Civic Education in Indonesia is expected to develop citizens who understand democratic institutions and embody responsibility, integrity, solidarity, and participation. In practice, however, character formation is often reduced to normative instruction, school slogans, and compliance with rules, leaving a gap between civic knowledge and students' everyday conduct. This study examines how Sundanese ethnopedagogy can provide a culturally grounded process for strengthening civic character among senior high school students, using culturally sustaining pedagogy as its principal theoretical lens. It reports a focused educational ethnography conducted at SMA Negeri 1 Sumedang and SMA Negeri 2 Cimalaka in West Java. The qualitative corpus comprised participant observations, semi-structured interviews with a regional education official, five school leaders, six Pancasila Education and Sundanese-language teachers, selected Grade X students, and three experts, together with school documents and student reflections. A pretest-posttest questionnaire completed by 384 students was used only as supporting evidence. Reflective thematic analysis identified a lived Sundanese moral ecology organized around silih asih (reciprocal care), silih asah (mutual learning), silih asuh (mutual guidance), and Pancawaluya: cageur, bageur, bener, pinter, and singer. These values were present in respectful speech, teacher modelling, collaborative work, cultural programmes, discipline, reflection, and school-community relations, but their pedagogical use remained fragmented. The study therefore formulates SABILULUNGAN as six connected movements: value recognition, value deepening, value enactment, collaborative civic practice, self-reflection, and continuous self- improvement. The model connects civic knowledge, moral judgement, civic skills, civic disposition, engagement, and responsibility. It positions local culture not as decorative curricular content but as a living pedagogical theory for contextual, participatory, and reflective Civic Education.
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