Panca Waluya as Narrative Pedagogy: A Hermeneutic Reconstruction of Character Education Values in the Pandawa-Kurawa Tradition of Wayang Bratayuda
Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia 
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Character Education, Cultural Hermeneutics, Culturally Responsive Education, Narrative Pedagogy, Panca Waluya
Abstract
Background. Contemporary character education faces growing challenges in addressing moral complexity, social fragmentation, and declining ethical awareness among young people. Approaches relying on value transmission offer limited space for reflective engagement with moral dilemmas, whereas cultural narratives offer a meaningful pedagogical space for cultivating moral imagination, ethical reasoning, empathy, and responsible action.
Purpose. This study aims to reconstruct Panca Waluya as a culturally grounded framework of narrative pedagogy through a hermeneutic interpretation of the Pandawa-Kurawa narrative in Bratayuda, examining its theoretical and pedagogical relevance for contemporary character education.
Method. Employing a qualitative approach within an interpretive paradigm, the study used cultural hermeneutics informed by Ricoeur and Gadamer, with Bratayuda by R. Ng. Kartapraja as primary source. Five focal narrative units containing moral conflicts and reflective judgment were purposively selected and analyzed through contextual reading, hermeneutic interpretation, Panca Waluya categorization, and theoretical synthesis, with credibility strengthened through reflexivity and peer debriefing.
Results. The analysis reconstructed five interconnected character dimensions Cageur (self-regulation), Bageur (empathy), Bener (integrity and justice), Pinter (ethical reasoning), and Singer (practical wisdom) that mutually reinforce one another rather than forming a fixed hierarchy, showing conceptual affinities with contemporary perspectives on moral functioning and narrative pedagogy.
Conclusion. The Pandawa-Kurawa narrative functions as narrative pedagogy in which moral dilemmas are interpreted reflectively rather than transmitted as prescriptions, offering a conceptual and hermeneutic foundation for culturally responsive character education.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Ade Sutisna, Bunyamin Maftuh, Yadi Ruyadi, Momod Abdul Somad
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