KOMUNIKASI PENGAMBILAN KEPUTUSAN ORANG TUA DALAM PENDIDIKAN FORMAL PADA ANAK-ANAK SEDULUR SIKEP DI KAMPUNG SAMIN DUKUH KARANGPACE DESA KLOPODUWUR KABUPATEN BLORA

Abstract

This study examines family communication patterns in the decision-making process regarding formal education for children in the Sedulur Sikep community in Kampung Samin, Dukuh Karangpace, Klopoduwur Village, Blora Regency. The research was conducted in response to the shifting attitudes of some Sedulur Sikep families toward formal education, from initial resistance to gradual acceptance in line with social change. The study aims to describe and analyze the meaning of formal education, family communication patterns, the negotiation and deliberation process, and the influence of Sedulur Sikep cultural values on educational decisions. This research employed a qualitative approach with an ethnographic case study design. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, documentation, and field notes from four family informants. The data were analyzed inductively through coding, source triangulation, technique triangulation, and ethnographic interpretation. The findings show that formal education is understood differently by Sedulur Sikep families, namely as a “key,” a “bridge,” an “obligation,” and a “label,” depending on the parents’ life experiences and social positions. Family communication patterns were also not uniform; they tended to reflect protective, pluralistic, compelled laissez-faire, and pluralistic in rhetoric but protective in practice. The decision-making process was marked by negotiations that were not always equal, but rather took the form of submission, firm assertion, postponement, or final rejection. Sedulur Sikep values such as hard work, simplicity, honesty, and ora gumantung marang wong liya functioned both as sources of legitimacy and as constraints in family communication. The study concludes that decisions about children’s formal education in Sedulur Sikep families are the result of a complex negotiation between cultural values, historical experiences, economic conditions, and power dynamics within the family.