1 ELT FORUM 2 (2) (2013) Journal of English Language Teaching http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER EDUCATION ASPECTS IN NARRATIVE TEXTS OF THE ELECTRONIC TEXTBOOK “DEVELOPING ENGLISH COMPETENCIES” Ratna Widya Iswara  Department of English, Faculty Language and Arts, Semarang State University, Indonesia Info Artikel ________________ Sejarah Artikel: Diterima September 2013 Disetujui Oktober 2013 Dipublikasikan November 2013 ________________ Keywords: character education aspects, narrative texts, electronic textbook ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ The issue of character education has mushroomed recently as many as social problems in Indonesia. Thus, character education should be taken into consideration in teaching and learning activity. The aim of this study is to identify the character education aspects in narrative texts found in the electronic textbook used for senior high school students grade XI entitled Developing English Competencies based on the eighteen character education aspects mandated by the Ministry of National Education. This research applies descriptive qualitative method. In collecting the data, the writer used documentary method. The research instrument used in this study was documentation protocol and check list. The result of this research shows that there are 301 sentences from 605 sentences found in all the narrative texts which contain the character education aspects. So the percentage is 49,75 %. The sentences in the 17 narrative texts are relevant to the eighteen character education aspects. © 2013 Universitas Negeri Semarang  Alamat korespondensi: Gedung B3 Lantai 3 FBS Unnes Kampus Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 E-mail: ratnawidyaiswara@gmail.com ISSN 2252-6706 Ratna Widya Iswara / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 2 INTRODUCTION Down through history, in countries all over the world, education has had two great goals: to help young people become smart and to help them become good (Lickona, 2007:1). The issues of character education has mushroomed recently as many as social problems in Indonesia. Character development in teaching is particularly important in today‟s society since globalization has globbed the whole world. Students are bombarded with many more negative influences through the media and other external sources prevalent in today‟s culture. However, learning system is currently considered not effective in building morals and noble character of the nation for the students. This is shown by the occurring cases of moral degradation, such as drug abuse, student radicalism, criminal activities, pornography and porno-action, plagiarism, and the declining pride toward nation and state. Even, junior and senior high school students have greater risk in character problems. It is proved by what the writer experienced while doing Praktik Pengalaman Lapangan (PPL). At the school where doing the training to be a teacher, the writer found out that some of the students engaged in a gang fight. Even, some of them from seventh graders until ninth graders used drugs. In order to tackle these problems, the 2010 - 2014 MoNE Strategic Plan (Renstra) took policies to develop educational curriculum that provides soft skills to enhance noble moral and foster national character. One of the ways is by teaching character education at schools. As stated by Battistich (n.d.), schools today face enormous challenges in educating all of the young people in their charge. In addition to provide youth with basic academic knowledge and skills, and promoting their character development, schools have increasingly been called upon to play a primary role in helping to solve a variety of social problems among youth. Comprehensive and high quality character education is not only effective at promoting the development of good character, but is a promising approach to the prevention of a wide range of contemporary social problems. Lickona (1991) stated that moral education is not a new idea. It is, in fact, as old as education itself. Supporting this statement, Berkowitz (2011) also added that the term character education is simply the current term for a millennia-old issue. In Indonesia, it is not a new concept either. The pretension to becoming a country with noble character has been manifested since the country‟s independence. Pancasila and 1945 National Constitutions of the Republic of Indonesia (UUD 1945) provide a philosophical foundation also various basic principles for building education. The latest one, as mandated in Regulation of the President of the Republic of Indonesia Number 5 of 2010 Regarding the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2010-2014 that applying education methodology is no longer in the form of education for the sake of passing „teaching to the test‟, but is oriented to a comprehensive education that takes into account social capability, character, morals, and appreciation for Indonesia‟s culture and language. Thus, character education is mentioned as a value and moral education that aims to develop students with good personality to be better. Character education is not a quick process. Good character is not formed automatically. It is developed over time through a sustained process of teaching, modelling, learning and practice. To be effective, character education must include the entire school community and must be infused throughout the entire school curriculum and culture. Thus, inserting character values and traits in textbooks becomes a very effective way since books are used in every teaching and learning process. Being interested in the phenomenon above, the writer decided to have research on the values contained in textbook. Thus, it is the aim of this study to analyze and identify the materials of the electronic textbook Developing English Competencies for Second Grade Students of Ratna Widya Iswara / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 3 Senior High School, especially the narrative texts based on the eighteen essential character education aspects mandated by the Ministry of National Education in 2010. Review of Related Literature Definition of Character Education Character is a psychological construct (Berkowitz and Bier, 2005:4). The outcome of effective character education is the psychological development of students. The complex set of psychological characteristics that enable an individual to act as a moral agent. Character is the composite of those psychological characteristics that impact the child‟s capacity and tendency to be an effective moral agent, to be socially and personally responsible, ethical, and self-managed. Abourjilie (2012:2) defined character education as a national movement creating schools that foster ethical, responsible, and caring young people by modeling and teaching good character through an emphasis on universal values that we all share. It is the intentional, proactive effort by schools, districts, and states to instill in their students important core, ethical values such as respect for self and others, responsibility, integrity, and self- discipline. Berkowitz and Bier (2005:4) highlighted the importance of school in character education, they viewed character education as “a multifaceted approach that is best accomplished through comprehensive school reform”. Character Education in Indonesia Based on Pancasila and 1945 National Constitutions of the Republic of Indonesia (UUD 1945), the national education system put the students as the highest form of creation made by Almighty God with a task to lead a noble and dignified life also become well mannered, good hearted and kind human being. In 2010, the centre board of curriculum research and development under the supervision of Ministry of Education has conducted an empirical study on character education. The study revealed the development of character education by means of operational unit from every educational institution. Thus, since year of education 2011, all educational units and institutions in Indonesia should insert and apply the character education in each teaching and learning process. Eighteen aspects have been identified based on Master Plan of Character Education by Ministry of Education as follows: No Aspect Description 1. Religiousness Having attitudes and behaviors reflecting religious practices that one believes in, showing tolerance towards the practice of others and living harmoniously in a society. 2. Honesty Being truthful in words and actions and able to be trusted. 3. Tolerance Having respect and appreciation for different opinions, beliefs, ethinicities, attitudes and actions of others. 4. Discipline Demonstrating self-control, even in difficult situations and obeying rules. 5. Perseverance Continuing to work towards a goal, no matter what the obstacles and challenges are. 6. Creativity Involving and using imagination to develop new ideas. 7. Independence Capable of acting for oneself or on one's own without being influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion and conduct. 8. Democracy Belief in political freedom and equality. Ratna Widya Iswara / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 4 9. Curiosity Showing a marked desire and eagerness to learn more about knowledge or information. 10. Citizenship Prioritizing the country‟s interest above personal interest. 11. Patriotism Attempting to profess loyalty and care about the social, economic and political condition of a country. 12. Achievement Respect Obtaining thing successfully by exertion, effort, courage and skill, and being happy for other‟s success. 13. Friendship Being gentle and generous towards others; having a relationship between two or more people who enjoy being together. 14. Peacefulness Helping maintain peace and preventing violence. 15. Reading Interest Highly educated; Knowledgeable through having read extensively. 16. Environmental Care Protecting natural environment from loss and pollution; saving the earth's resources for the future. 17. Compassion Show kindness and concern for others in distress by offering help whenever possible. 18. Responsibility Taking care of duties, being dependable and accountable when having things to do to God, self, and society. (Source: Ministry of National Education, 2010) Definition of Textbook There are some definitions of textbooks. One of those definitions given by Goslin (2012) in Permatasari (2012:30) who viewed a textbook as a printed and bound artifact for each year or course of study. Textbooks contain facts and ideas around a certain subject. From this definition we know that textbook is commonly used in schools. Textbooks are not only published in printed format, many are now available as electronic books. The Institution of the Development of Educational Materials (2011) in Permatasari (2012:31) stated that textbook is a teaching tool (material) which presents the subject matter defined by the curriculum”. This definition shows a comprehensive understanding of textbook that textbooks are written based on the curriculum. It‟s quite challenging in today‟s world to choose a good textbook, where there are numbers of textbooks. Good teacher has to know how to choose a good textbook. A good textbook is a book that is appropriate with the curriculum and students‟ level. Function of Textbook Textbook is very important to teachers and students. It is hard to do teaching learning without textbook. The function of textbook stated by Lier (1996:208) that textbooks tend to severely hamper the ability to engage in innovative and exploratory teaching. For teachers, textbook is an objective sequencing device which provides support and shows the way. In such textbooks, all the material that is supposed to be covered during a specific period of time is included. Modern textbooks aim to be not just comprehensive but also interesting, varied, inviting, and so on. They are full of photographs and drawings, and allusions to the types of things the authors imagine the target audience is interested in. At the same time, to be commercially viable, they must appeal to as broad a population as possible, and this requirement tends to lead to a certain blandness, and, in certain cases, to the uncritical presentation of an official point of view. (Lier, 1996:208) Ratna Widya Iswara / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 5 General Concept of Narrative Texts A narrative is a piece of text which tells a story and, in doing so, entertains or informs the reader or listener (Anderson and Anderson, 1997:8). It can also be stated to stimulate the readers‟ emotion or to teach the readers. Thus, the purpose of a narrative text is to construct a view of the world that entertains or informs the reader or listener. The following are types of narrative text: humor, romance, crime, real-life action, adventure, historical fiction, mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and diary-novels. Generic Structure of Narrative Texts Anderson and Anderson (1997:8) stated that the generic structures of a narrative text are an orientation, a complication, a sequence of events, a resolution, and a coda. An orientation can be in the form a paragraph, a picture, or opening chapter in which the narrator tells the audience about who is in the story, when the story is taking place, and where the action is happening. A complication sets off a chain of events that influences what will happen in the story. These events will affect one or more characters. While a sequence of events is where the characters react to the complication. Then, a resolution is in which the characters finally sort out the complication. In this part, the crises are solved, for better or worse. The last part constructing a narrative text is a coda. It is an optional step that provides a comment or moral based on what has been learned from the story. Language Features of Narrative Texts There are some required elements dealing with the language features of narrative text. In the book Text Types in English 2, Anderson and Anderson (1997:8) defined the language features which usually found in a narrative text: specific characters, time words that connect events to tell when they occur, verbs to show the actions that occur in the story, and descriptive words to portray the characters and settings. Research Design Many traditional researchers speak of the design of a study as the product of the planning stage of research. The design is then implemented, the data collected and analyzed, and then the writing is done. In this study, the writer is going to use a qualitative research since the main purpose of the study is to analyze the character education aspects in narrative texts of the electronic textbook Developing English Competencies. Qualitative research expresses something comprehensively about the context through data collection taken by the researcher as the key instrument (Mujiyanto, 2007:19). In a qualitative research, the data and the results of the study are presented in the form of description. The writer is going to analyze the data and interpret the findings obtained by means of words. Source of Data Arikunto (2010:172) defined source of data as subject in which the research data obtained. If the researcher uses documentation, so the document and note are the source of data, while content of the document or note is the subject of study or research variable. In order to make light of identifying the source of data, he classified into three levels of p: person, place and paper. Person is the source of data who can give data in the form of spoken interview or written questionnaire. Place is the source of data which provide the persence of stationary or moving situation. While paper is the source of data which provides signs in the forms of letters, numbers, pictures or other symbols. The source of this study is paper, particularly document, electronic textbook entitled Developing English Competencies. It is an English eldectronic textbook for Senior High School (SMA/MA) grade XI. It was written by Achmad Doddy, Ahmad Sugeng, and Effendi and published by the Book Centre of the Ministry of National Education. Ratna Widya Iswara / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 6 Research Findings As it has been stated before, this study was a qualitative reserach since the main purpose of the study is to analyze the character education aspects in narrative texts of the electronic textbook Developing English Competencies. Qualitative research expresses something comprehensively about the context through data collection taken by the researcher as the key instrument (Mujiyanto, 2007:19). There are 17 narrative texts which were analyzed and presented in the table below. No Title Page Number of Sentences 1 Liu-Always-in-a-Hurry 232 30 2 Cookie Dolls 232 13 3 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves 33 32 4 Why Does the Cock Eat the Millipede 35 16 5 Miss Mole Catches a Ghost 38 25 6 Teddy Bear Time 40 17 7 Little Peachling 42 28 8 The Wolf and the Lamb 235 19 9 Tom Thumb 236 10 10 The Mystery of the Sphinx 236 4 11 Money Isn‟t Everything 118 25 12 The Jealous Crow 121 37 13 The Golden Reed Pipe 125 88 14 The Magic Moneybag 129 61 15 The Necklace 209 170 16 The Kind Duck and the Poor Frog 216 13 17 Nai Manggale 218 17 Total 605 After selecting, numbering and presenting the data, the researcher came to the next step, analyzing the data. This subchapter analyzed the calculation finding of character education aspects and related it to eighteen character education aspects mandated by the Ministry of National Education. The number of eighteen character education aspects in each narrative text is shown in the following table. No Text Character Education Aspect 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1. 1 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 2. 2 0 2 0 0 3 2 1 0 1 0 0 2 4 3 0 0 0 0 3. 3 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 4. 4 1 0 2 0 4 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 5. 5 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 4 1 6. 6 0 3 0 1 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 2 4 7. 7 1 5 0 0 7 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 5 6 8. 8 0 3 1 0 1 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 9. 9 0 0 1 0 3 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 10. 10 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 11. 11 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 5 0 Ratna Widya Iswara / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 7 12. 12 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 4 2 0 1 1 0 13. 13 0 3 1 1 9 2 1 0 3 0 0 4 3 1 0 2 1 5 14. 14 0 1 4 5 7 1 3 0 2 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 1 1 15. 15 0 7 1 1 20 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 3 9 16. 16 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 17. 17 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 2 Total 4 29 13 9 62 25 1 0 2 19 1 1 14 29 9 0 5 31 38 NOTE: Character Education Aspect 1 = Religiousness; 2 = Honesty; 3 = Tolerance; 4 = Discipline; 5 = Perseverance; 6 = Creativity; 7 = Independence; 8 = Democracy; 9 = Curiosity; 10 = Citizenship; 11 = Patriotism; 12 = Achievement Respect; 13 = Friendship; 14 = Peacefulness; 15 = Reading Interest; 16 = Environmental Care; 17 = Compassion; 18 = Responsibility. From the previous table of the number of each character education aspect in the narrative texts, it could be classified into the amount of each character education aspect from all the narratives and make the percentage of them. Here, the data were classified into each character education aspect in the narrative texts. The table below shows the number of sentence which contains each character education aspect and the percentage against the total number of sentences found in the texts. No Character Education Aspect Number of Sentence Percentage 1. Religiousness 4 0,66 % 2. Honesty 29 4,79 % 3. Tolerance 13 2,15 % 4. Discipline 9 1,49 % 5. Perseverance 62 10,25 % 6. Creativity 25 4,13 % 7. Independence 10 1,65 % 8. Democracy 2 0,33 % 9. Curiosity 19 3,14 % 10. Citizenship 1 0,17 % 11. Patriotism 1 0,17 % 12. Achievement Respect 14 2,31 % 13. Friendship 29 4,79 % 14. Peacefulness 9 1,49 % 15. Reading Interest 0 0,00 % 16. Environmental Care 5 0,83 % 17. Compassion 31 5,12 % 18. Responsibility 38 6,28 % Total 301 49,75 % Perseverance became the most appeared value because student from very early age should be taught and prepared to be a tough, diligent and keen person. It reached 10,25% of the total sentences and appeared most, 20 times in the text 15, The Necklace. Ratna Widya Iswara / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 8 Besides perseverance, responsibility also had high rank among all. It took 38 sentences or 6,28% which also appeared most also in text 15. This short story by Guy de Maupassant told a story of Madame Loisel and her husband who lived simply. However, their lives became worse when she borrowed a magnificent diamond necklace from her bestfriend, Madame Forestier, and lost it. Then, she had to borrow much money, got the new necklace and began the long path of her financial struggles. It showed a great responsibility of Madame Loisel to take risk of thing she had done. Even it meant that she had to work very hard. Compassion, like responsibility, was also considered important. There was 5,12% calculation of sentences which contained this value of showing kindness and concerning for others in distress. Character value of honesty and friendship had similar total number, which was 29 sentences. Both of them had percentage of 4,79%. Other aspects of character education like tolerance, independence, curiosity and achievement respect reached the number of 10- 20 sentences. While religiousness, discipline, democracy, citizenship, patriotism, peacefulness, and environmental care was less than 1,65% or less than 10 sentences in all the narrative texts. Furthermore, there was one value of the aspects, reading interest, which did not appear at all in those narrative texts. Reading interest itself means being knowledgeable through having read extensively. Considering the importance of this aspect, it was very regrettable that it did not exist in the narrative texts. From the above explanation, it is clear that the 17 narrative texts of the electronic textbook contain the character education aspects mandated by the Ministry of National Education, but there was still one character education aspect which did not appear in all the narrative texts. CONCLUSION First, all the 17 narrative texts found in the electronic textbook contain at least three aspects of character education which were compatible and relevant to the eighteen character education aspects identified as the core values of cultural and character education in Indonesia. They are including religiousness, honesty, tolerance, discipline, perseverance, creativity, independence, democracy, curiosity, citizenship, patriotism, achievement respect, friendship, peacefulness, environmental care, compassion and responsibility. Second, the percentage of sentences which contain the character building aspects by the Ministry of National Education was adequate. There were 301 sentences from all 605 sentences appeared in 17 narrative texts. Thus, there was 49,75 % sentences which contain the character building aspects mandated by the government. The most character education aspect was found in perseverance, which reached 10,25%. Besides, responsibility and compassion were also highly ranked and mostly found. In contrast, there was one aspect of character education, reading interest, which did not appear in the narrative texts at all. Ratna Widya Iswara / Journal of English Language Teaching 2 (2) (2013) 9 REFERENCES Abourjilie, Charlie. 2002. Character Education Informational Handbook and Guide. Public Schools of North Carolina. Available at: www.ncpublicschools.org [accessed 06/01/13] Anderson, Mark and Kathy Anderson. 1997. Text Types in English 2. South Yarra: Macmillan Education Australia PTY Ltd. Arikunto, Suharsimi. 2010. Prosedur Penelitian : Suatu Pendekatan Praktik. Jakarta: PT. Rineka Cipta. Battistich, Victor. (n.d.) 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