Teachers’ Views on the Relevance of Local Wisdom Values in Strengthening Students’ Character Education

The digital era has had a dual impact on basic education, where technological advances are often accompanied by cultural erosion and moral degradation among students. The increase in bullying cases and the decline in manners indicate that conventional character education has not been able to effectively filter the negative influences of globalization. This study aims to explore the perception of urgency and pedagogical strategies of elementary school teachers in integrating local wisdom values into character-building learning. The research method used was descriptive qualitative, involving ten elementary school teachers as participants selected through purposive sampling. Data collection was carried out using an open questionnaire instrument and analyzed through data reduction and inductive theme extraction. The results showed that teachers viewed the integration of local wisdom as an urgent need to protect students' identities from the negative impact of unfiltered social media. Dominant values such as tepa selira, andhap asor, and the tradition of mutual cooperation were internalized through a hybrid strategy, namely combining administrative planning with spontaneous responses to classroom conflict dynamics. In addition, a transition in methods was found, from one-way lectures to experience-based learning that is more relevant to the characteristics of today's students. The conclusion of this study emphasizes that local wisdom is highly relevant as a guideline for the behavior of Generation Z students, but the effectiveness of its implementation in the field still faces structural challenges in the form of limited learning time and a lack of adequate academic references, thus requiring policy interventions that support the flexibility of a culture-based curriculum.