Discursive construction of character education in Indonesian school textbooks: a critical discourse analysis

Purpose This study examines how budi pekerti (character) values are discursively constructed in Indonesian secondary school textbooks through linguistic and visual representations. Grounded in critical discourse theory, critical perspectives on character education, social semiotics and Social Domain Theory, the study conceptualizes character education as a socially situated and ideologically mediated process rather than a neutral transmission of moral values. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a qualitative research design, the study employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional model, combined with multimodal analysis. Data were drawn from the Pendidikan Agama Islam dan Budi Pekerti Grade X textbook and complemented by semi-structured interviews with twelve university lecturers from teacher education programs. The analysis integrates textual, visual and contextual dimensions to examine how moral meanings are produced, legitimized and interpreted within educational discourse. Findings The findings reveal that moral values such as cooperation, humility, responsibility and religiosity are constructed through coordinated multimodal strategies in which textual narratives and visual imagery reinforce normative moral identities. Interpreted through social domain theory, the textbooks frequently blur distinctions between moral, social-conventional and personal domains, positioning culturally and religiously specific norms as universal moral obligations. From a critical character education perspective, these discourses privilege harmony, discipline and faith-based responsibility while marginalizing alternative moral perspectives. Originality/value This study contributes original insights by integrating CDA, social semiotics and social domain theory to advance critical understandings of character education in textbook research. Empirically, it provides a nuanced account of how Indonesian textbooks function as ideological and pedagogical instruments shaping students’ moral subjectivities and civic identities. Methodologically, it demonstrates the value of multimodal discourse analysis for uncovering the subtle mechanisms through which moral values are normalized and reproduced in formal education.