English teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of character education in Curriculum 2013

Abstract

The implementation of character education in Curriculum 2013 plays an important role in the development of education in Indonesia. However, the change of this new curriculum requires the teacher to have more knowledge and experience to integrate character education into their teaching. The main purpose of this study is to describe how the teachers implement their character education in the English class. Besides, this study is aimed to know the advantages and disadvantages of implementing character education in Curriculum 2013. This study used descriptive qualitative method that was grounded in ethnographic design. Data were collected through in depth-interviews with six English teachers working at different junior and senior high schools in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The interviewed teachers had an experience in teaching ranging from one to eight years. The data were analyzed by qualitative techniques based on pre-determined categories standing for each of the interview questions. After that, the researcher summarized all the findings from the data and drew a conclusion. The result of the study indicated; first, most of the teachers accepted and knew the existence of character education in Curriculum 2013. Second, teachers inserted character values in their teaching by integrating it into the learning activities, learning materials, learning culture and assessment. Third, implementing character education can provide some positive impacts on students' lives. Fourth, there were some challenges in implementing character education in Curriculum 2013 because teachers also found several problems and difficulties. Therefore, most of them hope that assessing character in Curriculum 2013 should be evaluated, improved and designed more simply.