Abrahamic Religions: Jurnal Studi Agama-Agama
Vol. 6 No. 2 (2026)

Students’ Perceptions of Strategies for Teaching Christian Values in Catholic Religious Education at Public and Private Senior High Schools in Pontianak City

Lumban Tobing, Ona Sastri (Unknown)
Narang, Florentina (Unknown)
Retno Palupi Handayani, Exnasia (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
30 Sep 2026

Abstract

This study describes how students at public and private senior high schools in Pontianak City, Indonesia, perceive the Christian values taught in Catholic Religious Education (CRE) and the teaching strategies their CRE teachers use. It used a descriptive qualitative design with an open-ended online questionnaire yielding 53 submissions from 52 students at two public and two private Catholic schools between August and October 2025; after one student’s two submissions were merged and three generic responses were excluded, 49 students (7 public, 42 private) were analysed; a literature review supplied the conceptual framework but not the field findings. Responses were analysed thematically. Students described the values taught mainly as respect without discrimination, helping and sharing, gratitude, emotional self-control, and courteous speech. They identified four teaching strategies: teachers’ own conduct as a model (11 of 49 students), a safe and relaxed classroom with room for questions, shared habituation such as opening and closing prayer, group work, and collective donations, and fair but firm handling of discipline. Some students read values such as joy and generosity in terms of grades, free periods, or lighter workloads, indicating interpretations that differed from the study’s conceptual definitions of these values. The study captures students’ perceptions only; it did not observe classes, interview teachers, or analyse documents, does not test effectiveness, and, because of the small and uneven sample, does not compare school types. Its contribution is a student-centred description of value teaching at the senior high school level in a setting with little prior research, with a clear separation between field findings, literature-based concepts, and practical recommendations

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Journal Info

Abbrev

abrahamic

Publisher

Subject

Religion Arts Humanities Social Sciences

Description

Abrahamic Religions: Journal of Religious Studies is open access and peer review research journal published by the Study Program of Religions, UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh. Abrahamic Religions is a Journal of the Study Program of Religions and Religions as a forum for researchers, academics, ...