Beyond Tolerance: Mapping Multicultural Competence Across School Types in Indonesian Pancasila Education

Abstract

Pancasila Education is a civic education subject in Indonesia. It has the challenge of developing students’ multicultural competence beyond tolerance to critical awareness and democratic participation. This study maps students' multicultural competence across four dimensions and explores teachers' pedagogical readiness to integrate local knowledge into Pancasila Education learning. The research was conducted using a mixed-methods approach with an exploratory-descriptive design, involving 250 students and 32 Pancasila Education teachers who are members of the subject teacher association at six senior high schools and Islamic secondary schools in Surakarta and Yogyakarta. Data were collected through a student questionnaire based on the MAKSS framework (Cronbach’s α = 0.896–0.900), a teacher questionnaire, focus group discussion, classroom observations, and document analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data, and thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. Results revealed that 64.0% of the students were in the moderate competence category. Tolerance and cross-cultural cooperation (M = 3.82) seemed to be more intense than critical awareness of discrimination and participatory democratic practices (M = 3.21). Overall, general senior high schools had a significantly higher average than Islamic secondary schools, with about 6.7 points, with the highest difference in the skills dimension. While 82% of teachers agreed with the importance of integrating local knowledge, 67% had not developed systematic teaching materials, and 71% continued to rely mainly on lectures and whole-class discussion. The results of this study indicate that improving Pancasila Education requires a shift from normative, tolerance-oriented teaching to reflective, dialogical, and culturally rooted learning, supported by systematic pedagogical materials and targeted professional development.