Promoting global citizenship through Kurikulum Merdeka: Indonesian primary school teachers’ perspectives

Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is crucial for fostering values such as empathy, intercultural understanding, and social responsibility, essential for addressing complex global challenges. In Indonesia, the concept of GCE remains underexplored and is not yet widely understood or systematically im...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nissa Aulia Belistiana Utami, Rahmatika Dewi, Tatsuya Kusakabe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-08-01
Series:Cogent Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/2331186X.2025.2545328
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Summary:Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is crucial for fostering values such as empathy, intercultural understanding, and social responsibility, essential for addressing complex global challenges. In Indonesia, the concept of GCE remains underexplored and is not yet widely understood or systematically implemented by educators. While GCE is integrated into the current curricula, Kurikulum Merdeka, through the Pancasila Student Profile Reinforcement Project (P5), it is not a standalone subject. This qualitative study examines how Indonesian primary school teachers, including general classroom and physical education teachers, promote GCE within this framework. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 teachers (16 male, 4 female) in Bandung, Indonesia, using purposive sampling. The interviews, conducted face-to-face and online, were transcribed, translated, and analyzed thematically. Findings revealed two key themes: teachers’ unfamiliarity with the GCE concept and P5 implementation. Despite limited conceptual understanding, teachers enacted global citizenship principles through collaborative, culturally rooted practices. The study concludes that GCE can be nurtured through contextualized, project-based learning. It highlights the need for teacher training, institutional support, and integration of GCE across subjects. This study offers a unique contribution by showing how local values embedded in Pancasila can serve as an entry point to global citizenship, providing a culturally grounded pathway for implementing GCE in Indonesia and similar contexts.
ISSN:2331-186X