Redefining Professional Identity: Teachers’ Experiences with the Merdeka Curriculum in Indonesia’s 3T Regions

Abstract

This study explores how elementary school teachers in Indonesia’s 3T (frontier, remote, and disadvantaged) regions experience the implementation of the Merdeka Curriculum. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach conducted over a six-month period (January–June 2024), the research centers on the subjective meanings teachers assign to curriculum change under conditions of structural disadvantage. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with twelve teachers and analyzed to uncover the emotional, professional, and contextual dimensions of their responses to educational reform. Findings highlight four thematic experiences: enduring infrastructural limitations, evolving professional identities, employing context-driven pedagogical adaptations, and sustaining moral and emotional commitment to students. These experiences reveal a layered process of reform implementation that extends beyond technical compliance, involving personal transformation and situated agency. Teachers navigate reform not as passive recipients, but as reflective practitioners who reshape their roles through resilience and innovation. The study contributes to curriculum research by emphasizing the lived realities and sense-making practices of educators in marginalized settings—areas often overlooked in mainstream policy narratives. Insights from this study underscore the importance of designing policies that are context-sensitive and attuned to the human aspects of teaching. By foregrounding the interpretative work teachers undertake, this research advances a more inclusive and empathetic understanding of educational transformation in under-resourced contexts.