From Local Stories to Historical Inquiry: Exploring Students' Engagement in Community-Based History Projects

Rahmat Hidayat Pranowo; Nur Syafiqah Binti Ismail; Dewi Lestari Kusumaningrum

doi:10.70716/jess.v3i1.741

Authors

Rahmat Hidayat Pranowo Program Studi Manajemen Pendidikan, Fakultas Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Nur Syafiqah Binti Ismail Department of Educational Management, Planning and Policy, Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
Dewi Lestari Kusumaningrum Department of Educational Management, Planning and Policy, Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.70716/jess.v3i1.741

Keywords:

community-based history projects, student engagement, historical inquiry, local history, Indonesian secondary schools

Abstract

History education in Indonesian secondary schools continues to grapple with persistent student disengagement, driven largely by textbook-centred instruction that strips historical content of its local relevance and personal meaning. This qualitative case study examines how community-based history projects (CBHPs) shape student engagement and the development of historical inquiry skills among Grade 11 students at SMAN 2 Yogyakarta. Thirty-two students participated in structured projects involving oral history interviews, archival visits, and community storytelling documentation over ten weeks. Data were collected through student project portfolios, reflective journals, classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis identified four dominant patterns of engagement: narrative curiosity, identity-linked motivation, investigative persistence, and collaborative meaning-making. Students demonstrated measurable growth across three dimensions of historical inquiry: source analysis, perspective-taking, and historical argumentation. The findings establish that grounding historical inquiry in local stories creates conditions for substantive student engagement that is difficult to achieve through conventional history instruction. The study contributes an empirically grounded framework for integrating community-based projects into the Indonesian secondary history curriculum within the Kurikulum Merdeka policy context.

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