An Analysis of Merdeka Curriculum Implementation in Indonesia: A Case Study of Facilitating Students’ Transformation

Merdeka Curriculum for the academic year 2022-2024 has been issued by the Indonesian government to overcome the learning loss at schools due to Pandemic-Covid 19. There are some challenges in the implementation, one of which is teachers’ lack of understanding of the meaning and purpose of the Merdeka curriculum. It causes students’ boredom with learning in the classroom. Therefore, the research, which applies the qualitative approach with case study procedures, aims to offer interactive teaching as a solution to apply the Merdeka curriculum after analyzing its implementation. The result is Merdeka Curriculum gives freedom to the students in learning. In running the curriculum, Christian teachers base their philosophy on the Bible. Christian teaching will bring the students to experience life transformation. Therefore, interactive teaching is chosen to be implemented, because it gives freedom to teachers to design the learning based on the Biblical Christian Worldview and to students to learn in the Shalom class community. In conclusion, teaching learning that is done biblically will facilitate students’ transformation. For future researchers, they can research on how Christian teachers respond to the Merdeka Curriculum based on their school contexts and ground their teaching on the Bible to facilitate students’ life transformation.


INTRODUCTION
Indonesia has been classified recently as a newly industrialized country.This development also includes the development of education towards industrialization with the goal of human development in terms of reason, knowledge, and ethics supported by modern technological developments and innovations. 1To balance the development in education, the Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (Kemenristekdikti) issued an independent learning curriculum, Merdeka Belajar.The concept of the Merdeka Belajar curriculum stems from freedom of thought and innovation through creative and independent learning to encourage the creation of an independent soul character. 2Teaching and learning activities are expected not to be confined to the traditional school curriculum which is more on teacher-centred teaching.
Therefore, Merdeka Belajar needs to be implemented starting from school, as a formal institution for children's education.
In the implementation of the Merdeka Belajar curriculum, schools in Indonesia face many challenges.It starts from the teacher's lack of understanding of the meaning and purpose of Merdeka Belajar and results in learning that is not expected as the designed procedure.Teachers are still trapped in a rigid traditional curriculum so that learning routines occur.This causes students to learn as a routine activity, not a meaningful process.Routines lead students to boredom, resulting in passivity in learning through the monotonous learning burden. 3Therefore, a lack of understanding from the teacher can lead to a lack of student participation in the classroom.
The next problem also comes from the teacher.According to Charismiadji, many teachers in Indonesia do not have a calling or passion for teaching. 4Many of them are the students' progress. 8The four previous research gives a picture of the educational problems in Indonesia in the last three years.
Based on the biblical perspective, since the beginning of creation, human beings always have problems in their lives.The problems deal with the cultural mandate, how the man should cultivate the earth responsibly.In the beginning, God created the universe and man were good.In Genesis 1:26, God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."God stated it clearly in the Bible to make human beings understand the purpose of the creation.It is because human beings are God's stewards in taking care of the earth.Genesis 1:28 shows that man is called to cultivate the earth for the glory of God.Therefore, to be God's steward on earth, God has called human beings intentionally, given them understanding through the special revelation (Bible) and general revelation (the universe), and equipped them with Godly character.
Hoekema emphasizes the point above with his statement that God blessed human beings and gave them a mandate (Genesis 1:28).It is also inferred that humans also resemble God in that they are persons, responsible beings, who can be addressed by God and who are ultimately responsible to God as their Creator and Ruler.As God is as a person who is able to make decisions and to rule, so man is a person who is likewise able to make decisions and to rule. 9 After human beings fell into sin, none is righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10).
Human beings lived separately from God. Problems emerged in every life aspect of humans, such as hatred, fear, depression, isolation, etc. Sins continue to this day.In the educational field, some wrong actions occurred, e.g.bullying, cheating, laziness, and some others.Those problems do not only befall human beings, but also people around them.In other words, personal action impacts on the community.Adam's action as the a Ni Nyoman Padmadewi and others, eds., "Memberdayakan Keterlibatan Orang Tua dalam Pembelajaran Literasi di Sekolah Dasar."Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Humaniora 7, no. 1 (2018): 66 -67. 9 Anthony A. Hoekema, Created in God Image (Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986): 16-17.
An Analysis of Merdeka Curriculum Implementation... Vol.7, No.2, Oktober 2023   Copyright © 2023: Shanan, ISSN 2722-4678 (Online), 2549-8061 (Print) 231 first human being had an impact on his relationship with Eve, as the first woman, and on the environment.It created problems.
Nevertheless, there is a difference between the nature of the problem before and after the man fell into sin.Before the man fell into sin, he was holy before God.The problem arisen is related to how man develops all God's given capacities and potential to cultivate the earth.Yet, the problems appeared after the man fell into sin created bitterness in human's life.Human suffers from their sin, because they do not follow God's instructions.According to Hoekema, because of sin, man has lost the image of God.
Instead of serving and obeying God, man is now turned away from God. Man's fall into sin did not result merely in the loss of something additional to his existence, but involved the total corruption of his entire being.Now, the image of God in us is flawed, damaged, and destroyed.There is no part is free from the infection of sin. 10 Unfortunately, the human being could not help himself.Only God, through His Only Son, Jesus Christ, can save human beings from his total depravity (John 3:16) so that human beings have new life in Christ (Colossians 3:10) to do all God's mandates.
Human beings have a life renewed in Him or experience life transformation.Hoekema stated that the core message of the New Testament is how this lost image of God in man is being restored in and through Jesus Christ.This restoration of the image is identical with the gift of God in Jesus Christ received by faith. 11e knowledge and understanding of God's purpose in creation, the sinful nature of human beings, and His redemption are basic to answer the educational problems in Indonesia.The knowledge and understanding of God's Story will lead human to respond the redemption gratefully, because Holy Spirit will work within them.Even though, human has a new life in Christ, they still can fall into sin.They have their weaknessess that have to overcome.This is the sinful nature of a man.Therefore, there is a tendency in man to break God's law, including in implementing Merdeka curriculum.Man's life does not stop when they have new life, instead of growing in Christ all the time.Merdeka

METHOD
The writing of this article uses a qualitative approach with a case study procedure.
According to Cresswell, a case study is a design of inquiry found in many fields, especially evaluation.In finding the data, the researcher develops an in-depth analysis of a case, often a program, event, activity, process, or one or more individuals.Cases are bounded by time and activity.The researchers collect detailed information using a variety of data collection procedures over a sustained period of time. 12Case studies include about four to five cases normally.The case study procedure started with determining 1) what to research, 2) what data to be gathered, 3) how to gather the data, and 4) how to analyze the data.
The stages carried out in writing this article are that the author examines: 1) Merdeka Belajar curriculum, 2) Christian educational philosophy, 3) transformational learning, and 4) interactive teaching.In obtaining results, this research uses various national and international works of literature as references to previous research.The processing of literature data undergoes several stages, i.e. reducting data, classifying, verifying, and validating data to get scientific and factual conclusions.

Merdeka Curriculum
After the pandemic Covid-19, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemdikbudristek) issued the Merdeka Curriculum to cope with the learning loss.The curriculum is applied for the academic year 2022-2024 and will be reviewed by the Indonesian government in 2024.The curriculum evaluation will be a reference for Kemdikbudristek in making a policy for learning loss recovery.
Merdeka Curriculum focuses more on the use of technology and the learning community to practice sharing between teachers, students, and academicians (information and communication).The focus can be seen from any platforms created for digital learning.Therefore, some terminologies related to digital learning appear such as blended learning, hybrid learning, and some others.As a consequence, Kemdikbudristek has a policy to give freedom to all schools to implement the curriculum whenever they are ready.In other words, the Merdeka Curriculum is not applied at the same time and massively. 13It depends on the readiness of each school considering so many curriculum elements to prepare.
The idea of the Merdeka Curriculum is "Merdeka Belajar" or learning freedom for all students who suffered from the pandemic COVID-19.To provide students with better learning, this curriculum centers itself on technology use and 21 st -century competence. 14This curriculum philosophy is progressivism which emphasizes some principles, i.e. 1) student-centered learning, 2) students as active human beings, 3) teachers as facilitators, 4) cooperative and democratic school atmosphere, and 5) problem-solving. 15Those things will give them chances to student to grow their sensitivity toward social phenomena and prepare them to work in the real world.Biblical philosophy emphasizes unity (formulation from a general worldview).It also gives various lives in unity.It will connect to knowledge systematically.It also examines assumptions, methods, and concepts from all disciplines.Philosophy of education which has been informed biblically will bring stability amid continuous changes in our society.A commitment to Biblical Christian Worldview about reality will give direction to the future.The only thing constant in our world is God and the Bible.
God over the church is the same as God who is over theology and philosophy as well as God who is in the center of our intellectual world, not us. 20 summary, in running education, Christian educators should know the life foundations.As the image of God, Christian educators have mandates to share the Gospel through education.Discipleship is the goal of Christian education.Therefore, their Christian educators' philosophy is based on the Bible.Their biblical life philosophy will impact on how they view and run the education.In other words, the Bible becomes the root of their educational philosophy.

Transformational Learning
to proclaim Christ and teach as well as pray.So, with full understanding, the teacher, as God's fellow workers, works to participate with God (1 Corinthians 3:5-9). 23nally, transformational learning is learning which brings transformation to a student's life.It transforms students to be more faithful as Jesus' disciples through learning.Transformation happens when both teacher and student let the Holy Spirit work within them.Transformational learning is aligned with the Christian education purpose which is discipleship.

Interactive teaching
One of the student-oriented teaching methods is interactive teaching.As in creation, human beings are created by God in all their full capacities of thought, creativity, and skill.The strategy of interactive teaching aims to promote critical and reflective thinking, skills, and evaluation of students as Imago Dei in acting positively 24 for themselves and others.In this case, students are expected to work actively, responsively, and collaboratively, as they are capable of doing so.
The educational process should become interactive and attractive for students according to their age characteristics, 25 abilities, and potential.In addition, students need to develop various interpersonal skills such as communication, negotiation, teamwork, leadership, and appreciation from various perspectives. 26As they live in the community, interpersonal skills are needed to bring the Shalom into our community, which is classroom or school.
Improving speaking skills is an interactive teaching strategy.Students' speaking skills will improve when they have active engagement in the in-class communication process.It is an effective practice for self-learning during the process.The students will
Available online: http://ejournal.uki.ac.id/index.php/shanJuniriangZendrato & Dorothy C. AgathaCopyright © 2023: Shanan, ISSN 2722-4678 (Online), 2549-8061 (Print) 232 curriculum gives a lot of opportunities for Christ believers, in this context is Christian educators, to sharpen God's gift inside them to be blessings for others.Thus, it is the uniqueness of the research compared to other studies.This research focuses on interactive teaching-learning as a response to the various challenges of implementing the Merdeka Belajar curriculum from a transformative Biblical Christian worldview.Based on the analysis of the Merdeka curriculum implementation, the purpose of this research is to provide solutions for Christian educators regarding the development of industrialization in the field of education so that classroom learning occurs in a transformative, meaningful, and interactive way for students.