonesia

Children’s literature in Indonesia is still identical with an educational medium that shapes children’s characters through the teachings of values and ethics, including religious ethics. A teaching which encourages a person to do good to their parents, Birrul Walidain, is a dominant value in Islamic children’s literature published in the late 2000s. This qualitative research benefits from the concepts of Shier’s parent-children relationship, the concept of narrative perspective. From most of the researched Islamic children’s literature, it can be concluded that the implementations of Birrul Walidain values are based on parent-children relationships in which parents are positioned as figures who are omniscient, respected, and obeyed by the child characters. The interaction between the two is often one-sided and static. From the point of view aspect, the majority of children’s literature is still dominated by adult’s perspective that is imposed to child characters. Such imposition was revealed through the analysis of the dictions used in the story. To conclude, the interpretation of Birrul Walidain concepts in Indonesian Islamic children’s literature still displays signs of normalizing gender roles. For instance, the Father is depicted as the family’s mentor and protector while the Mother focuses on domestic works such as doing chores and nurturing children.