Teachers’ Perceptions: Implementation of Character Building in ELT

toward Indonesian Millenial Generation

Nur Latifah, Mazroatul Ishlahiyah, Asni Furaida

Faculty of Humanities, UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim, Jl.Gajayana no 50, Malang, Indonesia

Keywords: English Language Teaching (ELT), Character Building, Millenial Generation, Teachers’ Preception

Abstract: This study is to investigate character education’s concept as it is implemented toward Indonesian millenial

generation. This study, specifically, aims to investigate how character building is integrated into ELT, also

how the strengths and weaknesses faced should be implemented and identified. The participants were fifteen

secondary English teachers in Indonesia who are selected from different provinces in Indonesia. Moreover,

the findings show that teachers perceive character education as a good idea in building nation’s character. It

also reveals that teachers have done it unconsciously before the program is launched. The application of

character education may be incorporated into ELT materials design which have integrated skills for EFL

classroom. By providing various types of tasks containing moral values may assist students to understand

character education rather than learning a foreign language. Some aspects which affected to the character

education’s implementation are teachers’ willingness and competence, students’ cooperation, the

availability of teaching materials sources, schools and environments’ support. In short, incorporating

character education in ELT design, it can be impetus for imbuing moral virtues into learners’ lives. To this

end, moral values provide personally, socially, and situated context for learning English.

1 INTRODUCTION

Education does not only transfer knowledge, but it is

also a process of moral development. In transferring

knowledge, teachers have a significant role in

performing moral and cultural values in the lessons

they taught and have to convey contextually the

intended values of knowledge they implement.

Besides, education is one of the processes of

enculturation. It inherits moral and cultural values in

the past to the future generation. Education not only

makes students smart but also fosters good morality

(Lickona, 1999). Education also plays an important

role to build one’s character. Character development

is also proposed as the main aim of education as it

could develop not only intellectual, but also moral,

performance, and civic character (Shields, 2011).

This also means that education is believed to be one

of ways to shape the nation’s character.

In Indonesia, as a multicultural country,

education is seen as a way to build students’

character. It is because character is the combination

of traits and qualities distinguishing the individual

nature of person; a summary or account of a

person’s qualities and achievements, as well as

description of a person’s attributes, traits, or abilities

(Adi, 2013). Moreover, character building is issued

by the government to remind the educators of all

education levels to educate the students and also

train their characters which they must understand

and apply in daily life (Yulianti, 2013). Thus, by

building students’ character, it is expected that the

nation’s character be shaped. The shape of the nation

anticipated is to be a though, competitive, noble,

tolerant, cooperative, patriotic, dynamic, science and

technology-oriented and religious one. Education is

also expected to counter the social problems, which

have arisen.

Indonesia educators are concerned with student

fights that often happen in big cities like Jakarta,

Surabaya and Medan (Zulkarnaen, 2012). Based on

the data retrieved from Binmas (Bimbingan

Masyarakat) Polri Metro Jaya, it is stated that over

the past six years, the number of students’ brawl

case causing in the death of more than 50 students

has increased. Apart from those students violence,

Indonesia is also challenged by other social

problems such as corruption, ethnic and religious

clashes. All those problems fail to align with the

character of the nation as stated in the official

Latifah, N., Ishlahiyah, M. and Furaida, A.

Teachers’ Perceptions: Implementation of Character Building in ELT toward Indonesian Millenial Generation.

DOI: 10.5220/0009911805530563

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Recent Innovations (ICRI 2018), pages 553-563

ISBN: 978-989-758-458-9

553

philosophical foundation (Pancasila) and national

constitution.

In an effort to better the national character,

particularly that of young people, President Susilo

Bambang Yudhoyono suggested integrating

character education throughout the school

curriculum (Utomo, 2011). By teaching tolerance,

integrity and honesty values, social problems arising

are expected to be addressed. In 2010, in accordance

with the President’s instruction, character education

was integrated within every subject, including ELT.

Since Indonesia education has changed from a

national competency based curriculum (2004) to a

school-based curriculum (2006), there had been

many concerns for teachers to design and enhance

its own materials for every school, syllabus and

assessment without sufficient guidance.

Furthermore, there is also a strong feeling from

many teachers that there is a lack of direction from

the government. Therefore, the development of

character building is realized in various ways

depending on teachers’ perception and approach.

Some previous study also state that the good

teacher’s character can be seen from the quality of

his/her character personally or inter/intrapersonal. In

Pohan’s research, he focuses on teacher’s role in

internalizing of character values in ELT. He also

mentioned that character values might internalize

with teaching media and materials (Pohan, 2018).

Another previous study states that if we talk about

character building, we can separate to character

education. This research enhance in embracing

character education in school, relationship character

building and language (Khulaifiyah, 2017).

The new policy on character education has

implication for English language teaching. In this

respect, English teachers should take up a challenge

of integrating character education into ELT. The

idea is that while English teachers are teaching

English language skills, they should consider

characters, which are spelled out in the national

curriculum as contents. Characters function as

contents for using English. Through English

learning, students are expected to understand and

learn different characters that typify or reflect

Indonesian identities. The current literature both

theoretically and empirically sparsely discuss how

character education is incorporated into ELT

particularly in Indonesia context.

This chapter aims to report how character

building is carried out in secondary schools in

Indonesia. This study is in particular concerned with

the implementation of character education in English

language teaching from teachers’ perspectives and

experiences. In details, it examines how Indonesian

secondary school teachers perceive integrating

character education in ELT. How the teachers

implement character building in ELT. What factors

affect the implementation of integrating character

building in teaching ELT in Indonesia. More

specifically, this study aims to investigate how

character building is integrated in ELT,

acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses faced

in implementing it and identifying how it is

evaluated.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The English language teaching (ELT) curriculum in

Indonesia has undergone significant changes from

competency based curriculum to school based

curriculum in which every school has to design and

develop its own syllabus, materials, and local

assessment. In the current national guidelines for the

school based curriculum (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan

Pendidikan or KTSP), teachers need to incorporate

moral values into their lessons. As stipulated in the

national guidelines on character based education,

teachers need to include moral values such as

religious, honest, tolerant, discipline, hardworking,

creative, independent, democratic, curious,

nationalist, patriotic, achievement, communicative,

peace-loving, loving reading, environment-caring,

social-caring and responsible. In addition, this

character education is historically rooted in The

Pillar of Education proposed by Ki Hajar

Dewantara, the Father of the Indonesian Education.

This pillar serves the foundation of recognizing

Indonesia’s cultural values which are built from

local cultures. Therefore, English language teaching

is no exception to this notion. Drawing on the

national guidelines on character education, English

teachers should articulate moral virtues in English

materials. These materials should provide

instructional input into how these virtues can be

taught in another language. For this reason, the

content of the materials has much to do with moral

and cultural values that represent national and

cultural identities.

Character education is highly related to and

based on the willingness to realize national

consensus under the paradigm of five pillars of

Indonesia (Pancasila) and Indonesia constitution.

The consensus is then stated in Law No. 20 of 2003

concerning National Education System, as read as

follow, “The function of national education is to

develop skill, character and national civilization

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within the framework to improve the nation life,

whereas its purpose is to develop the potency of

learners to be faithful to God, noble behaviour,

healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative,

independent and to be obedient and responsible

citizen.”

Good character as “a reliable inner disposition to

respond to situations in a morally good way” which

covers moral knowing, moral feeling, and moral

action (Lickona, 1991). Further, he describes that in

teaching moral knowing, the emphases are moral

awareness, knowing moral values, perspective

taking, moral reasoning, decision-making, and self-

knowledge. While in moral feeling, conscience, self-

esteem, empathy, loving the good, self-control, and

humility are highlighted. Then in moral action, the

stress is in developing good will, competence and

habit. However, when character education is seen

from an integrative, person-centered perspective,

moral action assumes a central position, since in

moral action the whole person is involved. This

means that teaching for good character means we

want children to be able to judge what is right, care

deeply about what is right and do what they believe

is right (Lickona, 1991).

In addition, character education can also be

defined as a national movement in education through

schools that foster the development of ethic and

responsibility by modelling and teaching students’

good character (Character Education Informational

Handbook and Guide, 2002). In this notion, what is

meant by character education that is integrated in the

process of learning is introducing moral values,

fostering awareness of the importance of moral

values, internalizing moral values in the daily

behaviour through the process of learning.

The Indonesia National Curriculum Board has

set 18 moral values standard in character education

to be integrated in each school’s curriculum (Pusat

Pendidikan Kurikulum Pengembangan dan

Pendidikan Budaya dan Karakter Bangsa:

PedomanSekolah, 2010). These are used as

indicators to measure the success of character

education. The indicators are: (1) Religiousness, (2)

Honesty, (3) Tolerance, (4) Discipline, (5) Hard

Work, (6) Creativity, (7) Independence, (8)

Democratic behaviour, (9) Curiousness, (10)

Nationalism, (11) Patriotism, (12) Passion for

achievement, (13) Communicativeness, (14) Peace-

loving, (15) Interest in reading, (16) Environmental

awareness, (17) Social care, and (18) Responsibility

(Brown, 1997).

Based on the character values set by the

government, materials selection and language

activities design play an important role in the

success of the implementation of character education

in ELT (Pusat Pendidikan Kurikulum

Pengembangan dan Pendidikan Budaya dan

Karakter Bangsa: PedomanSekolah, 2010). In this

notion, the knowledge of teachers to arrange and

combine sequences of tasks and character values

aids students to experience meaningful language

learning and awaken their sense of moral values.

Materials selection should contain one or more

moral standard set by the government and language

activities design are supposed to activate students’

awareness of moral values. In short, materials design

serve as a means to achieve the purpose of character

building in ELT.

3 METHODS

3.1 Research Procedure

This research is a qualitative descriptive study, using

interview method in various forms. Semi-structured

interviews, a focus group discussion and email

interviews were the data gathering strategies

employed. Interview questions were derived from

the literature review. The researchers reflected on

the sensitivity of the topic. To build trust, the

researchers built friendships by inviting the

participants for dinner, lunch or a picnic. The

participants were encouraged to feel at ease and

offer their opinions and experiences in incorporating

character education in ELT. These strategies were

applicable only for the face-to-face interviews and

group discussion. For the email interviews, several

emails preceding the interview were sent to

participants to build trust. In the face-to-face

interview, participants answered a series of

questions. In the focus group discussion, three

teachers were asked to answer the questions and

discuss their responses.

The interviews and focus group discussion were

open-ended and audio recorded. Not all teachers

were available for a face-to-face recorded interview

and opted for email interview instead. The email

interview allowed the respondents to take time in

answering questions, construct their own experience

as part of the interaction with the researcher,

elaborate personal feelings, beliefs and values and

provide self-explanatory data (Meho, 2006). The

same interview questions were used in the focus

group discussion as well as in the email interview.

There are ten items for open-ended interview which

have to be answered by participants. These ten items

Teachers’ Perceptions: Implementation of Character Building in ELT toward Indonesian Millenial Generation

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questions are designed to help participants in

understanding character building in the research

problems provided. They are also given enough

time, approximately in a week to answer those open-

ended question.

3.2 Participants

The participants were fifteen secondary teachers of

English in Indonesia. They volunteered to participate

in the study after the researcher contacted them to

discuss the project. They were contacted through

email, telephone and social media in the internet. To

achieve a diverse and regionally representative

perspective, the teachers were chosen from city-

based schools to schools as well as schools in rural

areas. The teachers were selected from different

provinces in Indonesia. The teachers selected are

those who have been involved in ELT for more than

three years. Only two teachers have undergone

professional development in character education.

3.3 Data Collection

The data collected were obtained from the responses

of secondary school teachers in schools across

Indonesia. Several strategies were adopted to collect

data. Seven teachers were interviewed face-to-face,

three teachers participated in the focus group

discussion and five teachers responded to email

interviews. The participants are all involved in

teaching character building through ELT and each

has more than two years of teaching experience.

Only two had undergone professional development

in character building.

3.4 Data Analysis Method

The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and

classified into themes. The recordings were

transcribed manually. Together with email

interviews, the responses were coded and big themes

were drawn. The themes were matched and

reorganised with the research questions. The

researchers then use library method in analysing the

responses in relation to character-based education

literatures.

4 FINDING AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Teachers’ Perception of Concept

and Scope of Character Education

In conducting a positive perception of character

education concept, teachers as role models should

have positive attitudes towards integrating character

education in ELT. This is proved by some following

statements which are expressed by perspective

teachers in the interview. They said that:

“Character-based education in Indonesia is

inserted in ELT curriculum, in syllabus and

lesson plan. It is hoped that the insertion can

contribute the change of students’ character

through learning each subject.”

“I just knew the concept of character education

in one of professional development I joined.

There are some aspects in curriculum we have

to change, that is to integrate the 18 standard

moral values character education in their

teaching. I think that integrating it in the

curriculum is good … “

“The moral degradation is one of the main

causes why Indonesian education system has

developed character-based education. I feel that

there is a decrease in students’ cultural values;

such as the way the students respect the

teachers. It could reflect the decrease of moral

and cultural values.”

Those statements have positive attitude in

integrating a concept of character education in ELT.

In addition, they also show that moral degradation is

believed to be one of the reasons of implementing

character education. There is a notion that the moral

degradation is partly caused by global spread of

western culture, and also a belief that English

teaching affects the values of local culture that bring

bad impacts on youths’ character. This notion is

recognized as the effect of English colonialism.

Instead of viewing English as a global language,

ELT is a product of colonialism. ELT does not only

because the global spread of English but it also

causes Western culture to influence the learners’

way of thinking and behaving. English as a

colonizing language has produced and reduced

nations, massacred populations, disposed people of

their lands, culture and history, and shifted vast

number of people from one place to another

(Pennycook, 1998:19). Furthermore, those teachers

also pinpointed that character education is a good

idea to improve nation’s character.

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However, another teacher said that concept of

character education has also a negative perception.

This is proved by saying that:

“The idea of integrating character education is

good, but when it comes to practice, we don’t

really know how to integrate the standard that

the government has set. There is not adequate

training or seminar so that we just work on it by

our own. The development of the

implementation, as far as I know, is stagnant

because there is no supervision or evaluation

from the government on how we conduct that. It

is only written down in the teaching plan but the

practice can always be different.”

“The idea of character education is good, but it

needs detail guidance on how to implement

it…”

From those negative perceptions, actually, they

agree with the concept of character education and

are willing to implement it. As there is no

supervision or such training which could assist them

on how they conduct so that they have a negative

perception of the concept of character education.

Being said that, as an agent of change, teachers have

crucial roles of finding ways of successfully

incorporating character education into ELT. They

should integrate character education into their

English instruction, lesson plans and task design

(Gray, 2010).

In internalizing the moral values of trust, respect,

honesty, responsibility, and other indicators used to

measure the success of character education; teachers

should become models and incorporate those

characters into their day-to-day actions. Therefore,

teachers with good character may succeed in

implementing character education into the ELT.

Teachers have unconsciously implement character

education in ELT without being instructed. This is

viewed in some of their statements that:

“The Government has a good intention of

launching the programs but because of

inadequate socialization and professional

development, teachers just interpret the

program and implement character education

based on their interpretation…”

“The Government tries to improve the

education system by integrating good values in

subject content in the curriculum and teachers

need to know how to implement it in the subject

they teach in the classroom. The important point

of this program is a well-managed socialization

so that teachers know what to do. But teachers

think they have done it informally.”

This means that the teachers, although, they just

know the concept of character education from

professional development they joined, from

textbooks, school management or colleague, they

have held it implicitly in their teaching before the

program was launched. Drawing from this notion, it

shows that teachers include the moral dimension in

their teaching. Therefore, teachers are as moral agent

(Akbari, 2012)

However, some teachers have a strong feeling that

the socialization of the program and the guidance

from the Government is not adequate, so that there is

confusion on running the program to meet the

expectation from the Government. Due to the

significance of teachers’ role in implementing

character education into ELT, professional

development program must increase teachers’

knowledge on how to implement character

education.

Language and culture are mutually related since

ELT cannot be separated from the values and

cultures of native speakers. Language represents the

cultural identity of the speaker that represents the

character of the speaker’s culture (Kramsch, 1998).

Thus, language learners are inevitably exposed to

the culture of the target language that is different

from their local culture. This is proved by one

teacher who said that:

“There are many inevitable incidents in this

country that encourage our government to

prevent our next generations (in this case our

students) from employing negative things, such

as corruption, tribal chaos, anarchism, and any

other destructive activities…”

This means that, in integrating character education

in ELT materials, there is a debate in Indonesia

whether it is more appropriate to teach English using

local contents in an effort to maintain Indonesian

values and cultures or using Western contents to

enhance cross cultural awareness. In addition,

English is a foreign language in Indonesia which

students commonly start to learn in secondary

school. At this age, learners have been extensively

socialized into their local culture and their first

language. Since language is an integral part of

learning local social practices, there is awareness

that language practice in the local context is

inseparable from the local values. In addition, the

use of English should be adjusted to the speakers

and mixed with local ideologies, points of views,

and knowledge (Pennycook, 2010). Then, language

is a social practice where it is mixed, hybrid and

drawing on multiple resources (Canagarajah, 2008).

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On the other hand, the culture of native English

speakers helps students to understand cross-culture,

encourages the motivation of English learners,

builds common knowledge, orients students toward

global understanding, and cultivates tolerance

(Cahyono, 2011).

However, using local culture in

ELT process has many benefits. It activates the

background knowledge of the students, encouraging

students to talk about their own culture, heightening

the students’ notion of English and the use in global

communication, accommodating language weakness

of the students, making language activities more

meaningful for the students (Dalimunte and Tipka,

2004, as cited in Cahyono, 2011).

Furthermore, the

use of local culture contents to support local

wisdom, and to reinforce the fluency of the students

as they talk about something they already know

about (Octaberlina, 2011).

However, from the

interview, some teachers believe that the use of

western materials can also contribute good moral

values. Not many teachers see that western content

or local content play an important role in affecting

students’ character.

In integrating the character education in ELT, the

teachers’ perception of character education concept

is inadequate if there is no scope of character

education itself. Therefore, the teachers’ perception

of the scope of character education should be

discussed in this finding. There are many arguments

which teachers state in determining the scope of

character education. The teachers argue that the

scope of character education is wide and broad.

They said that:

“The scope of character education is so wide. It

can never be limited in those columns of the

curriculum, for it is everywhere, every time, in

our daily lives.”

“The scope is broad. From the training, I

became aware that character education should

be integrated in our teaching from primary

school level to secondary school level. The set

of character values should be embedded in our

syllabus, although we have done it in our

teaching without realizing it.”

This means that they have a wide perception in

determining of scope of character education. It could

be in curriculum, syllabus or in daily life. However,

one teacher who also being respondent in this

project have different opinion of the scope of

character education. The teacher argues that:

“As far I know, the scope of character

education is only in the written form, which is in

the curriculum or syllabus. Even in lesson plan,

the goals/purposes of the lesson itself are

related to the change of students’ characters.”

Therefore, even teachers have pros and cons in

understanding the concept and scope of character

education; they have to agree that it has benefit for

our students in enhancing moral and values in ELT.

4.2 Characters Building

Implementation

Drawing on the national guidelines on character

education, English teachers should articulate

desirable Indonesian moral virtues in ELT materials.

Some teachers participating in the interview stated

that they have tried to incorporate moral values in

their teaching. This is expressed in the following

statements:

“We integrate moral and culture into ELT by

including those values into textbooks and in the

implementation of teaching itself. For example:

in teaching about narrative, teachers used

legend stories which contain several moral

values such as honesty, politeness, and respect,

through the context included in the textbook.”

“In reading, teachers can use some texts that

represent some stories that have good moral

values for students, such as narrative texts,

whether in the forms of legend, folktales, or

fables. Through learning these texts, it is hoped

that the students can understand about the good

and bad in their lives…”

From the excerpts above, it can be seen that the

teachers use narrative text such as legend, folktales,

and fables in their teaching materials to incorporate

character building. It is supported by some studies

showing that the use of folktales and storytelling can

increase students’ awareness of moral and cultural

values (Kirmali&Frieman, 1997; Taylor, 2000;

Norfolk, 2006; Benedict, 2010 as cited in Murtiana,

2011).

In addition, to implement characters building in

Indonesia, teachers prepared some strategies to

maximalize the result of characters education itself.

Some of the statements presented below express it:

“In teaching the four skills of English in the

classroom, regarding to the character

education, some strategies need to be

considered, such as paying attention to the

students’ need, students’ learning styles and

characters.”

“For Listening and Speaking: I used

comparing, matching, contrasting, and

analyzing. I showed a video about bullying

while seeing students' reaction. As it ended, I

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asked them to write the words they heard on the

board, and then asked them whether there were

difficult words. I offered to other students to

give the definitions of the words, and then I

asked questions related to the video. I related

the topic to "What are we supposed to do?" and

reflect it by concluding the topic.”

In addition, there are three management

strategies for implementing character building;

they are, Top Down, Bottom Up, and Program

Revitalization. The Top Down strategy deals with

socialization, regulation development, capacity

development, partnership and implementation,

and monitoring and evaluation. The Bottom up

strategy is supposed to be implemented by each

school while the Government supports its

implementation. Lastly, Program Revitalization

involves extra-curricular programs that give

additional support for character building

(Pedoman Pelaksanaan Pendidikan Karakter,

2011).

However, some teachers are not aware of

this guidance and stated that the socialization of

the program is insufficient. It can be seen from

the following excerpt:

“Some teachers feel that the guidance is not

adequate, so we try to select the materials at

our best. The method is students’ centre, for

example by conducting group discussions and

class debate. With this activity, students learn

how to listen to others’ opinion and build

tolerance. This also builds students’

communicative competence. In a group work,

students learn how to cooperate well with other

group members. The materials selected are

using local environmental issues and local news

to increase their awareness of the environment

and to care about the social problems around

them.”

It is also hoped that EFL teachers in Indonesia may

help learners to maintain cultural and moral

awareness through a variety of materials in ELT, in

order that the governments’ program in

incorporating character education through the

curriculum will be successful. In this regard, it is

assumed that the teachers are aware of teaching

materials sources for use within character education.

Therefore, in the interview, the teachers were asked

whether they are aware of any sources available to

use within character education in ELT. Some

teachers answered that they need samples of

teaching materials or sources to support the

implementation of character education.

“Not all teachers are aware of the sources

available. They are wondering how to set

character education in the curriculum, how to

implement it in the classroom. Some teachers

also feel that character education is separated

subject from English teaching.”

“I feel that I am not aware of the sources and

we carry out the program instinctively. I'm

going to use available textbooks, articles from

newspapers/ magazines (such as Reader's

Digest, Hello, Just English, or The Jakarta

Post)….”

“Though teachers feel that the socialization

from the Government of this program is not

adequate, teachers try to do their best in

implementing character education in ELT.”

The quotations presented above indicate that

although the teachers feel that the socialization of

character education is not enough, they try their best

to implement the moral values in their teaching

materials. These materials should provide

instructional input into how these virtues can be

taught in another language. For this reason, the

content of the materials has much to do with moral

and cultural values that represent national and

cultural identities. One teacher expressed similar

statement as follows:

“Character education is applied in all areas

through the strategies and content, such as

reorganizing ideas of text about juvenile

delinquency that involved responsibility,

hostility, respect, and tolerance. In listening, we

can select some records about friendship, recent

researches, disaster, etc. This then is discussed

to anchor the character development. It's

including speaking; besides speaking about

loyalty, idol, reality show, or other hot topics

among teens. In reading comprehension we can

use similar topics using reading various

strategies and discussion or question and

answer to evaluate students' understanding.”

Apart from that, from the interviews, two teachers

claimed that professional development they joined

help them enhance their knowledge and skills in

integrating character education. This claim is evident

from the following statements:

“I guess I am one of the fortunate teachers who

got the chance to join the training of

implementing character education. It is a good

opportunity for me to know more about the

program and to conduct it in my teaching

practice, but not for other teachers, so they do

not know how to run the program…”

“I joined a professional development and

seminar where reading materials were

emphasized to be selected. Based on the

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559

curriculum sample from the Government,

teachers are asked to select materials such as

local folktales or western folktales. “

It means that the teachers think that they can

perform better if they know more about the program

and given input on how to implement the program.

As the information of the program is limited, most

teachers implement the program based on their

interpretation of the program. The teachers use

authentic materials, legend, folktales, fables, and

local news with various teaching strategies.

Therefore, in implementing characters education, of

course, there are strength and weaknesses, which can

be seen while the process of implementation is in

progress.

While teachers play prominent roles as actors in

the classroom, materials are also as significant

teaching resources (Graves, 2000).

One teacher best

express the similar idea through the following quote:

“Giving students model is one of ways to teach

character education. Coming to class on time

gives a student a sense of discipline. Talking to

the students in a friendly way, the way teachers

approach the students, building a good

relationship with the teachers and representing

the model of being a good person and having a

good communication pattern.”

From the quotation above, teachers are considered

as silent agents where there are many cultural and

moral values topics which may be included in the

ELT materials through the materials (textbooks,

handouts, sourcebook). Those values can be used as

a way of creating more interesting language

activities and make the language learning more

meaningful and contextual for students (Cahyono,

2011).

One teacher also best expressed this idea

through the following statement:

“The use of authentic materials in a real context

can also be used for teaching. Here, there is a

debate that using western culture would less

enhance the Indonesian culture but some

teachers do not think so. Character values can

always be found in authentic materials, in

different genres, like descriptive, narrative,

procedure, and other types of text which can be

developed into reading, listening, writing and

speaking activities. It’s the way we deliver the

text so it can discuss moral values in it.”

Drawing from the findings, teachers may use

folktales that contain cultural content and moral

values, for example by using a story to explain the

difference between right and wrong. A myriad of

Indonesian folktales may promote character-based

education, such as Malinkundang, BawangMerah

BawangPutih, and Timun Mas. Then, the teachers

also use activities that promote character-based

learning, for example by using group discussion.

Group discussion is a cooperative learning model

that increases students’ awareness of the

importance of teamwork and respect (Bafadal,

2012).

In fact, many teaching methods can be applied to

engage students in the teaching and learning

process. Indirectly, this effort is also beneficial to

gain the purpose of character-based education itself.

For instances, applying pair/group work in ELT

may also contribute to the change of the students’

characters. Through this kind of method, students

will learn to respect others as well as to practice

how to be confident in expressing their ideas,

arguments, and opinions.

Finally, teachers could also integrate moral and

cultural values in extracurricular activities and

classroom activities such as teaching by using

songs, games, and role play. As it is stated that

teachers can use one learning activity to develop

students’ cognitive, affective, and psychomotor

development (Kemendiknas, 2010).

Moreover, the

success of moral education program is dependent

on the teacher sophistication as well as teacher’

enthusiasm (Goodman and Lesnick, 2001).

However, one teacher participated in the interview

stated that the success of the program is not on the

teachers’ hand. The following excerpt is the

expression:

“However, we do not want society blame us if

social problems caused by students still raises,

because actually there are many factors

affecting the success of the program. It is unfair

if it becomes the only responsibility of

teachers.”

Therefore, the success of incorporating cultural

and moral values in the practice of language

teaching does not depend on teachers’ creativity in

selecting and designing the materials only. There are

other factors affecting the implementation as

discussed in the following point of discussion.

4.3 Factors Affecting the

Implementation of Character

Education

Character education has good impacts in building

students character in schools. This means that

character education can have many different

outcomes if character education is done effectively.

For example, character education could affect

students in various aspects of knowledge, thinking,

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emotions, motivation, behaviour and skills. It is

obvious that the sample evidence which could be

seen is that character education reduces students’

risk behaviour such as drug use, violence, pre-

marital sexual behaviour whether in school or

environment where they lived. Character education

can frequently enhance academic performance,

increases desirable behaviour and also improves

social-emotional and pro-social competencies such

as problem-solving skills, emotional competency

and socio-moral reasoning.

From the analysis of the findings, some teachers

mention that factors affecting the implementation

are teachers’ quality, teachers’ knowledge, teaching

materials selection, teaching strategies, students’

cooperation and motivation, and support from the

school and environment. Some of the statements

dealing with these factors are represented by these

teachers’ interview answers. They said:

“The factors affecting are teachers' quality,

teachers' background knowledge, teachers'

intelligence, teachers' culture, students’ social

background, and little government's

involvement. Some teachers feel that the

environment plays a more important role in

building the students’ character.”

“The factors that can make the implementation

of character education easier are teacher’s

understanding, teacher’s willingness in

implementing it, teacher’s knowledge and

strategy, students’ motivation, understanding,

prepared material, support from school

environment, and regional policy.”

Those factors identified by the participants are in

line with the statements on considerable factors in

character education implementation (Pedoman

Pelaksanaan Pendidikan Karakter, 2010), and

(Pengembangan Pendidikan Budaya dan Karakter

Bangsa, 2010).

Despite the various factors affecting the

implementation of character education, only one

participant mentions that teachers play dominant

role in achieving success in character education

building programs as it is clearly shown in some

teachers’ statements, the teacher said that:

“Teachers take a very important role in any

activities in the class. They have to prepare

compatible materials that meet the students’

need, choose learning strategies, and select

instructional media. For this purpose,

compatible materials, good media, and

appropriate strategy can support the teaching

and learning process in conveying a moral and

cultural value. The roles of teachers are as a

guide and a director. He/she directs the students

what to do or not. He/she also guides them to do

what they want appropriately and not to break

the rules.”

However, in incorporating character building into

ELT, especially for students, sometimes teachers

find some difficulties or weaknesses in

implementing character-based education in ELT

materials. It is because the lack of appropriate

materials that contain moral value may be one of the

obstacles in teaching and learning process. Besides,

the suitable methods or techniques may contribute

some barriers for teachers in implementing

character-based education in ELT materials.

Therefore, it is hoped that teachers use more

authentic materials such as magazines, audio visual

materials, storybooks, etc. The reason is that those

authentic materials are more motivating and

interesting than text-book based materials but those

kinds of authentic materials need more efforts and

preparations in providing it, and for teachers, they

need extra time and money to prepare and provide it.

Thus, there should be improvement in English

course book and they should be equipped with such

kinds of materials so teachers can successfully

incorporate character building in ELT materials.

4.4 Character Education Evaluation in

ELT

In evaluating character education in ELT, indicators

are used as a set of values and criteria to measure the

success of the implementation. Evaluation cannot be

separated from the whole process of character

education Johnston (2003).

Teachers may use direct

observations, anecdotal record (by noting students’

positive behaviours), and collection of students’

performance data on attendance.

The opinions of the participants regarding these

assessment methods are expressed by these

prospective teachers. One teacher declared that:

“The moral and cultural values assessment can

be done during the lesson by looking at the

performance, attitude, the way they react, and

the way they speak. We can also do it outside

the classroom when they interact with others at

English Club, School Magazines, Students'

Club, and daily meetings.”

“Since ELT has four main skills that should be

assessed, the assessment is done through these

four skills as well. For example, in teaching

speaking, the evaluation of some moral values

(like respect other’s ideas or opinions) may be

employed, while in teaching writing, the value

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561

how to express idea politely and appropriately

may be taught and assessed to students since in

writing, the language as well as the word

dictions are written formally.”

However, some teachers argued that conducting

evaluations on character education is challenging

since there is no standard of assessment for character

education and the government do not provide any

guidance or clear evaluation rubrics to measure the

success of character education. This is clearly shown

in some opinions expressed by participants:

“There is no standard how to make an

assessment. It seems that the government wants

us to make our own criteria …”

“We feel that the character education assessment

is challenging, since there is no sufficient

guidance to conduct the assessment.

“There is no control or evaluation from the

Government whether the teachers implement

character education or not. There is neither

reward nor punishment.”

Dealing with these problems, there should be an

improvement in character education evaluation by

creating such a rubric containing some aspects in

character education achievement by giving students’

book reports on character education evaluation.

From the findings and discussions previously, it

can be seen that teachers need guidance on how to

implement character education in ELT. There are

few comprehensive studies recorded in the literature

regarding with how teachers in Indonesia develop

ELT materials that integrate cultural and moral

values in implementing character education as

required in the recent national curriculum.

There is interplay between social issues and

moral values in which the moral values are the

foundation of responding to what is happening in

social interaction or context. This is what is called as

“socio moral”

(Mangubhai, 2007). For example,

community members should be aware of how illegal

logging as a social action has an implication for a

particular moral value. In addition, illegal logging

does not only impact on moral values for community

members but it also influences the cultural values in

a society.

Therefore, the integrated tasks provided in the

materials ( reading , speaking, and writing tasks) is

hoped may

develop students’ integrated language

skills while increasing students’ awareness of the

illegal logging problem in Indonesia.

5 CONCLUSIONS

This chapter discusses how character education is

integrated in ELT in Indonesia context. In particular,

it concerns with the attitude of teachers towards

integrating character education in ELT, the

implementation of it, the factors affecting the

implementation and the assessment of character

education in ELT. The analysis of the findings

shows that teachers perceive character education as a

good idea in building nation’s character. It also

reveals that teachers have done it unconsciously

before the program is launched. The application of

character education can be incorporated into ELT

materials in integrated skills EFL classrooms by

providing various types of tasks containing moral

values, so students may learn more deeply on

character education while learning a foreign

language. However, within the implementation of

character education, some teachers feel that they

need more guidance from the Government on how to

conduct the eighteen standards of moral values set in

the program. Therefore; it is hoped that there should

be more attentions paid for teachers’ professional

development programs discussing the

implementation of character education into ELT

materials and the effective evaluation of it. Some

aspects affecting the implementation are the

teachers’ willingness, teachers’ competence, and

students’ cooperation, the availability of teaching

materials sources, schools’ support and

environment’s support. The assessment of character

building in ELT has been set by the government and

needs to be socialised. In corporating character

education in ELT design, it can be impetus for

imbuing moral virtues into learners’ lives. To this

end, moral values provide personally, socially, and

situated context for learning English.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author thanks for the Dean of Humanities

Faculty of UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Dr.

Hj.Syafiyah, M.A who has given her motivation and

support so that the paper can be written completely.

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APPENDIX

Open Ended Interview Questions

What is your name?

Give me a general view of your current (or most

recent) responsibilities as an English teacher.

Do you like your teaching? Why?

If you could have the perfect job, what would it be?

Think of a problem you had in the class to deal with

your English teaching. Tell me exactly what

happened and how you handled it.

Are you familiar with character building? Explain

what you knew about it.

Are you familiar with Millenial Generation? Can

you give the examples of it?

Describe a situation in which you might implement a

character building in your class.

Tell me about something you've done in your current

(or most recent) work for your students to

implement character building in your teaching that is

creative and meaningful.

What are your perceptions of character building in

ELT?

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