Pillars of transformative leadership in the regulation of teacher assignment as school principal: A case from Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12928/ijei.v7i1.14841Keywords:
educational transformation, Permendikdasmen No. 7/2025, school principal, transformative leadershipAbstract
The Government of Indonesia has replaced its Ministry of Education Regulation Number 40 of 2021 with the Regulation Number 7 of 2025, which is well known as the Permendikdasmen No. 7/2025. This fundamental policy reform concerning the assignment of teachers as school principals was introduced to address structural challenges and evolving demands within the national education system. The regulatory shift reflects an effort to strengthen leadership quality in response to increasingly complex local, national, and global educational contexts. Accordingly, this article aims to explore the pillars of transformational leadership embedded in the new regulation and to examine their relevance to the projected profile of future school principals in Indonesia. This study uses a literature review with a descriptive-analytical approach that integrates analyses of regulatory materials, leadership literature, and relevant policy documents. The results of this study indicate that replacing regulations governing the assignment of teachers as school principals has led to fundamental shifts from administrative to visionary, ethical, inclusive, and adaptive leadership. Permendikdasmen No. 7/2025, as a new regulation, emphasizes the importance of moral integrity, shared motivation, innovation, and personal attention in creating transformative school principals. This regulation aligns with the needs of future school principals, as it clearly emphasizes school leaders with strong character, the ability to adapt to change, and a commitment to educational transformation. Overall, this new regulation offers a progressive paradigm that could improve the quality of school leadership in Indonesia. However, the limitation of this study lies in its focus on the analysis and interpretation of the material, without including empirical data on its implementation. Therefore, further research is needed to comprehensively explore actual practices and their impact on school performance.
References
Asy’ari, M. N., & Inayati, N. L. (2023). Inovasi kepala sekolah dalam peningkatan kualitas pendidikan di SMA Muhammadiyah Pontren Imam Syuhodo. EDUKASIA Jurnal Pendidikan dan Pembelajaran, 4(2), 2019-2022. https://doi.org/10.62775/edukasia.v4i2.536
Budiarthi, I. K., Purwanto, A. J., & Affandi, M. N. (2025). Policy implementation appointment of principal from mover teachers in West Nusa Tenggara Province in 2024: Implementation of Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology Regulation Number 40 of 2021. Multidiciplinary Output Research for Actual and International Issue (MORFAI), 4(4), 1393–1408. https://doi.org/10.54443/morfai.v4i4.2212
Erawati, T. (2021). Teachers’ perception toward character education of early childhood education. Jurnal Konseling dan Pendidikan, 9(3), 279-283. https://doi.org/10.29210/165800
Fernandes, V., Wong, W., & Noonan, M. (2023). Developing adaptability and agility in leadership amidst the COVID-19 crisis: experiences of early-career school principals. International Journal of Educational Management, 37(2), 483-506. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-02-2022-0076
Harsoyo, R. (2022). Teori kepemimpinan transformasional Bernard M. Bass dan aplikasinya dalam peningkatan mutu Lembaga Pendidikan Islam. Southeast Asian Journal of Islamic Education Management, 3(2), 247-262. https://doi.org/10.21154/sajiem.v3i2.112
Jamali, A. (2025). Reformasi Kepemimpinan. Media Indonesia.
Kartono, K. (2018). Pemimpin dan Kepemimpinan: Apakah Kepemimpinan Abnormal itu? (22nd ed.). Rajagrafindo Persada.
Kasali, R. (2014). Self Driving: Menjadi Driver atau Passenger? (1st ed.). Mizan.
Kasali, R. (2015). Change Leadership non Finito. Mizan.
Kasali, R. (2018a). Self Disruption. Mizan.
Kasali, R. (2018b). The Great Shifting: Series on Disruption. Gramedia Pustaka Utama.
Kasali, R. (2021). Leading in Crises: Kepemimpinan pada Era Disrupsi dan Tantangan BPJS Kesehatan. Mizan.
Lee, S. W., & Mao, X. (2023). Recruitment and selection of principals: A systematic review. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 51(1), 6-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143220969694
Mardjun, F., Arham, M. A., Hafid, R., Moonti, U., & Sudirman, S. (2023). Pengaruh peran kepala sekolah terhadap peningkatan kualitas kinerja mengajar guru di SMK Negeri 1 Kota Gorontalo. Journal of Economic and Business Education, 1(2), 121–132. https://doi.org/10.37479/jebe.v1i2.19260
Maxwell, J. C. (2019). Leadershift. Mic Publishing.
Menon, M. E. (2025). Transformational school leadership and the COVID-19 pandemic: Perceptions of teachers in Cyprus. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 53(2), 339-356. https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432231166515
Muhadjir, N. (1990). Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif. Rake Sarasin.
Muhadjir, N. (2003). Metodologi Pelenitian Kebijakan dan Evaluation Research. Rake Sarasin.
Nupus, D. (2023). Teori Belajar Sosial Kognitif Albert Bandura dalam Pembelajaran Pendidikan Agama Islam. Geneologi PAI: Jurnal Pendidikan Agama Islam, 10(1), 107-115. https://doi.org/10.32678/geneologipai.v10i1.8415
Nursya, A. A., & Noor, M. M. (2025). Moral values education in early childhood. In Proceeding International Seminar of Islamic Studies (pp. 1215-1225).
Purnomo, S. (2010). Penelitian Kebijakan Pendidikan. Paper presented in Doctoral Program of Learning Technology. Universitas Negeri Malang.
Setiawan, F. (2018). Peran pendidikan Muhammadiyah dalam membangun dan merawat Pancasila. In F. Amar (Ed.), Darul Ahdi Wasy-Syahadah: Konteks, Makna, Aktualisasi untuk Indonesia Berkemajuan (1st ed.). Pimpinan Pusat Muhammadiyah.
Setiawan, F. (2020). Muhammadiyah Mencerdaskan Anak Bangsa (1st ed.). UAD Press.
Setiawan, F., & Tjahjono, H. K. (2016). Collective-collegial: Leadership model of Muhammadiyah education. In the 28th International Business Information Management Association Conference Proceedings (pp. 3595-3599).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Farid Setiawan, Mufti Khakim

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).


