The document discusses character education and its integration into the English language curriculum in Indonesia. It begins by outlining Indonesia's national policy on character education and the challenges of implementing it in schools. It then describes the comprehensive character education system developed by the Sugar Group Schools, which identifies 8 pillars of character and implements training for teachers. Finally, it provides an example lesson plan focusing on poverty issues that aims to develop students' knowledge, thinking skills, media literacy, and social awareness while integrating character values.

1. PROMOTING CHARACTER EDUCATION BY UTILIZING POVERTY ISSUE IN ELT
ALONG WITH THE SUGAR GROUP SCHOOLS’ PILLARS OF CHARACTERS
Mierza Miranti
Sugar Group Schools and Polytechnic
Site PT Gula Putih Mataram Bandar Mataram, Lampung Tengah, Indonesia
mierza.miranti@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
The character education based curriculum launched by Depdiknas through a regulation No 20/2003
about the National Education System. Thus, schools, as the subject mentioned in the regulation, is
demanded to be able to apply it. The system, however, generates some very basic questions
especially in the classroom to the school management level. In the scope of school management,
the issue emerged is on the integration of the formula into the school system. As for the classroom
level, the questions dealt mostly with the lesson planning. This paper, however, focuses on the
analysis of the application in English Language Teaching (ELT) which still uses KTSP (Kurikulum
Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan or literally translated to Curriculum of Independent Education Unit). It
integrates the expanded values taken from DIKNAS marked as the Sugar Group Schools’ Pillars of
Characters. It discusses, at a glance, a thorough school system of character education that is
established at the school as well as a thinking foundation. The integrated lesson plan is to be taught
to the classes of grade twelve students. It starts on the planning in which the teacher should
carefully find meaningful activities in line with the issue discussed, i.e. poverty, as well as the
integrated character. Each activity will expectantly evoke the students’ affective aspects since the
exposures given to the students are factual and distinctive i.e. by using creative writing to help
students exposing their sense on the experience in which goes beyond the curriculum of language
teaching. They are taken from what the students see everyday, but might not pay attention to. It
also reports on the flows of activities conducted in the classroom. Finally, it is continued with the
teacher’s reflection and concluded by suggestions for further research. Hopefully, the stages from
the design to practice will encourage students to go beyond what is taught: better character.
Keywords: character education, ELT, poverty, Sugar Group Schools’ Pillars of Characters
INTRODUCTION
Character education seems to be another challenge faced by teachers starting from the
comprehending the system itself, lesson planning, to the application that requires all holistic
approach since it does not only involve the students’ intelligence but also emotional quotients.
Some people doubt that on the success of the integration of character education into the
educational system due to a lot of reasons such as the lack human resources preparation
especially in the implementation in classroom levels.
Thus, it is a relieve to know that every school needs not to be worry if they carefully analyze
the government’s regulation about Education System of the Nation that implicitly states the need of
character education. It is stated in the UU No.2/ 2003 that the national education aims to develop
the capacities and build the characters along with the nation’s civilization in terms of educating the
nation. It also aims to give a portion on the development of pupils’ potentials to become citizens
who believe in God, have good characters, as well as being healthy, creative, independent,
democratic, and responsible.
However, this data would not be sufficient to support schools in ensuring the quality of their
teaching staff in the application. There are so many things to be considered starting from the
capacities of every teacher in conveying the message or making the character education happen
into bridging the gaps of one stage of moral reasoning which depends on the yardstick of
physiological expectation of the students. Assuming that the school has the grasp of the
Mierza Miranti – Promoting the Character Education by Using Poverty Issues in ELT along with the Sugar Group
Schools’ Pillars of Characters

2. knowledge, it is expected that it is supposed to create a thorough system, as the one established
by Sugar Group Schools, in order to make sure that the application will go deeper than the surface.
The school starts by creating a system where the pillars or character virtues are set up by
analyzing the virtues to be expected from the students. The pillars are designed to meet the
characteristics of the culture and expected behavioral quality of the students and graduates.
Afterward, it is classified into different level from kindergarten to high school that possesses
different physical and psychological traits. A schedule is made to deepen the application of every
trait or character. Finally, a session is devoted on a weekly basis to discuss each trait.
The homeroom and subject teachers are then expected to work together to make the
character education happen. Homeroom teachers are the ones expected to facilitate a weekly
character education meeting that has been carefully planned by the character education team
formed in every unit, from kindergarten to high school. Besides, subject teachers are required to
design the lesson plans by embedding the characters into the KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan
Pendidikan or literally translated into Curriculum of Independent Education Unit). Eventually, it
expected that the characters will be integrated in the application.
Actually, KTSP gives full authority for teachers to really make use of the situation since the
government only set some minimum learning indicators to be achieved. Thus, teachers can do a
lot of maneuver in teaching in learning situation, which includes designing activities as well as
integrating the virtues to give the most of the learning for the students.
As for language teaching, the choice is even larger since the indicators only highlight on the
skills to be mastered. The teachers can create topics or issues that are suitable with the students’
capacities, skills, interest, and of course expected virtues shown by the students in their actions or
behaviors.
This paper focuses on poverty which is one of controversial issues faced not only locally but
also globally. The main objective of integrating this issue is more than to gain students’ interest. It
aims to broaden students’ knowledge on what is happening outside the classroom wall, to help
them achieving a higher order thinking skill (HOT), to sharpen their media literacy, and to grow
their sensitivity as well as their awareness. The major issue is integrated into the activities
conducted in one semester for grade twelve, which is broken down into three sub-issues i.e. Glocal
Poverty, The Cycles of Poverty, and Solutions to Abolish Poverty. The application is then
examined using teacher’s reflection that will also serves ideas for future research or practice.
THE SUGAR GROUP SCHOOLS’ CHARACTER EDUCATION SYSTEM
The government, which is represented by the Ministry of National Education, has set a
guideline or minimum traits for schools and teachers to develop their own. The set of virtues is
originated based on the nation’s characteristics, i.e. religion, Pancasila, culture, and National
Education Objectives. From the four sources, the government set a list of expected characters as
follow:
1. Religious
10. Nationalistic
2. Honest
11. Patriotic
3. Tolerance
12. Appreciative to one’s success
4. Discipline
13. Friendly/ communicative
5. Hard working
14. Peacemaker
6. Creative
15. Love to read
7. Independent
16. Care for the environment
8. Democratic
17. Socially care
9. Curious
18. Responsible
The aforementioned virtues, adopted from the Manuscript of the Nation Culture and Character
Training Module created by the Ministry of Education, are actually not restricted to change. A
school or teacher can modify or provide additional virtues considered necessary to be added
based on the need of the units.
Therefore, the Sugar Group Schools formulate some Pillars of Characters to characterize their
learning communities as follow:
Table 1: The Sugar Group Schools Pillars of Characters and Values
NO
PILLARS
VALUES
Mierza Miranti – Promoting the Character Education by Using Poverty Issues in ELT along with the Sugar Group
Schools’ Pillars of Characters

3. SEMESTER ONE
SEMESTER TWO
Caring
Courtesy and manner
Sense of belonging and
1
responsibility to community Generosity
Accountable
Interdependence
Peace and conflict
2
Model citizenship
Social justice and
equity
Conflict resolution
Commitment
Independent
3
Self Discipline
Orderliness
Acceptance
integrity
Appreciation and respect
4
for others
Fairness
Tolerance
Critical thinking
ingenious
5
To be solution oriented
Courage
Honesty
active listener
6
To communicate well
Confidence
Ethical decision making Empathy
Cultural awareness and
7
sensitivity
Altruism
Assertiveness
Perseverance
Self leadership
8
implementation
Initiative
Reliability
The pillars were resulted form a careful analysis form the culture and expected behavior of the
students. There were thorough research conducted under a Student Conduct Management
Department, a division that provides a service for the school in monitoring and carrying out a
system for the students’ conduct.
Nevertheless, the above virtues will only become written list of character if the school
management does not follow it up with without required planning and proper implementation.
Therefore, the first preparation is subjected to the human resources as the ones who will
implement the system. The Sugar Group Schools possess a Professional Development
Department that executes the preparation. The first thing to do is to prepare leading figures that
would next lead a Character Education team. The expected people are sent to series of external
workshop that deal with character education and its implementation. Afterward, the appointed
persons formed a Character Education team in each school whose duty is to create and monitor an
alleged procedure in executing the system and producing the tools such as “The Character
Movements” to help engaging the learning communities and also the Curricula of Character
Education that includes the description, schedule, basic competence, activities, and resources.
Basically, they prepare everything for the teacher so that the objectives are achieved.
Figure 1: Screen shot of the Sugar Group Schools Character Education Curricula
Mierza Miranti – Promoting the Character Education by Using Poverty Issues in ELT along with the Sugar Group
Schools’ Pillars of Characters

4. The scheduled curricula are expected to be applied as well in the special sessions meeting the
homeroom teachers with the students. The sessions provide the students deeper meaning of
certain values due to the various activities and resources prepared by the Character Education
Team. Yet for the subject teachers, the school does not restrict them to the schedule. They can
freely integrate the values based on their objectives, plans. or activities.
INTEGRATING POVERTY ISSUES
Indonesia, as a so-called developing country, has been fighting for the issue poverty for years.
The fight surfaces in many media. Unfortunately, not all teenagers are exposed to them. The
stereotypes the students might watch in some television programs make it even worse. The students do
not have opportunities to have balanced information to sharpen their critical thinking. Hence, the lesson
will help them to find two different sides of information to reduce bias and stereotypes. They will also
know that that Indonesia is one of the countries that have a considerable problem with absolute
poverty. This type of poverty needs to be described more than the ones shown in the news that can
define the word poverty itself (Narayan, 2010) as follow:
 Being disabled (e.g. blind, crippled, mentally impaired, chronically sick)
 Lack land, livestock, farm equipment, a grinding mill
 Being unable to decently bury their dead
 Being unable to send children to school
 Having mouths to feed, fewer hands to help
 Lacking able-bodied family member who can feed their families in a crisis
 Having bad housing
 Suffering the effects of destructive behaviors (e.g. Alcoholism)
 Being “poor in people”, lacking social support
 Having to put children in employment
 Being single parents
 Having to accept demeaning or low status work
 Having food security for only a few months each year
 Being dependent on common property resources.
Indeed that poverty is a complex and a potentially sensitive issue. It happens around us but
some teenagers might not even have any idea about it. Thus, the integration is intended to give the
students awareness to a higher level of sensitivity even more: a commitment to action against
poverty. Furthermore, the poverty awareness could encourage students to develop their practical
skills which enable them to engage in active, participatory social interaction, as well as to apply positive
attitudes and empathy towards others (Gowren, 2002). In this regard active learning methods are
designed to give students the opportunity to explore their own thinking on the topics and to develop a
range of skills including communication, presentation and critical-thinking skills that utilize and develop
the pragmatic (doing), cognitive (knowing), and affective (feeling) domains.
PROMOTING THE VIRTUES BY USING POVERTY ISSUES IN ELT
Planning and Applying the Curriculum Embedding the Characters and Topics
English language teaching in the KTSP has been so flexible in the design and application
since the curriculum itself only requires the educators to achieve the skills as well as language
components. The flexibility could easily help the teachers to further embed any topics to promote
characters included in the topic itself or the activities.
Basically the basic competencies discussed in this paper are the ones taught to grade XII in
the first semester. The poverty topic itself is broken down into three sub topics, which is suitable
with the skills given, i.e. “Glocal Poverty”, “The Cycle of Poverty”, and “Ways to Overcome
Poverty”.
Since most writing activities demands the highest order thinking skill, the focus of topic will
have the largest correlation with writing activities. For example, the topic “Glocal Poverty” is chosen
to stimulate students’ ability to compose a narrative monolog to be performed, while the topic “The
Mierza Miranti – Promoting the Character Education by Using Poverty Issues in ELT along with the Sugar Group
Schools’ Pillars of Characters

5. Cycles of Poverty” is selected for the students to write the explanation text that requires having
sequences as its generic structure.
The planning and series activities are carefully selected so that the students expectantly
can develop their character. The expected character column sometimes is not always embedded in
the material, but it is shown in the activities. For example, the students are expected to show good
cooperation when they do team works. Hence, following is the abridged design and application
map:
Table 2: The Abridged Plan and Activities Embedding the Characters and Topics
of Grade XII Sugar Groups Schools’ English Classes
Basic
Competence &
Character
Learning
Materials
GLOCAL POVERTY
LISTENING
Religiosity*
Admitting
Commitment*
one’s fault
Curiosity
Promises
Honesty
Blaming
Creativity
Begging
Character Embedded Activities
 Students are asked to listen to songs and identify the expressions.
 Students are asked to have a group discussion on the expressions in pairs and
give examples using their own experience.
 Students are asked to make situations for their friends to be responded to be
submitted to the teacher.
 Teacher read the corrected situations for the students to practice listening and
give proper response as the answer.
LISTENING
Short formal or
informal
functional
texts: Formal
announcement
in a theatre
building.
LISTENING
Narrative Text
Religiosity*
Commitment*
Courtesy
and manner
Active
listener
 As a class, students clarify their answers.
 Students are asked to listen to a recorded text and identify the topic individually as
a way to be an
 Students are asked to listen once more and discuss in groups afterward for the
specific information asked in series of questions.
 In pairs, students are asked to find out the purpose of the text.
 As a class, students have a teacher-led class discussion on the topic, the
questions, and the purpose of the text as all discussions will show their.
Religious
Discipline
Courtesy
and manner
Empathetic
 Students watch the first part of a movie with “Glocal Poverty” topic and identify





READING
Short formal or
informal
functional
texts: Formal
announcement
in a theatre
building.
READING
Narrative Text
WRITING
Creative
opening of a
theatrical
performance.
individually the rhetorical stages, purpose, specific information main ideas,
chorological events, characterization.
As a class, students and teachers discuss the rhetorical stages and purpose of
the text.
Students are given time to discuss in groups to answer specific questions, find out
main ideas and chronological events.
As a class, students and teachers discuss the specific questions and main ideas.
Students watch the final part of the movie and continue identifying the
chronological events and interpreting the character by writing the character plot
line individually.
Students sit with their group to share their finding and wrap it up with class
discussion.
Given a text, students identify contents and purposes of the text.
In pairs, students discuss the given gapped and multiple choice exercise.
In groups, students discuss the purpose of the text.
As a class, students share the result of the discussions and to be clarified by the
teacher.
Religious
Discipline
Curious




Religious
Discipline
Curious
Love
Reading
Empathy
Religious
Discipline
Creative
 Students are asked to read the text individually while answering in the questions
in written form.
 In pairs, students discuss the language aspects (functions, main ideas, and
rhetorical stages).
 Students are asked to discuss the characters in groups.
 Teacher clarifies the students’ answers and result of discussion.
 Students are asked to make the text based the generic structure and given
prompts.
 Students swap their works to be analyzed and edited by their peers for the
English convention and content.
 Teacher provides final clarification on the works
.
WRITING
Religious
Narrative
Discipline
prompt sheet – Creative
 In groups, students are asked to make the draft of the text based the generic
structure and given prompts. In the group, there will be division of a chained story
 Students swap their works to be analyzed and edited by their peers for the
Mierza Miranti – Promoting the Character Education by Using Poverty Issues in ELT along with the Sugar Group
Schools’ Pillars of Characters

6. Basic
Competence &
Character
Character Embedded Activities
Learning
Materials
Glocal Poverty Communicative
English convention and content.
Empathetic
 Students critique and revise their peers’ text (time for debate between peers is
given).
 Students are asked to develop the revised final copy of the text which is
considered displayable.
 Teacher provides final clarification on the narratives works.
SPEAKING
Religious
 Students serve as a Master of Ceremony to initiate the theatrical performance of
Creative
Discipline
another group.
opening of a
Courtesy
 Students initiate a theatrical performance through creative opening.
theatrical
and manner
performance.
SPEAKING
Religious
 Students work in groups to prepare the performance of narrative monolog.
Narrative:
Discipline
 Other groups analyze after the performance is conducted.
Glocal Poverty Altruistic
 The performing group evaluate and critique the others should they have any
Confidence
objection.
 The performing group reinvent the performance (and monologs if necessary)
based on the inputs and criticisms.
SPEAKING
Religious
 Students, in groups, create a play using the expression of admitting one’s fault,
Admitting
Discipline
making promises, blaming, and expressing curiosity in a production of theatrical
one’s fault
Altruistic
performance and based on the narrative work.
Promises
Confidence
 Other groups analyze the play and revise from flaws.
Blaming
Empathetic
 The presenting group evaluate and criticize the inputs.
Begging
 The performing groups produce the final copy of the play.
 The students present the play in a form of a theatrical performance in line with the
narrative monologs from their own group and creative opening by other group.
CYCLES OF POVERTY
LISTENING
Religious
Giving
Discipline
commands.
Curious
Complaining
Creative
Expressing
curiosity
LISTENING
Explanation
Text
Religious
Discipline
Courtesy
and manner
Empathetic
 Students are asked to listen to a song and identify the expressions
 Students are asked to have a discussion on the expressions in pairs and give
examples.
 Students are asked to respond to the expressions by doing assignments.
 As a class students clarify their response.
 Students watch the first part of a movie “Causes of Poverty” and listen to a



READING
Short formal or
informal
functional texts
Religious
Discipline
Curious
READING
Explanation
texts
Religious
Discipline
Curious
Love
Reading
Empathy
Religious
Discipline
Creative
WRITING
Short formal or
informal
functional
texts.
WRITING
Explanation
text
Religious
Discipline
Creative
Communicati














recorded explanation text to identify individually the rhetorical stages, purpose,
specific information main ideas, and sequences.
As a class, students and teachers discuss the rhetorical stages, and specific
information of the text.
Students are given time to discuss in groups to share the main ideas and
sequences they have made.
As a class, students and teachers discuss the main ideas and sequences also by
inquiring the students’ knowledge on making cycles of sequences.
Students continue by creating the cycle in groups.
Teacher wraps it up with class discussion.
Given a text, students identify contents and purposes of the text.
In pairs, students discuss the given gapped and multiple choice exercise.
In groups, students discuss the purpose of the text.
As a class, students share the result of the discussions and to be clarified by the
teacher.
Students are asked to read the text individually while answering in the questions
in written form.
In groups, students discuss the language aspects i.e. the functions, main ideas,
and rhetorical stages, as well as interpret and create the cycle of sequences of
the text.
Teacher clarifies students’ answers and result of discussion.
Students are asked to make the text based the generic structure and given
prompts.
Students swap their works to be analyzed and edited by their peers for the
English convention and content.
Teacher provides final clarification on the works.
In groups, students are asked to make the draft of the text based the generic
structure and given prompts. In the group, there will be division of a chained story
Students swap their works to be analyzed and edited by their peers for the
English convention and content.
Mierza Miranti – Promoting the Character Education by Using Poverty Issues in ELT along with the Sugar Group
Schools’ Pillars of Characters

7. Basic
Competence &
Learning
Materials
Character
ve
Empathetic
Character Embedded Activities
 Students critique and revise their peers’ text (time for debate between peers is
given).
 Students are asked to develop the revised final copy of the text which is
considered displayable.
SPEAKING
Short formal or
informal
functional
texts:
SPEAKING
Explanation
text
Religious
Discipline
Courtesy
and manner
Religious
Discipline
Altruistic
Confidence
 Teacher provides final clarification on the explanation text.
 Students worked as a group to create a new group’s short text and
comprehension question.
 Every group presents the text and read the questions for the other group to
answer.
 Teacher clarifies the answer.
 Students worked as a group to create a new group’s short text and
comprehension question.
 Every group presents the text and read the questions for the other group to
answer.
 Teacher clarifies the answer.
WAYS TO OVERCOME POVERTY
LISTENING
Religious
 Students are asked to listen to a song and identify the expressions
Accusing
Discipline
 Students are asked to have a discussion on the expressions in pairs and give
Discussing for
Curious
examples.
possibilities
Active
 Students are asked to respond to the expressions by doing assignments.
Stating
listener
 As a class students clarify their response.
stances
LISTENING
Discussion
Text
Religious
Discipline
Courtesy
and manner
Empathetic
 Students watch speeches of Mandela and Mohammad Yunus and listen to a


READING
Discussion
texts
WRITING
Discussion
text
Religious
Discipline
Curious
Love
Reading
Critical
thinking








Religious
Discipline
Creative

Communicative
Ethical decision 
making

SPEAKING
Discussion
text
Religious
Discipline
Confidence
Courage
SPEAKING
Giving
commands.
Complaining
Expressing
curiosity
Accusing
Discussing for
possibilities
Stating
stances
Religious
Discipline
Altruistic
Confidence
Creative
Ethical
decision
making








recorded explanation text to identify individually the rhetorical stages, purpose,
specific information main ideas, and sequences.
As a class, students and teachers discuss the rhetorical stages, and specific
information of the text.
Students are given time to discuss in groups to share the main ideas and
sequences they have made.
As a class, students and teachers discuss the main ideas and stances.
Teacher wraps it up with class discussion.
Students are asked to read the text individually while answering in the questions
in written form.
As a class, students discuss the questions and the function of the text.
In groups, students discuss the language aspects i.e. the main ideas, and
rhetorical stages, as well evaluating the appropriateness of the stages in
abolishing poverty.
Teacher clarifies students’ answers and result of discussion.
Teacher checks the students’ result of interpretation and give feedbacks.
In groups, students are asked to make the draft of the text based the generic
structure and given prompts. In the group, there will be division of a chained story
Students swap their works to be analyzed and edited by their peers for the
English convention and content.
Students critique and revise their peers’ text (time for debate between peers is
given).
Students are asked to develop the revised final copy of the text which is
considered displayable.
Teacher provides final clarification on the explanation text.
Students worked as a group to create a new group’s short text and
comprehension question.
Every group presents the text and read the questions for the other group to
answer.
Teacher clarifies the answer.
Students have to make sure to use the expression in proposing their stances.
The opposing group create stances to debate the other group’s stances.
Every group has to make sure that their stances are acceptable in a given time.
Finally, a very short time is given to create a proposal of a group’s final formula.
Mierza Miranti – Promoting the Character Education by Using Poverty Issues in ELT along with the Sugar Group
Schools’ Pillars of Characters

8. Basic
Competence &
Character
Character Embedded Activities
Learning
Materials
NOTE:
In the character column, there are always be “religiosity” and “committed/” since in every meeting will start with the
following activities:
*As a start to show their religiosity, students are asked to pray and mention what the things that made them feel
grateful today.
**To elicit their commitment/ discipline, before the lesson started, students are asked to arrange their chair as
expected and to show their belongings.
Reflection on the Planning and Activities
At the time this paper is finished, the writer is still in the middle of the process. Yet, there
are some notes to be made as a reflection to make the next teaching practice and research better.
The first note is on the time management. THE learning activities should carefully be
adjusted to make sure that the time is enough for exposures, elaboration, and also reflection. The
least activity is considered important if the goal of maximizing the integration of the character
education. In this last activities, students and the teacher shall sit together to learn some affective
aspects form the learning process on that day, so the activities conducted by the students would
not be only series of tasks and duties. The eliciting stages should be sufficient for the students to
draw out a conclusion of the activities and discuss what characters expected to show during the
completion of the works. Here, the writer realized the time she allocated is insufficient basically due
to several reasons, both in and outside the classroom level. In the classroom level, the writer,
based on the anecdotal note, she tried to keep the pace with the alleged slow learner as she
needed to make sure that every student could get the grasp of the material. However, she might
too focus on those students so she was unable to keep the time well.
The next thing is the suitable exposures that make the students well equipped to produce
outcomes as demanded in language learning: speaking and writing. The exposures – given by the
teacher or browsed by the students themselves – are mostly given in the lesson which the focus is
reading or listening. Here, the teacher faced some technical difficulties in searching for the suitable
materials for the listening since she had to relate the listening skills expected with the topic. Finally,
she put the listening skills before introducing the topic so that the students can still practice the
required skills but do not distract the flow of the topic.
Finally, one of the most determining factors leading to the success of integration is the
teachers’ attitude and action during the lesson. A teacher has to make sure that she or he does not
generalize or stereotype places or people present the world as one where poor people are
helpless, and present the issue as global issue in which the students might think it is impossible to
act against it. From the anecdotal note, it is very obvious that the resources giving the guideline to
teach glocal issues such as the one form Oxfam and CVDEC Curriculum Development Unit really
helped her at the time she need to focus on an issue. It facilitates her a lot in making sure that at
the time of the integration she would emphasize on the issue and ways to overcome it. Yet, it is
quite hard not to use stereotypes when the lesson is on narrative and the objective is to present a
theatrical performance.
CONCLUSION
It is too premature to say that the integration done in one lesson can make a difference on
the character education since the classroom itself is part of a school system. Thus, the Sugar
Group Schools creates a comprehensive system of character education that start from the
preparation of the human resources, paperwork needed, to the thorough system that involves of
the learning community.
As for the classroom level, integrating a development or global topic such as poverty can
be really a helpful aid for a language teacher in promoting character education in the classroom
since the flexible characteristic of KTSP really can make it happen and the topic itself could
develop the pragmatic, cognitive, and affective aspects. Yet, a teacher should really have to make
sure to provide reflection time to obtain the most of a lesson. The factors leading to the
Mierza Miranti – Promoting the Character Education by Using Poverty Issues in ELT along with the Sugar Group
Schools’ Pillars of Characters

9. accomplishment such as the resources used and teachers’ action and attitude also need to be
underlined.
Lastly, poverty is not the only developmental issues that can be applied. Here, the writer
would like to suggest some other ideas for teachers to apply, such as the issues of social justice
and equity, diversity, globalization, sustainable development, as well as peace and conflict. As for
the research, it would be best to analyze the process of how character education is implemented in
classroom levels to the whole school system.
REFERENCES
Flavin, C. (2001) Rich World, Poor World in L Brown, State of the World. London: Earthscan.
Gowren, S. (2002). Counted Out: Challenging Poverty and Social Exclusion. CDVEC Curriculum
Development Unit and Combat Poverty Agency in association with Folens Publishers . Dublin:
Crumlin
Kemendiknas. (2010). Naskah Bahan Pelatihan Pedoman Budaya dan Karakter Bangsa.
Indonesia: Jakarta.
Kemendiknas. (2010). Pembinaan Pendidikan Karakter di Sekolah Menengah Pertama.
Indonesia: Jakarta.
Lickona, T. (1994). “Raising Good Children”. New York: Random House, pp. 11-15.
Narayan, D. et al. (2001). World Bank: Voices of the Poor-Crying Out for Change, World Bank.
Oxford: United Kingdom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
OXFAM GB. (2006). “Teaching Controversial Issues”. Oxford: United Kingdom.
Seabrook, J. (2003). The No-Nonsense Guide to World Poverty. London: New Internationalist and
Verso.
Mierza Miranti – Promoting the Character Education by Using Poverty Issues in ELT along with the Sugar Group
Schools’ Pillars of Characters