ENHANCING TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM THROUGH LITERACY WEBINARS: INSIGHTS FROM INDONESIAN EDUCATORS

Abstract

Literacy is a pivotal aspect of an Emancipated Curriculum (Kurikulum Merdeka) (Adisti et al., 2022; Ayu Rizki Septiana & Moh. Hanafi, 2022). However, Indonesia’s PISA score in 2022 (Yusmar & Fadilah, 2023) poses challenges to national education goals and the success of this curriculum. This research aims to investigate how educators think about the importance of literacy activities, especially literacy webinars, in supporting teachers' abilities and increasing their professionalism and professional development. Data was obtained through a survey conducted on 349 webinar participants which included lecturers, teachers and professional teacher education students from various subject backgrounds and containing three statement components to reveal participant responses regarding the literacy webinar itself, the literacy content, and the delivery of literacy content by keynote speakers in the webinar. The participants are also asked to provide written suggestions regarding the implementation of literacy webinars in the future. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to analyze the questionnaire data. The findings indicate that participants highly value the webinar from its content, presentation and the hope for its implementation. In addition, webinars can function as a platform to realize various literacy activities through an online format that can be accessed by participants more widely, for example for participants who are in geographical conditions such as Indonesia. However, based on these results, there are also challenges that arise in the planning and socialization of activities that must be examined further to better anticipate them in the future by disseminating and increasing awareness of technological literacy for all related parties. This recommends future exploration by digging deeper into how to implement dissemination and increasing technological literacy and testing the impact of this webinar activity on motivation and best practices in teaching each subject