The Influence of School Principals’ Strategic Leadership on the Implementation of Strengthening of Character Education Movement: A lesson learnt from the Selected Junior School Principals of Sumbawa Regency
Untung Waluyo, Sudirman Wilian, Muntari, I Wayan Karta

Master of Education Management
Graduate School
University of Mataram

Abstract

Based on the Presidential Decree No. 87 of 2017 on the so-called Mental Revolution, the Ministry of Education and Culture introduces the Strengthening of Character Education Movement (SCEM) that serves as a catalyst for character building among school children. Although this movement has been disseminated and trained to schools teachers, principals, and school supervisors, the impact of the movements training is not widely known yet. The present study aims to reveal the leadership strategies of the Selected Junior High School Principals in Sumbawa Regency in optimizing the Strengthening of Character Education Movement, analyze problems faced by principals in carrying out their roles as strategic leaders in optimizing the implementation of SCEM and describe models of strategic approaches used by those principals to optimize the implementation of SCEM. A qualitative research design with a multi case study approach was used as a basis for collecting, analyzing and comparing data from this study. Procedures and stages of research activities for this study include (a) collecting preliminary data on the implementation of SCEM in the selected junior high schools in Sumbawa Regency; (b) conducting interviews with key stakeholders to reveal the schools efforts in implementing SCEM; and (c) carrying out data reduction, data display and conclusion drawings. Results of the study show all principals of the selected schools have developed diverse strategic leaderships to optimize the implementation SCEM.

Keywords: Character Education Movement, Strategic leadership, School Principal

Topic: Pedagogy