Economics Learning Conditions in Junior High Schools: A Descriptive Qualitative Study as a Foundation for Developing a Student Engagement Project-Based Learning Model

Economics learning at the junior high school level plays a strategic role in building students' economic literacy, yet national and international assessment data indicate a declining trend in the literacy and engagement of Indonesian students. This study aims to describe the actual conditions of economics learning in junior high schools in Jakarta, covering teachers' instructional backgrounds, the characteristics of circulating teaching modules, and student engagement patterns, as an empirical foundation for model development. A descriptive qualitative design was applied. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with social studies teachers and students, classroom observation, and document analysis of circulating economics teaching modules, then analysed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldana with source and technique triangulation. The findings show that most social studies teachers do not hold an economics education background, that most modules neither scaffold mastery experience gradually nor address the physiological-emotional dimension of learning, and that behavioural, emotional, cognitive, and agentic engagement indicators appear only sporadically. These conditions provide the rational basis for six characteristics of the Student Engagement Project-Based Learning model, namely contextual economic problems, project activity, collaboration, student autonomy, graduated scaffolding, and structured reflection.