Growth after academic failure in Javanese students: An indigenous approach

Abstract

This study examined how Javanese students perceive academic failure in their life from an indigenous psychology perspective. The perspective intends to give a contextual understanding that is rarely found. This research uses qualitative method with an open-ended questionnaire to carry out a deep understanding of respondent's own experiences. The asked question was ‘What is the influence of academic failure in your life today?’ The participants of this study are 80 undergraduate Javanese students who are studying in Yogyakarta by the time of data collection.  The age range of the participants is 18-22 years old. Then, the obtained multiple responds data are analyzed using thematic content analysis. The categorized data is analyzed using cross-tabulations. The finding of this study shows that students reported academic failure as lesson-learned (41.4%), self-development (35.3%), negative emotion (7.07%), burdensome (6.06%), regretful (5.05%), and others which consisted of shy, material benefit, parents’ disappointment, got some friends (5.05%).