School Culture and Character Value Internalization at SMK Negeri 4 Makassar

Abstract

A teacher's professional competence is cultivated in part through direct, situated exposure to school life, formalized in Indonesia through Pengenalan Lapangan Persekolahan (PLP), a structured school-orientation placement for pre-service teachers. This study presents an exploratory, practitioner-based qualitative case study of school culture at SMK Negeri 4 Makassar, analyzed through Deal and Peterson's (2016) framework of school-culture elements, namely values and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, history and stories, and artifacts and symbols. Data were collected through direct field observation and informal interviews with the school principal, the supervising teacher, and teaching staff during a two-day PLP placement (13-14 March 2023), with the research team's dual position as observers and PLP participants made explicit as a methodological consideration. Findings, organized against the four culture elements, show a consistently practiced greeting ritual (the 3S habit: Senyum, Sapa, Salam), religiously framed learning-conditioning rituals (pre-lesson prayer, shared responsibility for cleanliness), a routinized weekly flag ceremony, and visible symbolic compliance (uniform, discipline norms), alongside an explicitly acknowledged limitation in sustaining classroom quietness during instruction. These practices appear to support the internalization of moral values (tolerance, social care, a peaceful disposition) and religious values (cleanliness and gratitude framed through faith) among students. Given the short observation window and single-site design, the study's claims are presented as an exploratory case description rather than a generalizable finding, and specific recommendations are offered for extending this work into a more methodologically robust follow-up study.