P-ISSN: 1978-8118 E-ISSN: 2460-710X 97 Lingua Cultura, 14(1), July 2020, 97-105 DOI: 10.21512/lc.v14i1.6418 REVIEWS OF TEACHERS’ CHARACTERS IN STUDENTS’ AUTOBIOGRAPHY Atiqa Sabardila1*; Markhamah2; Dini Restiyanti Pratiwi3 1,2,3Graduate Program of Indonesian Education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta Jl. A. Yani, Mendungan, Sukoharjo, Jawa Tengah 57162, Indonesia 1as193@ums.ac.id; 2mar274@ums.ac.i; 3drp122@ums.ac.id Received: 19th May 2020/Revised: 03rd June 2020/Accepted: 12th June 2020 How to Cite: Sabardila, A., Markhamah., & Pratiwi, D. R. (2020). Reviews of teachers’ characters in students’ autobiography. Lingua Cultura, 14(1), 97-105. https://doi.org/10.21512/lc.v14i1.6418 ABSTRACT The research aimed to describe reviews of teachers’ characters found in students’ autobiography. It belonged in the field of Indonesian Language Education, and the data were in the form of students’ autobiography, written in Indonesian. A descriptive-qualitative approach was utilized to observe the attitude, behavior, or perception of autobiographers about their teachers’ characters in the past. The source triangulation was used to verify the validity of the data. The data were analyzed through a comparative method using referential and marker reading techniques, in addition to the focused-group discussion. The results of the research show that the teachers’ characters portrayed in students’ autobiography includes: (1) positive characters: responsible, patient, caring, easy to understand, fair, making students smart, inspiring creativity; and (2) negative characters: fierce/yelling, scary in anger, hard to understand, flirty. From the results, it can be concluded that students’ autobiography evidently helps measure the quality of teachers’ characters, and negative characters reduce the learning process’s effectiveness. Keywords: teacher character, teacher review, student autobiography INTRODUCTION As a country that has just climbed out of developing country status, Indonesia’s education is not yet flawless. Many problems and challenges are still haunting. One of the challenges comes from the side of educators, teachers. Cases of misconduct still appear on the news regularly, which calls for a systematic effort to improve teachers’ quality. Students’ autobiography records many aspects, including stories of their past or memories, opinions, views, etc. Students’ autobiography can also picture the quality of their past education, including teachers’ quality, the characters they memorize. The Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language (KBBI) defines autobiografi (a utobiography) as riwayat hidup pribadi yang ditulis sendiri (self-written personal life history). Autobiographies, on the market, are fewer in number compared to biographies. A person’s biography is written by someone else, while an autobiography is written by the person himself. Maryadi et al. (2009) have noted that the important information that appears in autobiography includes *Corresponding Author affection, people’s judgment, activity, pathological behavior, hobbies, self-recognition, parental profession description, home situation, school description and environment, school experience, potential and talent, and the role of parents. Negative behavior is also a finding there, namely pathological behavior. It refers to the habit such as sleeping in a class, being punished by standing in front of the class, being difficult to socialize with, hanging out, skipping/truancy, being noisy in a class, and being scolded by teacher for making trouble (Maryadi et al., 2009). Those findings are in synergy with Sabardila and Prihartini’s (2011) research, which focuses on autobiographical writing on problematic students written by SMP Muhammadiyah Surakarta students. It provides information about honesty, potential, hobbies, children’s talents, habits, courage, independence, likes, children’s craft, obedience, experience, delinquency, changes of behavior, ideal, and emotions (positive: happy, proud; and negative: difficult/unhappy, feeling scared). The students tend to tell their life around the school and their families. Friendship, disputes or misunderstandings, negligence, lack of discipline, and 98 LINGUA CULTURA, Vol. 14 No. 1, July 2020, 97-105 lack of compliance lead to small conflicts with people they know. Studies on characters from an educational perspective are previously carried out by several researchers, such as Rahman, Waluyo, and Suyitno (2016); Bakar, Noor, and Widodo (2019); Mustadi et al. (2017); and Turan, & Ulutas (2016). Other studies related to characters are carried out from a literary perspective related to characters in literary works. Research on the characters in literature is conducted by Angelis, Miranti, and Dwiastuty (2019); Nurfatin and Triadi (2018); Azizah and Setiana (2016); Juliantini and Sudarsana (2018); and Niani (2017). The research is important to conduct because the methods for evaluating teachers’ performance must keep improving in order to produce a better educational outcome and overcome challenges. The results are expected to prove that students’ autobiography is a viable and useful medium to measure teachers’ characters and their effects on students’ learning and development. METHODS As research in the field of Indonesian language education, the research uses a qualitative approach that produces descriptive data research. The data are in the form of written words in the autobiography that are written by students in the Indonesian language. The content is regarding the behavior or attitude of teachers who have taught them in the past. The data are obtained from a collection of autobiographies written by students who enrolled in the Writing Class (2008) of the Indonesian Language and Literature Education study program, Faculty of Teaching and Education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta. The data collection is accomplished by library techniques. Data analysis is carried out by referential techniques, which are similar to content analysis. In addition, marker reading techniques are employed as well as observing the appearance of adjectives that refer to the attitude or nature of a person, especially a teacher or a lecturer. The data triangulation is performed by triangulation of researchers, inter- researchers, and data sources. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The research has found thirteen reviews of teachers’ characters within the students’ autobiography. The following section provides the original quotes (in Indonesian) and discuss them one by one. The first is a fierce teacher being disliked by students. Fierce teachers are generally referred to as scary, easy to anger, or abusive teachers whom the students are not eager to meet in class. The following quote portrays a fierce teacher that is disliked by the autobiographer. (1) “Akhir-akhir kelas satu, rasanya aku sangat gembira karena aku tidak bertemu lagi sama guru yang galak itu.” (UR/A.310080241) (“At the end of grade one, I felt very happy because I do not have to see that fierce teacher again.”) In quote (1), the use of the adjective phrase ‘very happy’ is found. The next statement has stated the reason: ‘tidak mau bertemu lagi sama guru galak’. It means that the teacher who is referred to as fierce is disliked by the student very much. Quote (1) portrays a teacher who has not succeeded in conducting classroom management. By getting the title ‘fierce’, the teacher can be stated as having an uninviting personality. Teachers with such personality are the principal’s responsibility to guide. The quote portrays a teacher who lacks social competence in managing a classroom in a healthy atmosphere. It contrasts with several principles in the teacher’s social competence, namely respect, empathy, audible, clarity, and humble communication (Ahmad, 2019). Teachers who embody empathic behavior will show various positive qualities as examples for students (Jasimah, Awaludin, & Ruslan, 2018). For students’ study success, the school counselor needs to consider increasing interaction and collaboration with students’ parents and trying to develop positive perceptions about students in terms of students’ successful studies. The collaboration referred to is the collaborative activity between the school counselor and related parties, including parents, to achieve the objectives of the guidance and counseling service program (Nugraha & Rahman, 2017). Violence in the classroom that is not immediately handled will likely make the students fail in continuing to the next grade level. A teacher’s professionalism is manifested in the form of acting praiseworthy, which includes carrying out his/her professional duties and being able to control the attitudes to fit principles of religion and morale (Darmadi, 2015). Teachers have responsibilities in the fields of professionalism, social, intellectual, moral, and spiritual (Yusutria, 2017). If teachers do not respect the diversity of students’ characters in schools, especially towards students who are not achieving, then the role of the teacher as a motivator is increasingly difficult to realize. Students’ motivation can be built through appreciation from parents and teachers (Pratama, Ratnamulyani, & Fitriah 2015). Teachers should also function as a motivator, especially in learning. Motivation itself is one of the things influencing students’ achievement (Santoso, 2015). Students from a broken home who end up violating the rules at school can cause teacher disruptions and complaints (Aziz, 2015), so they really need teachers’ attention. Students being not disciplined in learning might make them lazy to learn due to the presence of information technology, such as gadgets (Hudaya, 2018). In quote (1), students’ laziness is 99Reviews of Teachers’ Characters .... (Atiqa Sabardila, et al.) caused by teacher behavior. It is the teachers’ responsibility to find deviant behavior in the classroom, and it is the responsibility of parents when the behavior is found at home. One of them is bullying. Ignoring this behavior will impact their learning achievement (Sani, Riyadi, & Saefudin, 2019). What if the behavior is found among the teachers? There might be a function that is not performed by teachers that they should guide students to produce learning outcomes (Adinda, Gaos, & Fatimah, 2020). The second is a fierce teacher leading to a strained atmosphere that makes students feel scared and tremble. It is what student with initials UR has been experienced. UR describes that the classroom atmosphere is like a prison. (2) “Waktu kelas satu aku tidak memperhatikan apa yang dijelaskan ibu guru. Aku malah sibuk mencocokkan PR-ku sendiri. Padahal guru ini terkenal galak apabila ada siswa tidak memperhatikan ke depan jika sedang dijelaskan. Kemudian dengan perasaan takut dan badan gemetar aku disuruh maju terus dimarahi. Kenapa tidak memperhatikan beliau saat ngejelasin? Sejak saat itu atau masa kelas satu nilai Matematikaku tidak pernah mendapat nilai di atas lima. Sebab di dalam kelas serasa di penjara. Maka, dari proses belajar tidak sepenuhnya bisa masuk, tetapi rasa teganglah yang ada.” (UR/A.310080241) (“During first grade, I did not pay attention to what the teacher explained. I’m instead busy matching my own homework. This teacher is fierce when there are students who do not pay attention when he/she explains the lesson. Then with a feeling of fear and trembling, I was told to go ahead and get scolded. Why not pay attention when she explains? Since then or during the first grade, my Mathematics score had never been in the top five. Because the classroom felt like a prison. So, the learning process could not be fully understood, and only tension was there.”) In quote (2), the teacher scolds UR. UR does not specify how the teacher scolded him because the words spoken by the teacher are not found in his writing. However, the impact of this scolding causes his learning in Mathematics to be often unsatisfactory. That is due to the learning process that could not be followed well. By raising the learning outcome of bad test scores, it can be concluded that the fierce teacher has an effect on the psychology of the students, particularly UR. Anti-violence education has been offered in the implementation of Islamic Education (PAI), as stated by Jauhari (2016). It places teachers as models and central education figures so that they always strive to build good relationships with students in a dialogical manner in guiding and improving the intellectual, spiritual, and moral intelligence of students. This can be done with compassion without elements of violence or coercion. The third review from the students is the teacher being hard to understand that leading to truancy. In quote (3), UR expresses his difficulty in understanding his English teacher’s explanation and how it makes him skip class once. (3) “Saat kelas XII ini aku pernah membolos jam Bahasa Inggris karena gurunya jika menjelaskan tidak mudah dipahami dan sebenarnya aku juga tidak suka pelajaran Bahasa Inggris.” (UR/A.310080241). (“During this grade XII, I once skipped an English class because the teacher’s explanation was not easy to understand. Also, I was not too fond of English lessons.”) In quote (3), UR also admits that he does not like the subject. Is his dislike of English caused by his difficulty in understanding the lesson? In that quote, there is no information about how his classmates fare. It can be assumed that the truant behavior is done alone because there is no indication that it is done with friends. Besides, quote (3) shows that teachers who do not master the material enough to explain it well/ easily can push students to skip classes. Therefore, UR’s teacher, in this case, can be classified as an unprofessional teacher. Indeed, not all teachers have ideal competence. This is demonstrated by Setiawan and Sitorus (2017), whose results of the research show that teachers’ competence in the areas studied is still low. Teachers should try their best to explain the material presented so that students understand the lesson easily. Ease of understanding will help maintain the flow of teaching activity, reduce truancy, and problematic behavior such as students talking among themselves, which is considered impolite behavior. When the learning process occurs, a student is not allowed to interrupt the teacher’s speech, even required to behave politely to get the teacher’s blessings (Nasir, 2018). The school often considers that truant behavior is caused by the students themselves, not because of other causes. The teachers might never be in the spotlight before in this aspect. However, it is now evident that teacher’s performance might have a role in students’ truancy, which should be paid attention by policymakers. Tutiona, Munir, and Ratu (2016) have stated that the utility of individual counseling with the behavior contract technique can reduce truancy in students of Junior High School 6 Palu. They mention that teacher who is problematic should be guided because the cause of truancy is due to boredom in the classroom and the lack of understanding of the teacher’s explanation in delivering lessons. The research places their statements, which are packaged in autobiography form as a piece of important information. It offers another perspective 100 LINGUA CULTURA, Vol. 14 No. 1, July 2020, 97-105 from adolescents in seeing problems around life in school, home, and their friendship. There are honest judgments about people related to autobiographers, where their statements can improve themselves. The fourth of the students’ review is a responsible teacher reducing student’s truancy. In quote (4), UR describes his classmate who likes to play truant but then rarely does it because of the homeroom teacher is so responsible. (4) “… Stefana merupakan Wali Kelas yang paling bertanggung jawab atas anak didiknya. Dengan kejadian itu mata hati kami menjadi terbuka yang dahulunya temanku yang suka membolos menjadi jarang membolos.” (UR/A.310080241). (“… Stefana was the homeroom teacher who was most responsible for her students. With that incident, our eyes and heart opened. My friends who used to play truant became rarely playing truant again.”) UR has a homeroom teacher who manages to change the negative behavior of this formerly truant student. To describe the teacher, UR uses the superlative form, the most responsible. Although the narrative does not appear, UR has compared the teacher’s attitudes. To the homeroom teacher, UR gives the most responsible assessment. With quote (4), it is evident that students can feel the teacher’s responsibility and minimize their truant behavior. As explained by UR, the teacher fulfills two indicators of teacher success; the ability to manage learning and commitment in carrying out tasks. The fifth is a patient and caring teacher, but scary in anger. In quote (5), M gives an assessment of his kindergarten teacher. (5) “Guru yang mengajar waktu TK adalah Ibu Sunarti, biasa dipanggil Bu Narti. Bu Narti sangat sabar dalam mengajar. Beliau selalu mengajari dan membimbing kami dengan lemah-lembut dan penuh kasih sayang. Kami sudah dianggap seperti anaknya sendiri. “ ... beliau itu sangat menyeramkan kalau sudah marah, wajahnya seperti monster di film Ultraman. Kalau beliau sudah marah, pasti anak menangis, termasuk aku juga.” (M/A.31008042) (“The teacher who taught in kindergarten was Mrs. Sunarti, usually called Mrs. Narti. Mrs. Narti is very patient in teaching. He always taught and guided us gently and lovingly. We are considered as her own children. She was very scary when she was angry; her face was like a monster in the Ultraman film. If she were angry, the child would cry, including me too.”) Quote (5) portrays the kindergarten teacher’s positive character, which is very patient in teaching, and guiding in a gentle and caring manner. M also feels affection as if he is her child. However, the disliked characters are also reflected in his autobiography. The teacher, who is gentle and loving, turns out to be very scary when angry. M describes the face of the teacher is like a monster who makes students cry with her anger. The student’s perception in quote (5), which praises the third teacher in kindergarten, is relevant to the statement of Turan & Ulutas (2016). It states that character education is important for teachers. Kindergarten teachers are required to choose methods and media that are fun for students and can develop students’ characters. The sixth review from students is an excellent homeroom teacher being indiscriminate. In quote (6), M provides a transparent assessment of a homeroom teacher. M gives a superlative assessment, which is very good. The teacher shows his indiscrimination to his students. He never discriminates his students, whether smart, stupid, naughty, or students who like to sleep in the class. (6) ”Waktu kelas 3 wali kelas aku adalah Bapak Triyono, S.Pd. Beliau ini adalah wali kelas yang sangat baik,. Pelajaran PPKn adalah pelajaran yang diajarkannya. Beliau tidak pernah pandang bulu kepada murid-muridnya, entah itu pintar, bodoh, nakal, atau suka tidur di kelas. Beliau sangat adil kepada semua murid- murid.” (M/A.310080242). (“During grade 3, my homeroom teacher was Mr. Triyono, S.Pd. He was an outstanding homeroom teacher. PPKn lesson was the lessons he taught. He never discriminates his students, whether smart, stupid, naughty or likes to sleep in class. He was very fair to all students.”) Each student has the same desire for their teachers. Every student wants to be treated equally. The criteria for good, even very good, will depend on the students to feel satisfied with their teachers. Teachers who cannot be indiscriminative will reduce the enthusiasm of students to take part in the lesson. The seventh is a fierce and loud teacher, but indiscriminating. The teacher told in quotation (7) bears a resemblance to quote (1), (2), and (6). His fierce character is similar to quotes (1) and (2), while his fair character is similar to quote (6). In the following quote, NM’s teacher is portrayed as fierce and loud. She is firm to naughty students. However, NM never gets punished; he feels loved by the teacher because he is not naughty and stubborn. NM gives a testimony that he can easily understand her lesson, which makes the teacher happy and proud of NM. The eighth review is a very fierce teacher, but leading to obedience, discipline, and intelligence. In quote (8), OKR shows a balanced assessment of his teacher, his homeroom teacher. OKR states that her teacher’s fierce attitude is related to her origin, Batak, Medan. OKR gives an assessment of the effective phrase that shows superlatives, which is very fierce. The phrase is 101Reviews of Teachers’ Characters .... (Atiqa Sabardila, et al.) added ‘well-known’. It means that other students, OKR’s friends, can also feel the character. However, the teacher from Medan has a number of eminent characters. As narrated by OKR, all children must be obedient and discipline in the teacher’s class. Students respond to the teacher’s attitude by being quiet. Her voice is very loud, like the sound of lightning strikes. OKR uses the hyperbole and the exaggerated style by explaining that Mrs. Ani’s very loud voice is heard to the entire school. Besides being obedient and discipline, Mrs. Ani has another superior character, indiscriminating to her students. A foolish and naughty child will not pass her class. Another advantage that is noted by OKR is that she wants her students to look clean and neat, and all students respect her. Teachers in Indonesia can be assigned outside of their local residency, as in the mentioned case. Therefore, they need to equip themselves with multicultural competence (Solehuddin & Budiman, 2019). The ninth is a patient-first teacher. In quote (9), JTS portrays his first teacher in grade 1 of elementary school, Mr. Pergiono, a quite patient teacher. (7) ”Ibu guru yang mengajar kami tidak membeda- bedakan antara kami. Bagi beliau kami adalah putra-putrinya yang akan ia beri ilmu. Nurhayati adalah nama guruku itu. Orangnya galak dan suaranya sangat keras. Apabila ada muridnya yang nakal, pasti ia akan jewer telinganya. Akan tetapi, sejak aku belajar dengannya tidak pernah sekalipun aku mendapat jeweran dari tangan kasarnya. Justru aku termasuk murid yang disayang. Selain tidak nakal dan bandel, aku cukup mudah menyerap pelajaran yang diberikan. Hal itu membuat beliau merasa senang dan bangga.” (NM/A.310080246). (“The teacher who taught us did not discriminate against us. For her, we are sons and daughters whom she would give knowledge. Nurhayati was the name of that teacher of mine. The person was fierce, and her voice was very loud. If there are naughty students, she would definitely pinch their ears. However, ever since I studied with her, I had never once gotten a pinching from her rough hands. Instead, I was among the beloved students. Besides not being naughty and stubborn, I quite easily absorbed the lessons given. It made her feel happy and proud.”) (8) ”Aku masuk di kelas 2B. Di kelas ini yang menjadi wali kelas adalah seorang guru Batak, namanya Ibu Ani. Dia terkenal sangat galak, apalagi dia berasal dari Medan. ...”Semua anak pasti akan patuh dan disiplin jika sedang diajar oleh Ibu Ani. Jika Ibu Ani sedang menerangkan, suasana kelas menjadi hening. Suaranya juga sangat lantang, seperti suara petir menyambar. Satu sekolah pun akan mendengarnya. Dia tidak membeda-bedakan murid-muridnya. Jika muridnya bodoh dan nakal, pasti tidak akan dinaikkan kelas olehnya. Dia juga sangat tidak suka dengan murid yang jorok dan tidak rapi. Semua orang sangat segan kepadanya. Usahanya selalu membuahkan hasil. Semua murid yang diampu olehnya akan pandai (OKR/A.310080256). (“I entered the Class 2B. In this class, the homeroom teacher was a Batak teacher, whose name was Mrs. Ani. She was known as very fierce, especially since she was from Medan. ... All children will undoubtedly be obedient and disciplined if being taught by Mrs. Ani. If Ms. Ani was explaining, the atmosphere in the class was quiet. Her voice was also very loud, like the sound of lightning striking. The whole school would hear it. She does not discriminate against her students. If the student were stupid and naughty, she would surely not let him advance to the next grade. She also really did not like students who are dirty and untidy. Everyone regarded her. Her efforts always bear fruit. All students who were supervised by her would be smart.”) (9) ”Saat hari pertama saya masuk ke SD, saya tidak mau berangkat, tetapi saya dipaksa untuk masuk oleh ibu saya, dan akhirnya saya diantar oleh bapak saya. Guru saya pada saat kelas 1 adalah Bapak Pergiono. Pak Pergiono seorang yang lumayan sabar. Dia tidak pernah marah saat kami ramai sendiri saat pelajaran.” (JTS/A.310080260) (“When I first entered elementary school, I did not want to go, but I was forced to go by my mother, and finally, I was escorted by my father. My teacher, during grade 1, was Mr. Pergiono. Mr. Pergiono was a rather patient person. He was never angry when we were noisy during class.”) JTS initially feels reluctant to go to school, but his mother makes him go nevertheless. Furthermore, the first teacher happens to be quite a patient character. The teacher ignores noisy students even when he is delivering the lesson. Unfortunately, JTS does not mention the final results of learning in regards to the teacher in question. The tenth review of their teachers is a fierce but caring teacher. In quote (10), JTS gives a transparent assessment of his teacher, who is his homeroom teacher. The teacher is considered as quite fierce but also has a good heart. (10) ”Guru sekaligus wali kelas 2 bernama Ibu Suwarni. Dia berasal dari Prambanan. Ibu Suwarni dalam mengajar lumayan galak. Kami sering dibentak-bentak bila ramai sendiri dan tidak memperhatikan pelajaran, tapi beliau sebenarnya juga baik. Ketika teman saya sakit di kelas, Ibu Suwarni yang menolong teman saya, dan akhirnya diantarnya pulang ke rumah. ” (JTS/A.310080260). 102 LINGUA CULTURA, Vol. 14 No. 1, July 2020, 97-105 (”The teacher and homeroom teacher of grade 2 was named Mrs. Suwarni. She was from Prambanan. In teaching, she was quite fierce. We were often yelled at when we were noisy and did not pay attention to lessons, but she was actually also kind. When my friend was sick in class, she helped my friend and took him home.”) There is a reason for this fierce attitude to appear in front of students, i.e., when they are busy with themselves and do not pay attention to the lesson. The teacher, as well as guardian, wants her students to master the material she teaches. As a student, JTS can see her good side; when a student is hurt, she helps him and takes him home herself. Quote (10) also depicts the example of a teacher whose emotions might be less stable. When the teacher is under a noisy class, does JTS’ teacher immediately yell at students who do not pay attention to their lessons or previously reminded him not to be noisy in the class? The quote does not answer that. As a writer, JTS is partial in telling his teacher, disclosing bad and good sides. The eleventh review is a very fierce teacher, but easy to understand. In quote (11), JTS provides a realistic assessment of her teacher’s attitudes, which are not ideal. There are negative characters that the teacher has, such as very fierce and often yells. However, as a teacher, he can carry out his functions. He can provide assistance and encouragement so that the students meet the learning outcome. They easily understand the conveyed lessons. (11) ”Kemudian saya naik di kelas 5 yang diajar oleh Bapak Sudarno. Dia seorang guru yang sangat galak dengan badan tinggi gemuk dan kepala botak. Tapi saat mengajar Pak Darno mudah dipahami oleh murid-muridnya, meskipun kami sering dibentak-bentak.” (JTS/A310080260) (“Then, I went up to grade 5, taught by Mr. Sudarno. He was a very fierce teacher with a tall, fat body, and bald head. But when teaching, Mr. Darno was easily understood by his students, even though we were often yelled at.”) The twelfth is patience led to student’s affection. Through quote (12), it is observed that patience will lead students to enjoy their teacher and homeroom teacher. The teacher is a 6th-grade teacher who is also JTS’ homeroom teacher. JTS gives his teacher a superlative assessment to the teacher, very favored. The reason is stated as due to the patient characteristics of the teacher. Furthermore, the last review is a flirtatious teacher towards female students but has inspiring creativity. JTS’s observation in quote (13) portrays an electronics teacher who is young, naughty, and flirtatious towards female students but encourages creativity. (12) ”Saat kelas 6 guru sekaligus wali saya adalah Bapak Munirudin. Dia seorang yang sangat disenangi karena orangnya sabar.” (JTS/A.310080260). (”During grade 6, my teacher and guardian were Mr. Munirudin. He was a man who was very liked because he was patient.”) (13) ”Pelajaran ketiga yang saya sukai adalah pelajaran elektronika. Di saat itu kami diajar oleh Bapak Gunawan. Dia seorang guru yang masih muda, nakal, dan genit kepada cewek- cewek. Di saat itu kami diajari membuat bel, lampu plip top, dan radio. Saya membuat bel dengan suara yang sangat merdu dan akhirnya saya pasang di pintu rumah. Kemudian kami diajari membuat lampu plip top yang kreasinya adalah dengan menambahkan jam, yang saya pasang menjadi jam dinding. Kemudian yang terakhir adalah diajari membuat radio. Dan saya membuat radio tersebut dengan suara yang sangat merdu dan bening.” (JTS/A.310080260). (“The third lesson that I liked was the electronics. At that time, we were taught by Mr. Gunawan. He was a teacher who was young, naughty, and flirty with girls. At that time, we were taught to make bells, plip lamps, and radios. I made a bell with a very melodious sound, and finally, I put it on the door of the house. Then we were taught to make a top plip lamp whose creation was to add a clock, which I put into a wall clock. Then the last one is taught to make radio. And I made the radio with a very melodious and clear voice.”) JTS also mentions that he becomes skilled in electronics, such as making bells, top plip lights, radios, and wall clocks because of the teacher’s guidance. JTS is proud of his work. The bell he makes sounds very sweet, which he finally put on the door of his house. A top plip lamp with an additional clock is installed in his house too. Based on his teacher’s guidance, JTS also makes radio in which sound is melodious and clear. In JTS’s point of view, the electronic teacher encourages his creativity. Through the electronics subject, proud creative products are produced, such as the bell, top plip lamp, and radio. Through a number of creative works that students can practice, the fondness about the subject will grow. From the 13 quotes provided, positive and negative characters can be observed and grouped. The presence of negative characters here proves that more work is needed to improve teachers’ characters systematically. The characters found are displayed in Table 1. Fierce character is the most commonly found character here, often comes with yelling actions. Parents should not speak verbal violence in the form of being yelled at, scolded, and called by inappropriate words because it will impact the psychological 103Reviews of Teachers’ Characters .... (Atiqa Sabardila, et al.) development of children (Armiyanti, Aini, & Apriana, 2017). Logically, the same principle applies to teachers who teach students in classes. However, fierce teachers are generally known as prone to conducting those. Table 1 Teachers’ Characters Found in Students’ Autobiography Positive Characters Negative Characters Responsible Fierce/yelling Patient Hard to understand Caring Scary in anger Easy to understand Fair / Indiscriminate Making students smart Inspiring creativity Flirty A teacher is like a parent who takes care of his/her students. Kurniasari (2015) has stated that parenting with violence would not overcome bad behavior among children and would not guarantee the child’s discipline when they grow up. Maya (2017) has researched teachers’ procedure (adab) from the perspective of Ibn Jamâ’ah Al-Syâfi’î, which results include principles of loving students like loving oneself, not being discriminatory by giving special treatment to some students, and being humble and gentle. Teachers, as the main actor in implementing educational programs in schools, play a number of important roles in achieving educational goals. The teacher’s role includes educating, mentoring, training, advising, reforming, being a role model, having a personality, researcher, encouraging creativity, generating views, doing routine works, becoming an actor, emancipator, culprit, and evaluating (Juhji, 2016). Furthermore, he/she has explained the role of teachers in the development of education, namely instilling values, building character, central learning, providing assistance and encouragement, supervising and fostering, disciplining children, and role models for the environment. School is like a peaceful home that everyone should develop mutual respect, and no one is allowed to violate. Susila (2019) has stated that violence in education can never be justified whatever its form, whomever the perpetrator is. The impact of the acts of violence is actually wide on both victims and perpetrators. Autobiography forms can record the attitudes and behavior of teachers in the classroom from the students’ perspective. Various forms of violence are experienced by students that are done by teachers, such as hitting, twisting, insulting, and ignoring. The underlying factors include seeking attention, seizing friends’ toys, and lacking patience (Agustin, Saripah, & Gustiana, 2018). The granting of physical sanctions by teachers to students in the perspective of criminal law is not a criminal offense and cannot be held criminally accountable. The physical sanctions are a means of increasing student education and discipline (Hardiansyah, Khisni, & Hafidz, 2018). For children to be protected and prevented from acts of violence, teachers are guided by child protection modules that have been validated by experts (Ilyas, 2019). Synergy in the relationship between teachers and parents is needed to foster students, promote peace, and use family ways to overcome any problems that occur. If it is not done, violence cases will continue to foster hatred, revenge, distrust, and suspicion of parents and the community towards the school (Fauzi, 2017). The research is in line with Mustadi et al. (2017), which states that media development and media skills, can improve students’ competence. The difference with the research, in Wijayanti’s findings, the improved skills are social skills, namely the skills to interact with other people. Teachers’ behavior that is not sympathetic in their students’ eyes shows that their personality traits are not yet strong. Therefore, they need to continue to improve themselves. Not only telling their students to do learning tasks such as reading, but the teachers themselves should do it themselves as well as an example of positive learning habits. Many readings should not be missed, and the reading should become a choice, such as through wisdom in various media (Santoso, 2015). CONCLUSIONS The students’ autobiography evidently portrays the importance of eminent character for teachers to be able to perform their duty well. It also proves that students make intensive observations of their teachers. They are capable of assessing positive and negative aspects according to their judgment. There are similarities in the assessment of the character of the teacher they like. Many teachers are portrayed to have both good and bad characters. It is time for students’ autobiography to be utilized to investigate further information regarding the character of teachers. It can serve as a feedback to improve teachers’ characters systematically. It can be seen that negative characters do not help with the learning process. For example, teachers with fierce character are generally uninviting for students to take part in lessons. The principal should address it to disciplinary actions, i.e., they are suspended for one week to be able to learn. The free time can be used to participate in a workshop to improve their ability to manage classes. Alternatively, the headmaster can ask the considered-best teacher in the school to guide the problematic teacher. The final step is done in a friendly manner so that the problematic teacher is more able to accept his advice. In terms of the research contribution, the research is beneficial for teachers who want to perform 104 LINGUA CULTURA, Vol. 14 No. 1, July 2020, 97-105 introspection to improve themselves. Teachers’ behavior and conduct are proven to be very memorable to students. In conducting teacher recruitment, policymakers in the education sector should consider and make personality tests a key requirement in recruiting prospective teachers. While in terms of research implication, the research implies that teachers need to equip themselves with good academic, social, and personality competencies. They are to be applied in teaching so that it will lead to positive and good perceptions among students. The data of the research are limited to an autobiography written by students. What they write is a recording of their past, a memory. In actuality, the characters of teachers in student perception might be different from the real characters of the teachers. Therefore, future researches can investigate this matter from a different perspective, such as from teachers’. REFERENCES Adinda, A. P., Gaos, A. N. F., & Fatimah, R. S. N. (2020). Pelaksanaan layanan bimbingan untuk mengatasi anak yang malas belajar. Islamika: Jurnal Keislaman dan Ilmu Pendidikan, 2(1), 170-175. https:// doi: 10.36088/islamika.v2i1.576. Ahmad, M. A. (2019). Komunikasi sebagai wujud kompetensi sosial guru di sekolah. Jurnal Komodifikasi, 7(1), 33-44. Agustin, M., Saripah, I., & Gustiana, A. D. (2018). Analisis tipikal kekerasan pada anak dan faktor yang melatarbelakanginya. 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