Challenging Students Moral Laziness: Authentic Education Based on Existentialist Philosophy

Herianti Herianti 1 Indonesia , Samsuddin Samsuddin 2 Indonesia , Rudhi Rudhi 2 Indonesia
1 Universitas Islam As'adiyah Sengkang
2 Universitas Islam As’adiyah Sengkang
Link Copied!
Published 2025-09-27
Vol. 4 No. 4 (2025) PAGES 1766-1777
DOI 10.51574/ijrer.v4i4.4079
Views / Downloads 408 466

Modern educational environments often face students' moral laziness, manifested as ethical passivity, reluctance to make difficult moral decisions, and a tendency to simply imitate norms without internalizing authentic values. Overly normative character education fails to foster a sense of personal responsibility and moral authenticity. Therefore, this study aims to reformulate the concept of authentic education based on the principles of existentialist philosophy (Sartre, Kierkegaard, and Camus) to challenge moral laziness and encourage students to become active and responsible moral agents. The method used is a qualitative philosophical study with interpretive content analysis. Core concepts of existentialism, such as freedom, responsibility, authenticity, and existential anxiety, are transformed into an applicable pedagogical framework. The findings indicate that the resulting Authentic Education emphasizes a pedagogy of awareness, in which students are encouraged to recognize their radical freedom of choice and the consequences of absolute responsibility for those choices. The learning process must create boundary situations (such as real ethical dilemmas) that force students to confront anxiety and choose their own values rather than accept predetermined ones. This article makes a theoretical contribution by offering an existentialist alternative to rule-based moral education, as well as a practical contribution in the form of a basis for designing a curriculum that focuses on developing moral authenticity and personal commitment, preparing students to act ethically in the real world.

Herianti, H., Samsuddin, S., & Rudhi, R. (2025). Challenging Students Moral Laziness: Authentic Education Based on Existentialist Philosophy. ETDC: Indonesian Journal of Research and Educational Review , 4(4), 1766–1777. https://doi.org/10.51574/ijrer.v4i4.4079
More Citation Formats
Download Citation

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
  1. Aho, K. (2014). Existentialism: an introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
  2. Bialystok, L. (2017). Authenticity in education. In Oxford research encyclopedia of education.
  3. Chukwuokolo, J. C., & Jeko, V. O. (2020). Existentialism, Man and Society: A Philosophical Appraisal. Oracle of Wisdom Journal of Philosophy and Public Affairs (OWIJOPPA), 4(4). https://www.acjol.org/index.php/owijoppa/article/view/856
  4. Dewey, J. (2023). Moral principles in education. BoD-Books on Demand.
  5. Eckhoff, A., & Goodman-Scott, E. (2023). School counselors’ perceptions and understandings of lockdown drills: Navigating the paradox of safety and fear. Educational Policy, 37(2), 523-553. https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048211032667
  6. Fernández Espinosa, V., & Domingo, V. (2025). The virtue and values education centre. establishing a research and transference centre for virtue and character education in Spain. Cogent Education, 12(1), 2549790. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2025.2549790
  7. Fitrah, M., Umar, U., Jayanti, M. I., & Syafruddin, S. (2024). Penguatan pendidikan karakter di Indonesia: Landasan filosofis dan yuridis dalam membentuk generasi yang berkarakter. eL-Muhbib jurnal pemikiran dan penelitian pendidikan dasar, 8(2), 378-393. https://ejournal.iaimbima.ac.id/index.php/eL-Muhbib/article/view/4007
  8. Hart, P. (2022). Reinventing character education: the potential for participatory character education using MacIntyre’s ethics. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 54(4), 486-500. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2021.1998640
  9. Iniobong, D. U. (2018). Realist Philosophy of Education as a Repetition of Existentialist Theory of Education. ANGLISTICUM. Journal of the Association-Institute for English Language and American Studies, 7(8), 10-21. https://anglisticum.ielas.org/index.php/IJLLIS/article/view/1738
  10. Jenni, K. (2016). Empathy and moral laziness. Animal Studies Journal, 5(2). https://www.uowoajournals.org/asj/article/id/251/
  11. Leahy, R. (2009). Authentic Educating: Solutions for a World at Risk. University Press of America.
  12. Lessy, Z., Rantekata, N. A., Rohman, M., & Sada, H. J. (2024). Moral degradation in an educational milieu: Roles of guardian in fixing morality of students. Al-Ishlah: Jurnal Pendidikan, 16(1), 273-283. https://doi.org/10.35445/alishlah.v16i1.4418
  13. Lieb, S. (2020). An Existentialist Pedagogy of Humanization: Countering Existential Oppression of Teachers and Students in Neoliberal Educational Spaces. In The SAGE Handbook of Critical Pedagogies (pp. 783-796). SAGE Publications Ltd.
  14. Lippitt, J. (2004). The Routledge philosophy guidebook to Kierkegaard and fear and trembling. Routledge.
  15. Madsen, T. (2018). The conception of laziness and the characterisation of others as lazy. Human Arenas, 1(3), 288-304. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-018-0018-6
  16. Marquez, L. P., & Florendo, K. P. (2023). Exclusive Values, Religious, and Moral Education: An Appeal for Philosophical Pedagogy for the Sake of Inclusivity. In Cultivating Reasonableness in Education: Community of Philosophical Inquiry (pp. 355-373). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
  17. Mathes, E. W. (2021). An evolutionary perspective on Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. Current Psychology, 40(8), 3908-3921. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00348-0
  18. Mishra, P., Shastri, S. J., & Kasarla, S. (2023). Value education and national education policy 2020. AG Publishing House (AGPH Books).
  19. Momeni, K., Janjani, P., & Geravand, S. (2017). The effect of mindfulness training on intelligent female students’ social laziness in 2014-2015. Journal of Clinical Research in Paramedical Sciences, 6(1). https://brieflands.com/journals/jcrps/articles/81146
  20. Nanda, P., & Kumar, V. (2024). New generation technologies: development vs. ethical challenges. International Journal of Business Information Systems, 46(3), 411-434. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJBIS.2024.140437
  21. Nongxa, L. (2020). Intellectual laziness and academic dishonesty: A threat to academic freedom?. South African Journal of Science, 116(SPE), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2020/8585
  22. Prahasan, M. (2024). Exploring Unconventional Approaches to Morality: An Existentialist Framework. Social Science and Humanities Journal, 8(07), 10-18535. http://dx.doi.org/10.18535/sshj.v8i07.1028
  23. Prasetya, S. F., Yani, B. I., Nisa, L., & Devina, M. (2024). The erosion of ethical and moral values among elementary school students: The negative impact of globalization. Kultur Journal of Social Education, 1(1), 1-18. https://journal.cerdasnusantara.org/index.php/kultur/article/view/19
  24. Rafikov, I., Akhmetova, E., & Yapar, O. E. (2021). Prospects of morality-based education in the 21st Century. Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 11(1), 01-21. https://doi.org/10.32350/jitc.111.01
  25. Rumianowska, A. (2020). Existential perspectives on education. Educational philosophy and theory, 52(3), 261-269. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2019.1633915
  26. Sadat Mir Alavi, F., & Rajaee, M. (2024). The effect of education based on the existential approach on the development of moral judgment and academic achievement of students. Research in child and adolescent counseling, 1(3), 119-136. https://doi.org/10.22034/jrcac.2025.2040252.1017
  27. Sanderse, W. (2012). Character education: A neo-Aristotelian approach to the philosophy, psychology and education of virtue. Eburon Uitgeverij BV.
  28. Sartre, J. P. (2007). Existentialism is a Humanism. Yale University Press.
  29. Sartre, J. P. (2015). Being and nothingness. Central Works of Philosophy v4: Twentieth Century: Moore to Popper, 4, 155.
  30. Setyosari, P., & Kamdi, W. (2021). Exploration of Moral Integrity Education and Superior Cadre Leadership at Madrasah Boarding School Indonesia. International Journal of Instruction, 14(4), 753-774. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1319050
  31. Sherman, G. L. (2024). Existentialism and higher education: A renewed intersection in well-being. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 64(3), 504-522. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167820917231
  32. Skilling, P., Hurd, F., Lips-Wiersma, M., & McGhee, P. (2023). Navigating hope and despair in sustainability education: A reflexive roadmap for being with eco-anxiety in the classroom. Management Learning, 54(5), 655-679. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505076221098957
  33. Tao, T., Balakrishnan, V., & Binti Kamaruddin, A. Y. (2025). Research on moral reasoning applicable to the education of pre-service teachers: a systematic literature review. Cogent Education, 12(1), 2554324. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2025.2554324
  34. Verharen, C. C. (2020). The future of ethics and education: philosophy in a time of existential crises. Ethics and Education, 15(3), 371-389. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2020.1774718
  35. Walker, D. I., Roberts, M. P., & Kristjánsson, K. (2015). Towards a new era of character education in theory and in practice. Educational review, 67(1), 79-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2013.827631
  36. Weltman, D. (2020). On the Alleged Laziness of Moral Realists. The Journal of Value Inquiry, 54(3), 511-518. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-019-09723-3

Copyright (c) 2025 Herianti Herianti, Samsuddin Samsuddin, Rudhi Rudhi

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Similar Articles

<< < 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

Dimension Badge

Downloads

Downloads
Crossmark Badge
Crossmark Badge
Section
Articles
Keywords
Authentic Education Existentialist Philosophy Moral Laziness Moral Responsibility Student Authenticity