SERVANT LEADERSHIP LEARNING STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION FOR SPIRITUAL FORMATION OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AT THE ATHALIA SCHOOL

Didache: Jurnal Teologi dan Pendidikan Kristen Volume 6 Nomor 1 (December 2024): 37-56 DOI: 10.55076/didache.v6i1.217 SERVANT LEADERSHIP LEARNING STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION FOR SPIRITUAL FORMATION OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AT THE ATHALIA SCHOOL Victor Sumua Sanga,1 Khoe Yao Tung2* Sekolah Athalia, Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia1 Universitas Pelita Harapan, Tangerang, Indonesia 2 Email: Submitted: 9 April 2024 Revision: 28 July 2024 Accepted: 25 October 2024 Abstract Strong leadership is crucial for success in the 21st century. However, student leadership development has yet to be consistently implemented for all students. Servant leadership is considered the best model for high school students, but research on this model is limited in that context. Previous studies focused on servant leadership's contribution to spirituality but were confined to theological education. Further research is needed to provide servant leadership training in a broader student context. Athalia High School aims to develop servant leaders and requires sufficient data on the impact of servant leadership strategies on students' spiritual formation to realize the school's vision. This qualitative phenomenological study addresses these challenges. Eight students participating in the spiritual formation project within the servant leadership program at Athalia High School were interviewed using purposive sampling. The study reveals that servant leadership learning facilitates students' spiritual formation, with four common themes emerging: self-awareness, meaningful routines, life changes, and challenges in spiritual formation. These findings emphasize the importance of implementing servant leadership principles to foster students' spiritual growth and leadership abilities. Keywords: Servant leadership, spiritual formation, learning strategy. Abstrak Kepemimpinan kuat merupakan kebutuhan untuk berhasil di abad ke-21. Sayangnya, pengembangan kepemimpinan murid belum dilakukan reguler, untuk semua murid tanpa kecuali. Meski ahli meneguhkan bahwa model kepemimpinan terbaik untuk dikembangkan bagi para murid di sekolah menengah adalah servant leadership, namun penelitian model kepemimpinan ini juga masih sangat kurang di jenjang tersebut. Penelitian servant leadership yang berkontribusi bagi spiritualitas memang pernah dilakukan sebelumnya karena kesadaran akan saling pengaruh positif antara kepemimpinan dan spiritualitas, namun implementasinya masih terbatas pada pendidikan teologi. Penelitian selanjutnya membutuhkan pelatihan servant leadership untuk pendidikan menengah dalam konteks murid yang lebih luas. SMA Athalia membentuk muridnya secara reguler untuk mampu memimpin dengan cara dan prinsip servant leader. Namun SMA Athalia membutuhkan data yang cukup sejauh mana implementasi strategi pembelajaran servant leadership yang diterapkan dapat membangun formasi spiritual murid sehingga dapat mewujudkan visi sekolah. Penelitian kualitatif fenomenologi ini dirancang untuk berkontribusi bagi kendala-kendala di atas. Sumber data penelitian ditentukan dengan purposive sampling yang dihimpun melalui wawancara kepad a delapan murid SMA Athalia yang memilih formasi spiritual dalam proyek penerapan 37 karakter servant leadership. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan pembelajaran servant leadership memfasilitasi murid mengalami formasi spiritual. Ada empat tema umum yang dialami: kesadaran diri, rutinitas bermakna, perubahan hidup, dan tantangan formasi spiritual. Kata kunci: Servant leadership, formasi spiritual, strategi pembelajaran Didache: Jurnal Teologi dan Pendidikan Kristen by https://jurnal.moriah.ac.id/index.php/didache/ is licensed under a Lisensi Creative Commons Atribusi-BerbagiSerupa 4.0 Internasional INTRODUCTION Strong leadership is a necessity to succeed in the 21st century. Greenleaf has stated that educational institutions hold an important key to shaping a child's leadership in the future.1 Research shows that the formation of leadership from the middle school age influences the success of later stages of leadership in universities, even in adulthood. 2 Leadership development at school age is indeed very possible and has enormous opportunities because students spend much of their time at school.3 However, on the one hand, the development of student leadership in secondary schools has not been widely discussed in the leadership literature, and even if there are discussions, they predominantly focus on student leadership within student organizations, certain extracurricular participants, and students with outstanding talents, thus neglecting leadership development for regular students as a whole. 4 Research on leadership at school age still has gaps in the literature compared to discussions of leadership at adult age. 5 Servant leadership is the best leadership model to develop for high school students. Patel confirmed that servant leaders dedicate their life to the interests of many people rather than self-interest. Therefore, providing servant leadership training at the school age will cultivate 1 Robert K. Greenleaf, The Power of Servant-Leadership: Essays, ed. Larry C. Spears (Sydney, Australia: RHYW, 2014). 2 Melody Baham, “Identifying Leadership Potential in High School Students” (Doctor of Philosophy, Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, 2016. 3 Hanifi Parlar, Muhammet Emin Türkoğlu, and Ramazan Cansoy, “Leadership Development in Students: Teachers’ Opinions Regarding Activities That Can Be Performed at Schools,” Universal Journal of Educational Research 5, no. 2 (December 2017): 217–27. 4 Baham, “Identifying Leadership Potential in High School Students.” 5 Despoina Karagianni and Anthony Jude Montgomery, “Developing Leadership Skills among Adolescents and Young Adults: A Review of Leadership Programmes,” International Journal of Adolescence and Youth 23, no. 1 (January 2, 2018): 86–98. 38 generations of servant leaders in the future. 6 Previously, Chan & So also confirmed that servant leadership must be cultivated in secondary schools because it contributes greatly to community development and offers a framework for individuals to find meaning in life. Despite recognizing its importance and the development of servant leadership in high school, Chan & So realize that research on this leadership style is still lacking at that level. 7 Other studies have found that there is a very strong interplay between leadership and spirituality. On one hand, Cruz & Diaz state that leadership will have a greater impact if it is supported by the spirituality that is integrated into a leader's daily life.8 On the other hand, Nolan-Arañez & Ludvik propose including self-reflection as an activity in leadership development programs. Self-reflection will help students experience the expected spiritual formation.9 Leadership training that contributes to spirituality has been conducted by Du Plessis & Nkambule for theology students. They propose a research model that begins with an (...truncated)