<![CDATA[This research is motivated by the persistent gap between the character values taught normatively in the curriculum and the actual practices experienced by students in their daily lives in elementary schools. Character education often remains declarative and has not fully addressed the experiential and subjective meaning dimensions of learners. Therefore, this study aims to gain an in-depth understanding of character education practices as well as the meanings constructed by teachers and students through their lived experiences. This research employs a qualitative approach with a phenomenological design focusing on the participants' lived experiences. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participatory observation, and documentation, then analyzed thematically to reveal the essence of the character education experience. The findings indicate that character education is perceived as lived experiences integrated into students' daily lives through habituation, teacher role modeling, and contextual school culture. The process of internalizing values occurs gradually through social interaction, emotional engagement, and reflection on experiences. The integration of values in learning and the use of local wisdom have been shown to strengthen the relevance and depth of value understanding. Nevertheless, the implementation of character education still faces challenges such as value inconsistency between school and the external environment, the dominance of cognitive orientation in the curriculum, and limited teacher pedagogical readiness. Thus, character education requires an integrative, contextual, and collaborative approach so that the internalization of values can take place holistically and sustainably.]]>
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