Investigating the Principal Transformational Leadership Strategy in Implementing Character Education at the Senior High School Level (SMA) in Indonesia

Character education (CE) in secondary schools is one of the educational programs aimed to anticipate the tendency of moral perversion, as a result of moral decadence. Various forms of moral deviations that occur among high school students result in them being alienated from life because they conflict with cultural norms, school discipline, and life ethics in society. This article aims to discuss the relation of character values reinforcement and the principal's transformational leadership strategy to shape student characters in a descriptive-critical manner. The objectives of this study are school strategies in optimizing the implementation of character education reinforcement. This research uses a qualitative method with a case study design. Meanwhile, the data validity measurement was based on the level of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. The results emphasize the importance of shaping student character as an anticipatory step to minimize moral distortions among high school students, and the effectiveness of the principal's transformational leadership role in optimizing the implementation of character education programs (CEP) in schools.

中学品格教育（Character Education, CE）是旨在应对道德颓废引发的道德失范倾向的教育项目之一。高中生群体中出现的各类道德偏差行为，因与社会文化规范、学校纪律及公共生活伦理相悖，导致学生逐渐脱离正常生活轨道。本文旨在以描述-批判的研究范式，探讨品格价值观强化与校长变革型领导策略对学生品格塑造的关联。本研究的核心目标为探索优化品格教育强化实施的学校策略。本研究采用质性研究方法，结合案例研究设计。与此同时，本研究的数据效度检验基于可信度、可迁移性、可依赖性与确认性四个维度开展。研究结果凸显了塑造学生品格作为降低高中生道德失范风险的前瞻性举措的重要价值，同时证实了校长变革型领导角色在优化学校品格教育项目（Character Education Programs, CEP）实施过程中的有效性。