From Dissertation to Chapter: On Empathy, Burnout, and Meaningful Academic Supervision

From Dissertation to Chapter: On Empathy, Burnout, and Meaningful Academic Supervision

By:  Syifa Mufiedatussalam

I never expected that writing an academic book chapter would teach me something so personal. But looking back now, I think that is exactly what happened.

The chapter is titled “The Well-Being of Early Childhood Teachers in Indonesia: Promoting Empathy to Mitigate Burnout,” published in Springer’s Handbook of Teacher’s Voice in Global South. It began, like most academic work, with questions: how are early childhood teachers in Indonesia actually doing, and does empathy play a role in protecting them from burnout? These questions shaped the structure of the writing, the first calling for a clear picture of teachers’ realities, the second asking us to look at how empathy, burnout, and well-being relate to one another. Both required careful thinking. But the process of getting there required something else entirely.

It required someone like Assoc. Prof. Charyna Ayu Rizkyanti.

Working with her has been, and continues to be, one of the great privileges of my doctoral journey. She brought clarity when I was tangled in my own thinking, and steadiness when the process felt overwhelming. She consistently offered a genuine care for me. She asked how I was. She creates space for being heard. She can be a mom, supervisor, and also a friend. She is a mom who sense when my tiredness before I said so. She offered warmth without me having to ask for it. But she can be a strict supervisor, who pay attention to the details. She pushed me to be more precise, to think more critically. When she became a friend, she can be a safe place where I could say anything. And I know that these are not something every doctoral student gets to experience. I do not take it for granted.

What strikes me now is how much this mirrors what the chapter is arguing. The study found that burnout among early childhood teachers is real and significant. The emotional exhaustion, the feeling of becoming distant from the work, and the loss of personal accomplishment can quietly accumulate over time. Surprisingly, it also found that empathy acts as a buffer. When people feel genuinely understood, they are seen as whole human beings. Then, something protective happens. Their well-being holds.

I lived this while writing about it. The PhD is a long journey, and it is not always easy. There are stretches where the reading feels endless, where the writing refuses to come. I went through all of that. But I did not experience burnout. And this all because I am accompanied by Mom Charyna, who made practice empathy every day in life.

Alhamdulillah. I mean that with my whole heart.

The chapter also challenged us methodologically. The mediation model we constructed supported that empathy does not merely coexist with well-being. Empathy actively carries some of the weight that burnout would otherwise place on a teacher’s shoulders. Arriving at that argument cleanly took many conversations and many revisions that finally end up with publication.

For the early childhood teachers this chapter is about, I hope this work revealed the real conditions. I hope it reaches people who have the power to make their conditions better. And for other PhD students who may be reading this: the quality of the relationship you have with your supervisor matters. It shapes not just the research, but you. If you are fortunate enough to have someone who sees you as a person first, hold onto that. It is rarer than it should be.

Assoc. Prof. Charyna Ayu Rizkyanti — thank you for being all of it. The supervisor, the mother figure, the friend. Thank you for the late nights and the honest feedback and the space to be myself. This chapter has your fingerprints all over it, in the best possible way.

by Bambang Sumintono

More Than Just 'Gibah Sedep': Our Learning Journey to Publishing a Paper in Ecopsychology Journal

More Than Just 'Gibah Sedep': Our Learning Journey to Publishing a Paper in Ecopsychology Journal

By: Muhamad Maulana, Alya Chairunnisa, & Lakhaula Sahrotul Aulia

Who says research has to be stiff and boring? For the three of us, our biggest academic breakthrough actually started from a casual discussion group we nicknamed "Gibah Sedep" (Savory Gossip). While "gibah" is usually associated with idle chatter, we turned it into a productive "academic gibah" session. Little did we know that those savory discussions would eventually lead us to a publication in one of the leading top SAGE journals, Ecopsychology. You can read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.1177/19429347261449426

The "No" That Led to a Global "Yes" (Alya’s Perspective)

Publishing this research is a milestone we cherish, but it wasn't an instant success. What is now an international publication originally started as a humble vision for a campus research grant. We had high hopes, but when we weren't on the list, we had a choice: let the idea fade or believe it still had value.

We chose the latter. We realized that a setback isn’t a dead end, it’s just a redirection. That initial "No" was a blessing in disguise; it forced us to think bigger and work harder. It led us to seek a worldwide platform and, more importantly, it brought the three of us together. To anyone who has ever felt discouraged by a closed door: I hope you hold onto your vision. Sometimes, the "other way" is the one that leads to the most beautiful destination.

The "Juggling" Time of my UIII Life (Maulana’s Perspective) 

I remember the hectic days of juggling my Master’s thesis while simultaneously collecting data for this study. Since I was already exploring Spiritual Intelligence (SI), the ultimate intelligence that allows us to solve problems of meaning and value, for my master thesis. I wondered: Could this "individual inner compass" be the key to solving our global ecological crisis?

We "gassss" (went all out). I remember waiting at KRL stations, visiting a campus in Tangerang and Jakarta, and revisiting them to thank the lecturer who helped us reach nearly half of our research sample. When we presented at the REACT International Conference 2025 organized by PPIM UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, we were outliers with our quantitative models in a sea of qualitative studies. But that leap of faith was necessary. The "Saturday-Sunday office hours" we spent revising were tough, but seeing the "Accepted" email made the mile traveled and every hour spent on it feel completely worth it. In the end, this experience was the ultimate test of my own "internal compass." It showed me that when we are driven by genuine curiosity and a supportive community, we can navigate the most hectic seasons of our lives and turn academic challenges into meaningful contributions.

Theory Meets Practice: The Learning Curve (Ula’s Perspective)

I was pleasantly surprised when Maulana and Alya asked me to lead the quantitative analysis. It was a leap into the unknown; I had only learned the basics of the Rasch Model in class and had never touched SEM-PLS.

This project was my first chance to put theory into actual practice. I learned that analysis is far more than just running software, it’s about understanding the meaning behind each result. Interestingly, the feedback from international reviewers was remarkably similar to the feedback our UIII lecturers gave us in class. It made me realize that the academic standards at FoE UIII truly reflect international expectations. Stepping into unfamiliar territory when we didn’t feel fully prepared was the best learning decision we’ve ever made. I believe this was also supported by the "sat-set"—highly responsive and fast-paced collaboration—that naturally developed among the three of us throughout the writing and revision process. 

Strength in Connection (Our Collective Reflection)

What started as a campus proposal grew into a deeper collaboration where our interests "cross-pollinated." SI became a core part of Alya’s thesis, while Ula’s work on climate change added a vital layer to our environmental framework. 

Beyond the data, this was about the people. We shared random Google Meets on sunny weekends, constant mutual encouragement, and the shared stress of three rounds of revisions. As Maulana often says, "berproses itu perjalanan, satu-satu" (the process is a journey, one step at a time).

We are immensely grateful to the Faculty of Education at UIII for providing a world-class ecosystem that fosters such growth. This achievement doesn't just belong to us; it belongs to the community that supported us.

by Bambang Sumintono

Revisiting Teacher Training in Indonesia: A Personal Reflection on My Scholarly Contribution

Revisiting Teacher Training in Indonesia: A Personal Reflection on My Scholarly Contribution

by Arfiyan Ridwan

In July 2024, I received an invitation from my lecturers, Dr. Bambang and Dr. Lukman,  to co-author a book chapter in the Springer publication Handbook of Teachers' Voices in the Global South. The chapter, titled Navigating the Challenges: The Complex Landscape of Teacher In-Service Training in Indonesia (officially published on April 2026) marked an important moment in my academic journey, as it allowed me to engage in international scholarly writing on the historical development of teacher in-service training in Indonesia. The invitation aligned closely with my research area, which focuses on teacher education and professional development in the Indonesian context. At the time, I was starting to work on my dissertation whose literature review covers how Indonesian in-service teachers have been trained across the historical periods of the country.

My literature review for my dissertation explores the evolution of in-service teacher education in Indonesia, covering the periods of the Dutch colonialization and the Japanese occupation to the early independence, the Old Order, the New Order, and the reform period to nowadays. This literature review writing provides me a strong foundation in writing the chapter. The part in which I contributed to write is in the historical development of teacher in-service training in Indonesia in the period of the New Order with centralization of education before it shifted to decentralization in the next phase of governance in reform period. I see that this period became a significant phase of teacher training in Indonesia as the current programs of in-service teacher training was significantly initiated in this period.

The significant insight I have gained from assessing teacher training development in the particularly the New Order era to the present day is that there has been a long journey of how teachers have been trained with different schemes and needs. After the large-scale training programs for primary and secondary school teachers in 1975 to 1980, the key trainings during the period of the New Order comprise Pemantapan Kerja Guru (PKG) or Strengthening the Work of Teachers, the Sanggar Pemantapan Kerja Guru (SPKG), or Centers for Strengthening Teacher Work, Kelompok Kerja Guru (KKG), or Primary School Working Group KKG, and Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran (MGMP), or Subject Teacher Working Group for secondary school teachers. At this time of year, I see that there has been a great foundation of how teachers are prepared in the level of primary and secondary level of education. The developed programs in the reform era to the present day can be said to be the results of those in the massive teacher development in the New Order period.

However, through examining their historical development, I realize that many recurring issues, including limited coordination, uneven implementation, and questions of effectiveness, have persisted across different programs and periods. This realization suggests that the core challenges are not simply the result of individual program design, but are rooted in broader structural conditions, such as bureaucratic complexity, resource distribution, and the vast geographical context of Indonesia. Despite claims that the in-service teacher trainings in the New Order succeeded to train teachers with significant numbers, the actual implementations might not be satisfying enough.  What lesson I take away is that the goal of improving teacher professional development is not merely introducing a new program to replace the old ones. Instead, it requires systemic changes how training is designed based on the needs, carefully planned, and sustained to the next periods.

Another important insight from the book chapter writing is that the extent of the modern teacher professional education program called PPG (Pendidikan profesi Guru) be understood as a part of historical trajectory from the Old Order period, rather than a new program or initiative. Currently, I am researching PPG for my doctoral dissertation research, and this is very relevant to what I analyzed in the book chapter. On this standpoint, I can critically reconsider how far the program of PPG represents genuine reform and resolves the past challenges of teacher in-service training. Specifically, I am researching to what extent the current PPG can accommodate the proper training for English language teachers assigned to teach in elementary schools in which previously, English teachers did not have a tenure teaching position in elementary school. After the issuance of new policy that in 2027 English subject becomes a mandatory subject in elementary school, PPG has been provided to train in-service English teachers in elementary school. Historical perspective is needed to understand PPG for this context, and I am glad to analyze the historical evolution of PPG from the New Order to the present day. While PPG is often positioned as a comprehensive effort to enhance teacher professionalism, the chapter may also reflect a reconfiguration of earlier training models, carrying forward both their strengths and unresolved limitations.

Finally, I would say that this experience to write in the book chapter has reinforced my belief that improving teacher professional development in Indonesia requires not only new program initiatives, but also a deeper engagement with the historical and continuous improvement to create sustainable and context specific needs of the trained teachers.

by Bambang Sumintono