Teaching at the Margins: Navigating Curriculum Reform in Indonesia’s Remote Primary Schools

Abstract

Curriculum reform research increasingly emphasizes the importance of understanding how teachers experience and respond to educational change, particularly in underserved regions. In Indonesia, the implementation of the Merdeka Curriculum has presented new challenges and expectations for teachers in 3T (frontier, remote, and disadvantaged) areas. However, little is known about how these teachers make sense of their experiences under such conditions, raising the question: How do educators in 3T regions interpret and adapt to the demands of curriculum reform? This study applies an interpretative phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of elementary school teachers implementing the Merdeka Curriculum in 3T settings. Data were collected over a four-month period through semi-structured interviews with twelve teachers Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with twelve teachers and analyzed thematically to identify patterns of meaning. The findings revealed four key themes: infrastructural constraints, professional identity transformation, localized pedagogical adaptations, and emotional commitment. These themes illustrate how teachers construct meaning amid systemic limitations and contribute to a deeper understanding of professional agency in marginalized contexts. The study enhances our comprehension of how educational reform is experienced on the ground and suggests the value of context-sensitive, human-centered policy design.