STUDENTS’ CHARACTER BUILDING AT SMA NEGERI 1 PURBALINGGA

Abstract

The character crisis occurring in the society, especially in the educational field, marked by the weakening of students’ good character, is a serious problem. Therefore, students’ character building is necessary. This study aims to investigate: (1) the creation of the character-based school culture at SMA Negeri 1 Purbalingga, (2) teachers’ efforts to implement students’ character building at SMA Negeri 1 Purbalingga, and (3) constraints in students’ character building at SMA Negeri 1 Purbalingga.
The study employed the qualitative naturalistic approach. The data sources were the principal, six teachers, and four students. The data were collected through observations, interviews, and documentation. The data trustworthiness was enhanced through source, technique, and theory triangulations. The data analysis technique was the interactive data analysis by Miles and Huberman.
The results of the study are as follows. (1) The character-based school culture is created through habituation such as the habits of doing the dhuhur prayer together, behaving honestly in the honesty canteen, applying discipline, smiling, greeting, returning a greeting, and shaking hands among the school members. The school culture is also created through self-development activity programs such as extracurricular activities and the creation of a conducive school environment. (2) The teachers build characters through the character education implementation in learning by applying various learning methods or models such as socio-drama and discussion methods in learning and they provide motivation and show the personality as a model that is polite and dresses tidily. (3) The constraints that the school faces in character building include the students’ awareness which is affected by internal and external factors (family and environment), teachers’ guidance which is not maximal because some teachers come late, and the evaluation system to assess the levels of the success of the students’ character building.
Keywords: Character Building, Students, SMA Negeri 1 Purbalingga