How to Enhance Character Four Young Citizens?
Febriyantika Wulandari and Dasim Budimansyah
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Balee of Education, Character, Citizens.
Abstract: Growing a sense of care and responsibility can be established through the development of knowledge, skills
and ethics. Educational and social services programs are the main activities taught to children regularly by
the Balee of Education community. "Balee of Education" (BOE) which is engaged in education and social
services. This study aims to find the character of responsibility and social care of young citizens conducted
by Balee of Education community in Langsa City, Aceh, Indonesia. A qualitative approach with case study
methods reveals an individual's increased potential to empathize with others in both the educational and social
environments to create a balance in life. The research results indicate that the active participation of
individuals can build a positive personality and potential. But true technological advances and individualist
attitudes affect the pattern of adolescent life. Thus the extent to which the activities of Balee of Education
community programs can strengthen the character of young citizen.
1 INTRODUCTION
Character building is the key to success in building a
nation. "The nation's development must coincide with
the development of character and vice versa"
(Budimansyah, 2010). "Character building is also an
important and strategic step in rebuilding the nation
and raising the formation of a new Indonesian
society" (Subianto, 2013). However, the development
of character of the nation implemented through the
character education program has not been able to
achieve maximum results, marked by the still many
problems in this country that occur due to the
character and culture of society that has not been
good, such as drug abuse, corruption spread in
various circles ranging from elite Up to the middle
class, brawling students between tribes (Setiawan,
2013; Saifullah, 2014). Character education programs
should not be regarded as the only formal educational
institution of the school, but it requires the active
involvement of the family as well as the community
environment to participate in building the
strengthening of character for all Indonesians. In line
with the Character Education Reference Framework
2010 stated that character education includes and
takes place on formal education, non-formal
education and informal education. Character building
in the community as a scope of non-formal education
can be done through non-governmental
organizations, community organizations,
communities and so forth (Koesoema, 2007; Wahyu,
2011).
Langsa (Aceh) has a community "Balee of
Education" (BOE) which is engaged in education and
social services, where they have a goal of creating
bright youth in education, hone and
develop skills possessed youth, and foster a sense of
awareness and responsibility towards the
environment Surrounding. Through the community
will form a sense of attachment to perform a common
goal among members of the community. Ties to
achieve the same goal or less can influence the
attitudes and behavior of
followers (volunteers) (Kertajaya 2008; Helzer et al.,
2014). In key community organizations for the
development of good and bad identity can be
influenced by several factors such as group leader,
group member behavior, and embedded cultural
norms of the organization. (Brown et al., 2005;
Weaver et al., 2005).
Each community has a role in shaping individual
characters. A positive personality becomes the key in
bringing the individual to good effect in the
future. Knowledge that can only be obtained from
the hard skills, soft skills into the next part in the
Wulandari, F. and Budimansyah, D.
How to Enhance Character Four Young Citizens?.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 367-370
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
367

personal formation of self (Robert and Tobi,
2004). The function of the community takes a
qualified role in answering this. Opportunity to exert
good influence and shape a person's positive
character in action later on. Positive characters can be
formed, especially in communities that involve the
younger generation of the nation's successors. The
interaction within the community becomes a vehicle
for transmitting positive things, channeling ideas,
talents and developing individual potential (Banicki,
2017; Wright and Goodstein, 2007). It is of interest to
researchers to assess community conditions Balee of
Education Langsa, in order to determine how the
characters are formed in the community Balee of
Education Langsa.
2 METHOD
This research uses qualitative approach with case
study method in the form of interview, observation,
and document study. in order to gain a clear picture in
order to answer research questions about the program
in the community Balee of Education in connection
with the strengthening of character. The research
informants are 11 community members, 1 chairman
of the foundation where the organization of the
community program and 8 children of community
program participants. The results of data collection
obtained are then analyzed using Milles and
Huberman model. Technical analysis consists of data
reduction, data presentation, and data verification
(Milles and Huberman, 2012). The data obtained is
then validated using the source triangulation
technique and data collection techniques.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The concept of learning and share in a community
Langsa Balee of Education aims to strengthen
awareness of the condition teenage children who are
disadvantaged in the environment around them. The
concept of this program can be seen as a means of
education for youth community members and
children program participants. For youth community
members, this program can be a means of educating
the development of teaching and personality skills, it
is obtained through basic and continuous teaching
training through habituation, as members are required
to be responsible for their respective duties, must be
able to be good and Be role models for children, and
must have discipline and commitment in every
activity in the community. As for the children of
course, the program from this community to be a
different means of education than they get in school,
such as how to learn while playing and habituation
work in groups.
Community Balee of Education giving knowledge
to every member of the teaching techniques as well as
a briefing on the formation of ethical and responsible
character and social care. The teaching techniques
given to community members focus on making them
able to run learners centered on learners as well as the
use of varied learning models. This is done to reduce
the saturation often experienced by children in the
learning process and provide meaningful learning for
learners. Learning model using memorizing and
listening method instead of discussion, problem
solving, observation, will cause students to be less
skilled in facing various problems and challenges of
life (Muhtarom, et al., 2016). Weekly learning
activities conducted by community Balee of
Education does not only aim to develop intellectual,
but also able to strengthen the morality of learners. In
addition to through debriefing before the field plunge,
the habit of being polite, disciplined, responsible and
caring for each other is always applied in every
activity program organized by this community. This
is done so that the members of the community can be
a role model and pass on the good people to those
around them, especially for children in the foundation
who participated in the activity. Because at the age of
the children, they will be very easy to imitate the
behavior of those around him and will find a figure
who can be a role model.
Community as a social group containing
individuals from different backgrounds not only
becomes a forum for socializing among community
members. Further, the community can provide
influence for the public to participate perform certain
activities, such as in the United States, volunteers
who are members of the organization and the
community of community not just a manifestation
of civic engagement is a citizen but further may have
implications for the surrounding community to
participate more and Willing to provide assistance to
other affected communities (Jones, 2006). Likewise,
with Balee of Education communities who try to
invite people especially the youth to participate tackle
the problems of education and character in
Langsa. Attainment achieved by community Balee of
Education is still far behind when compared with
those in developed countries. But this should not be
an obstacle to community Balee of Education to
remember the motto of this community that is based
on simplicity, namely, "start where you are, use what
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
368

you have and do what you can". The motto is a
reference for this community in organizing every
activity, the embodiment of the motto is realized in
the concept of learning and sharing. The concept of
learning and share in a community Langsa Balee of
Education aims to strengthen awareness of the
condition teenage children who are disadvantaged in
the environment around them. For community youth,
this program can be a means of educating the
development of teaching and personality skills, it is
gained through basic and ongoing teaching training
through habituation.
In addition to through habituation in every activity
in the community, strengthening of characters can
also be formed through the influence of attitudes and
behavior of one member who can be a role
model. Through the community will build a sense of
attachment to the same destination among the
members and followers (volunteers) of the
community. Ties to achieve the same goal or less can
influence the attitudes and behavior of
the volunteers (Kertajaya, 2008; Helzer et al.,
2014). In key community organizations for the
development of good and bad identity can be
influenced by several factors such as group leaders,
group member behavior, and cultural norms
embedded from the organization (Brown et al 2005;
Weaver et al., 2005). So that individual behavior in
the community is very important to note.
Every community has a role in shaping individual
character. Positive personality becomes the key in
bringing the individual to good effect in the
future. Knowledge that can only be obtained from
the hard skills, soft skills into the next part in the
personal formation of self (Howard et al.,
2004). Therefore, the community Balee of
Education provides basic teaching training (PMD) for
new volunteers to join this community. The training
guide contains micro teaching materials and practices
for the provision of a lecturer in community as well
as communication ethics which is certainly needed in
every joint of life. Members of the community who
are ready to go down the field as teachers are strongly
emphasized to be able to provide student-centered
teaching, because the student-centered teaching
approach is able to have an effect on improving
students' learning motivation (Suryadi, et al, 2016).
Through programs that are based on the concept of
learning and sharing, community Langsa Balee of
Education has developed a function to shape the
character of the community through non-formal
institutions. Because the nation's character
development will be achieved if the synergy of all
elements of Indonesian society.
The National Character Development Policy
describes the scope of the nation's character building
goals such as: the scope of the family, the scope of
educational unit, the scope of government, the scope
of civil society, the scope of political society, the
scope of business, and the scope of the mass
media. Related to this research, the explanation of the
development of the nation's character in civil society
is "civil society is a vehicle for formation and
development of character through exemplary leaders
and community leaders and various community
groups who are members of the community so that
the values of character can be internalized into
behavior and culture in life Day-to-day. "Therefore,
the livelihood of the community in supporting the
nation's character building can be channeled through
involvement in community communities. This shows
that the community has become a necessity for the
people of Indonesia today to support the development
of the nation's character. In line with the statement of
Budimansyah and Suryadi (2008) which states
"Multidimensional citizenship has a tradition where
good citizens are actively involved in social life and
community affairs of their communities". The
character of citizenship, such as citizenship, develops
slowly as a result of what a person has learned and
experienced at home, schools, communities, and civil
society organizations (Budimansyah and Suryadi,
2008). Strengthening the character is not at all
subjects or courses delivered through academic
learning process. If we start thinking character
education is done through subjects or courses,
wherever, we should be mentally prepared that
character education will never work, because
character education is an educational process that
takes place both in formal education institutions, non-
formal, Or informally through family or
community. Based on the above explanation of
character education will be able to achieve maximum
results if there is continuity between character
building in the family, school and community
environment. Character building in the community as
a scope of non-formal education can take place
through non-governmental organizations, community
organizations, community and others.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Their programs in the community Langsa Balee of
Education can be used as a social movement of
cultural citizenship in responding to issues in the
community, it also became evident that civic
How to Enhance Character Four Young Citizens?
369

education and character education is not covered in
the realm of purely formal. Furthermore, the impact
of community programs Balee of Education not only
on strengthening the character, but also changes in the
adolescent mindset in response to problems in the
environment. Prior to joining this community, they
considered that the issue of education is entirely the
responsibility of the government, but after joining this
community teenagers realized that educational issues
and other social issues are the responsibility of all
elements of society including young people as
citizens.
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