Education Leadership Values in Students’ Character Building
Yoyo Zakaria Ansori
1
, Kama Abdul Hakam
2
, Juntika Nurihsan
2
, Mupid Hidayat
2
1
Universitas Majalengka Indonesia, Majalengka, Indonesia
2
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Education Leadership Values, Principal, Students’ Character Building.
Abstract: School education is one of supporting factors in students’ character building. It can work well if it is supported
by the ability of the principal in managing the school. A principal has a big influence in building a school
culture and determining an institution’s policy of students’ character building. This study aims to find out the
education leadership values in students’ character building at SDN Cicenang I Kecamatan Cigasong
Kabupaten Majalengka. This study used analytic-descriptive qualitative approach with case study method.
The finding showed that some education leadership values were applied in students’ character building. They
are respect, responsibility, cooperation and kinship. These education leadership values would give big
influence for the institution he leads. The education leadership values will shape the culture of students’
character building. Thus, the school is not free value institution because it carries out an education process
where values inherent in the process.
1 INTRODUCTION
The Law No. 20 Year 2003 of National Education
System chapter II article 3 stated that the goals of the
national education are to develop the ability and to
build the character and civilization of a dignified
nation in order to educate the life of the nation, and to
develop the potential learners in order to become a
man of faith and cautious to God Almighty, noble,
healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative,
independent, and become a democratic and
responsible citizen.
The Law explicitly provides an idea of the
importance of realizing the goals through fostering
the character of students in school. According to
Aristoteles, character is the life of right conduct-right
conduct in relation to other persons and in relation to
oneself (Nurihsan, 2016). Some studies indicated that
implementing programs in character education
should improve students’ behaviors, such as
decreasing bullying, conflict and violence, which
should engender students who will be more
sympathetic, tolerant, kind, compassionate, and
forgiving (Bulach, 2002)
The school as an organization is required to carry
out the goals above. Therefore, the character does not
only build and develop in every individual, but also
in educational institutions. The ethics of leadership
dramatically shape the workplace and impact values-
based decisions, as ethical leaders establish a vision
and influence the behaviors of others (Gini, 2004).
The character of the student is unlikely to build and
develop if the school does not have a character. In
other words, only in the educational institutions
which have a character, learners will build and
develop as human beings with character.
To make this happen, it needs a loyal leader to the
value and brings the value into the organization and
make the value becomes a guidance for the behavior
of the people in the organization. The value of
leadership will build a value on itself to be further
internalized to all members of the organization, as
Hester and Killian (2010) conclude, “Leadership is
about relationships and relationships are sustained by
shared moral values.” Meanwhile, according to
Lickona (1991) the leadership has a big role in a
moral culture building in the school since it can
develop values, attitudes and positive behavior. The
leadership in education is the basic value of character
building in the school. In fact, research has
acknowledged the bold role played by the school
principals as being a determining factor for success or
failure of character education; who are supposed to
lead by modeling (Berkowitz, 2012).
The importance of students’ nurturing in the
primary school was stated by Hakam (2016). He said
218
Ansori, Y., Hakam, K., Nurihsan, J. and Hidayat, M.
Education Leadership Values in Students’ Character Building.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 218-222
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

that the primary school has the important role in
building individual character. Based on the statement,
the education activities should facilitate the
development of students’ value of the noble
character. Therefore, a mistake leadership in moral-
grade education in elementary school will have a
long-term impact on the moral life of the individual
in his future.
Schein (2010) calls for leaders to serve as role
models for ethical conduct based on high moral
standards, take responsibility for the moral
development of others, hold everyone ethically
accountable, and deal fairly and respectfully with
each person. O’Reilly and Pfeffer (2000) suggest
leaders can potentially transform cultures to
continuously exemplify ethical values. Leadership
and values are and should be inextricably intertwined.
Day et al. (2009) summarize the importance of ethical
and moral development of leaders for these three
reasons: “(1) nearly every decision a leader makes has
ethical implications; (2) leaders serve as role models
to others and are the targets of identification and
emulation of followers; (3) leaders shape the climate
of their respective organizations”.
But in fact, fostering the character of students in
schools are no longer involves the value as a
foundation for leaders, such as principals and
teachers. It causes less cooperation between all of the
school residencies and the loss of role models for
students. A number of facts show that the principal’s
and teachers’ leadership has not succeeded in running
their role. The impact is the goals of the national
education (students with character) will not be
achieved. Based on that, the researcher is interested
in conducting a research on the value of education
leadership in fostering the character of students.
2 METHODOLOGY
This study used a qualitative approach, also known as
the Qualitative Interactive Investigation Model by
Sukmadinata (2015). The research used analytical,
descriptive method in the form of the case study as a
data collection technique. The respondents of the
research were school principals, teachers, and
students of SDN Cicenang I Cigasong, Kab.
Majalengka.
In this study, the researcher was the key
instrument. The data were collected through 1)
observation, 2) interviews, and 3) document studies.
To analyze the data, the researcher used three
simultaneous components and interrelated activities
as advised by Miles and Huberman (Alwasilah,
2011), namely: data reduction, display data, and
conclusion.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Schools are not only a social culture system but it is
also a place to embed the educational value. At
school, it is hoped that the students will be able to
actualize the values they have received directly. It is
in line with Pai (1990) who states: The school is not
only a social system and a system of school culture
but also as a system of action, because human action
governed by and in the pattern the meaning of the
object and the orientation of the object in the world of
human experience.
The character building in schools works well
when leaders act and make a decision based on
values, because leadership is essentially about the
value of choosing, and it is a value-laden activity.
“Leadership is fundamentally about value choosing,
and this is a value-laden activity..." (Hughes et al.,
cited in Lumkin, 2014). Therefore, leadership values
are needed on every component in the school, because
according to Ace Suryadi (2015) character education
cannot be done in a vacuum tube which value-free
because the character is bounded with life.
Based on the results of the interviews with
principals of SDN Cicenang I, it was found that the
dominant value applied in his school was the value of
kinship and cooperation. The school considered that
family values were one of the best ways to prevent
undesirable behaviors that were easy to develop
among students. The familial bond in the school must
be strong, because if it is weak and positive school
norms are ignored, then there is a great chance of
school fights will occur. The values of kinship will
foster a sense of common destiny and mutual
assistance, congratulate the friends who get lucky,
empathize with friends who get disaster, hear
complaints, and so on. A kinship can be grown
through extracurricular activities or other activities
that can foster a sense of luck as part of a large family
of schools. Some school activities such as sport
competitions, race competitions, environmental
cleaning events, business activities, and other school
works are the form of extracurricular activities that
greatly affect the kinship.
While the value of cooperation for the citizens of
the school will be the driving force and energy to
realize the vision and mission of the organization.
School residents work together if there are efforts of
each individual, systematically integrated and
provide enormous benefits to the organization. With
Education Leadership Values in Students’ Character Building
219

cooperation, the purpose of the organization will be
borne together, without a good cooperation, the
organizational goals cannot be achieved.
The form of school cooperation is done through
internal and external cooperation. He internal
cooperation is done by the components in the schools
such as school principals with school committees,
teachers, students, administrators, librarians,
cafeterias, as well as with janitors. External co-
operation with parents, for example, is to socialize
programs that will be good for capturing the
empowerment. In health matters, the school
cooperates with Public Health Center doing the
activities such as environment management, health
counseling, proper hand washing and the dental
check-up. For the management of the forestry sector,
the school is working with the Guidance Counseling
of Territories and Forestry of Kabupaten Majalengka.
Meanwhile, the cooperation with Boarding schools is
formed to enhance the faith and the worship.
Meanwhile, for environmental management and
recycling of waste, the school cooperates with the
Environmental Management Agency since the
schools believes that the environment in this case
provides a high influence on the formation of
student’s character. Narwanti (2011) explains that the
level of achievement of the character education
program in schools depends on the environment.
Schools, in this case, should be thought of programs
that support the achievement of the activity of
character values in school.
In addition, the teachers have an important role
because the teachers are role models or figures for the
students. Based on the results of interviews with
teachers at SDN Cicenang I, the most dominant value
played by teachers in fostering the character of
students is through discipline and exemplary.
According to Miller (2014), “the success in life one is
hoping for begins with, and is built upon, integrity
and personal discipline.” The ultimate form of
disciplinary value is created in the learning activities;
the teacher does not only transfer the knowledge but
also transfer the value by introducing the value,
awareness of the value, and the internalization of
value into the learners’ behavior in their daily
activities. So, besides the ability the learners will
recognize, realize, care, and internalize the values and
make it into their behavior. To make that happen
Character education can interface the learning on
each subject. Any subjects related to norms or values
in each subject should be developed, explicit,
associated with the context of everyday life. Learning
these character values do not stop at the level of
cognitive impairment, but touching at the level of
internalization, and practice in the life of students in
the community every day (Furkan, 2014). Meanwhile
according to U.S. Department of Education (2005)
clearly defined the character education as “an explicit
learning process from which students in a school
community understand, accept, and act on ethical
values such as respect for others, justice, civic virtue
and citizenship, and responsibility for self and
others.”
While another value played by the teacher is
through exemplary. The leadership of teachers has a
substantial share in character building. This is
understandable because humans are creatures who
like to imitate, including the example of his teacher.
In education, the teacher's personal character will be
an example, or exemplary for the learners. Because of
the implications for student teachers’ attitudes
influence the values and behavior of pupils and that
they should be role models to their pupils. (Revell and
Arthur 2007). In this way, students are led to behave
like teachers, because from the moral aspect the
teacher has moral authority. This view is similar to
Lickona's opinion, (2015). The teacher is the center
of moral authority in the classroom; it is based on the
fact that the school has given the teacher
responsibility to create good morale and learning in
the environment, as well as maintaining the safety of
students and welfare in general. That responsibility
gives teachers the right to tell students to follow their
directions, do their work, obey the rules in the
classroom, and stop the behaviors that teachers
consider to be contrary to the best wishes of an
individual or group.
Hence, it can be said that “teachers are leaders
when they function in professional learning
communities to affect student learning; contribute to
school improvement; inspire excellence in practice;
and empower stakeholders to participate in
educational improvement” (Childs-Bowen et al.,
2000). Through good moral interaction with
principals, teachers, and other students, it will
produce students with character.
From the observation, it can be seen that the most
dominant values shown by students are religious,
disciplined, and honest. Religious characters are
expressed through the students' habits when
beginning and ending of the lesson by prayer, greet
the teacher, and do the dhuha prayer. Other religious
activities appear in the activities of welcoming the big
days of Muslims such as the birthday of Prophet
Muhammad SAW, Isra Mi'raj by inviting religious
figures to give sermons. Meanwhile, in fasting
Ramadan the school cooperates with boarding school
to carry out the ‘pesantren kilat’ activity.
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Other cultural results appear in the student
discipline activities, student discipline appears in the
learning activities. During teaching and learning
activities in class, the value of a culture are: 1)
Students come to school 15 minutes before the
learning begins, 2) before the students enter the
classroom, they were lined up and checked the dental
hygiene, hair, nails and clothes, 3) before the learning
activities begin, students read Al-Quran,4) during the
learning activities, teachers explain the learning
materials in accordance with the Lesson Plan, and the
character values contained in the learning activities.
Meanwhile, honest behavior was seen when
students were in the canteen. Honesty appears when
students buy preferred food or drinks, and then they
pay and take refunds in the boxes that have been
provided on the spot. Student's honest culture was
visible when finding the lost items, (1) if finding
items that do not belong to him, then immediately
give the item to the homeroom/owner if there is a
clear identity. (2) That day the homeroom announces
the item in the class. (3) If there is no owner in that
class, then it is given to another class to be announced.
(4) If no one feeling of loss, then the item is stored in
a box. The result of this study by observing,
interviewing, documentation study, and benchmark
will be constructed in the conceptual categories where
they will form a core dimension such as the selection
of the evolved values, arranging activity program that
can develop character values.
4 CONCLUSIONS
 The dominant values of leadership applied by
the school principals in fostering teachers are
cooperation and kinship.
 The leadership values applied by teachers in
building students’ character are exemplary and
discipline.
 The dominant characters of students appeared
in religious attitude, discipline and honesty.
Therefore, to produce students’ character it can be
initiated by the values of leadership on each
component in the school they are school principal and
teachers.
Values must be the basis of thought and action in
carrying out its role. The value of the individual must
depart from the intact personal value and common
value mutually agreed to be subsequently brought
into the organization. Values must be a driving force
for leaders in schools so they can encourage other
components in the school to think and act on values,
so that in the end it will become a character.
This research suggests that the responsibility for
character building cannot run alone, but it involves
the entire school community such as school
committees, principals, teachers, extracurricular
builders, administrators, cafeterias, and security
guards. The synergistic component will help to
generate the students’ character.
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