Transforming indigenous solidarity values into character education: a four-level integration model from Dayak longhouse culture

Character education scholarship increasingly calls for culturally grounded approaches to virtue formation, yet few studies offer structured models for translating indigenous communal virtue practices into formal schooling. This study develops a four-level integration model derived from the solidarity virtues of the Dayak Huma Betang (longhouse) tradition in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Using an ethnographic case study design, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 33 participants across five stakeholder groups (traditional elders, older and younger-generation longhouse residents, teachers, students) and observation at a living longhouse community and three senior secondary schools. Thematic analysis identified five solidarity dimensions (handep, hapakat kula, hapahari, belom bahadat, and tolerance/equality). The resulting model comprises foundational (deep cultural understanding), institutional (multi-stakeholder collaboration and curricular integration), operational (experiential, collaborative, and narrative pedagogical methods), and evaluative (authentic character assessment) components. Grounded in neo-Aristotelian theory and the Jubilee Centre Framework’s ‘caught, taught, sought’ pathways, the model shows that Huma Betang’s communal life functions as a naturally occurring moral ecology in which Aristotelian habituation emerges organically. The study advances the internationalisation of character education by showing how indigenous communal traditions enrich neo-Aristotelian frameworks with evidence of sustained virtue habituation in non-Western contexts.