Character Education Across School Contexts: A Qualitative Study of High- and Regular-Performing Schools in Indonesia

This qualitative study explores how character education is understood, organized, and enacted across two types of junior high schools in Indonesia: High-Performing Schools (HPS) and Regular-Performing Schools (RPS). Using semi-structured interviews with school leaders, teachers, parents, students, and school committee members from nine schools across three provinces, we examined how institutional conditions and relational practices shape the implementation of character education. Analysis generated four themes: variation in program management approaches, differences in implementation structures and stakeholder involvement, school inputs shaping program capacity, and community perceptions of character education outcomes. Findings show that HPS tend to institutionalize character education through structured planning, clear role distribution, and consistent monitoring, while RPS rely on contextual flexibility, collective responsibility, and relational engagement within resource constraints. These results extend existing character education literature by demonstrating how school capacity interacts with locally adaptive practices to produce different pathways toward character formation. Implications include the need for differentiated implementation strategies, support tailored to school context, and policy approaches that recognize multiple legitimate forms of character education practice. The study concludes by outlining areas for future research and considerations for practitioners and policymakers.