Hengki Anggra Hermawan, Yanty Wirza

Exploring EFL Teachers’ Knowledge on the Utilization of Platform Merdeka Mengajar (PMM): Challenges, Possibilities and Practices

Introduction

Exploring efl teachers’ knowledge on the utilization of platform merdeka mengajar (pmm): challenges, possibilities and practices. Explore Pangandaran EFL teachers' knowledge of Platform Merdeka Mengajar (PMM) for the Emancipated Curriculum. Discover their challenges, possibilities, and practices in utilization.

Abstract

In supporting the implementation of The Emancipated Curriculum, Merdeka Mengajar is the main tool that the government use to spread information and help the implementation of The Emancipated Curriculum. In The Pangandaran district, the Emancipated Curriculum has been 100% implemented in formal education. In implementing The Emancipated Curriculum, there are many challenges that teachers face; they need a comprehensive understanding of the Emancipated Curriculum to implement the curriculum. This study aims to give an overview of how the utilization of PMM to support Pangandaran EFL teachers’ knowledge in implementing Emancipated Curriculum and the challenges, possibilities, and Practices in the utilization of PMM are based on EFL Pangandaran Teachers’ perspective. This study used qualitative methods with using documentation, questionnaires, and interviews to collect the data. Documentations were made by extracting data from the West Java Province BBMP website. The questionnaire involved 50 EFL teachers in The Pangandaran district. Interviews were conducted with two EFL teachers in The Pangandaran district. The result shows that the use of Platform Merdeka Mengajar (PMM) in The Pangandaran district has a score of 41.1% good, 50% quite good, and 8.9% need to be improved. 100% of the samples have installed the PMM application on their devices and have started studying the material and features of the application. Most EFL Teachers still face challenges in the utilization of PMM and the implementation of The Emancipated Curriculum itself.

Review

This study addresses a highly pertinent topic within the Indonesian educational landscape: EFL teachers' knowledge and utilization of Platform Merdeka Mengajar (PMM) in supporting the Emancipated Curriculum. Given the government's strong push for this curriculum reform and PMM as its primary dissemination tool, investigating the experiences of teachers in a specific region like Pangandaran is timely and valuable. The research aims to explore the challenges, possibilities, and actual practices related to PMM utilization from the perspective of EFL teachers, providing crucial insights into the implementation of a major national educational initiative. The abstract effectively highlights the study's contribution by providing an overview of PMM uptake and perceived effectiveness among EFL teachers in Pangandaran. The finding that a high percentage of teachers have installed and started using PMM (100% installed, 91.1% rating it good/quite good) indicates significant initial engagement. The inclusion of multi-modal data collection—documentation, questionnaires (50 teachers), and interviews (2 teachers)—is commendable, suggesting a robust approach to capturing various facets of the phenomenon. This preliminary data offers a crucial snapshot of how teachers are navigating this significant curriculum change through the PMM platform, despite still facing challenges. While the abstract presents promising initial findings, several areas warrant deeper exploration in the full paper. The blend of qualitative methodology with quantitative-like scores (e.g., 41.1% good) needs further clarification on how these percentages were derived and integrated with the qualitative data, especially since the primary methodology is stated as qualitative. The disparity between the questionnaire sample (50 teachers) and the interview sample (2 teachers) also raises questions about the depth and generalizability of the qualitative insights, particularly regarding the specific "challenges, possibilities, and practices" mentioned in the title. Future discussions should elaborate more concretely on *what* these challenges are, *which* possibilities teachers foresee, and *how* their practices have evolved, providing actionable insights for curriculum developers and teacher trainers.

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