<![CDATA[This study aims to describe politeness strategies in students' refusal speech acts toward teachers at SMA Negeri 2 Wates through a sociopragmatic approach. The urgency of this study is based on the pronounced asymmetry in power relations between teachers and students in the school environment, which has the potential to trigger interpersonal conflicts when refusals occur. The approach used in this study is descriptive qualitative with a data corpus consisting of 25 authentic refusal utterances from students, obtained through note-taking techniques based on spontaneous observations in various school environments. Data were analyzed textually and contextually using Al-Sallal's classification of refusal strategies and Brown and Levinson's politeness theory. The results show that indirect refusal strategies heavily dominate students' communication with teachers, accounting for 96% or 24 utterances. These strategies are realized through providing reasons, self-deprecation, the use of adjuncts, and other forms of pragmatic mitigation. This study reveals a unique finding in the use of Javanese local linguistic markers such as pripun nggih, nyuwun sewu, and mboten usah, which function as crucial pragmatic mitigators to soften refusals. The novelty of this study confirms that pragmatic mitigation strategies influenced by Javanese cultural values, namely ewuh pakewuh, andhap asor, and ngajeni, are used by students to reduce face-threatening acts, maintain interpersonal harmony, and preserve respect toward teachers in everyday educational communication.]]>
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