Design of Islamic Religious Education: Purposes, alignment of curriculum components and contexts

ABSTRACT

This paper presents evidence of the design of Islamic Religious Education (IRE) by evaluating the purpose, the interconnectedness of curricular components and its contextual levels through a conceptual framework for studying the design of IRE. Relying on document analyses, the findings indicate a gap between the intended and teachers’ designs of IRE. The threefold purpose of IRE, ta’leem, ta’deeb and tarbiyah, is rarely integrated into designing IRE outcomes. The ta’leem oriented outcomes are the most frequently included, the so-called ‘cognitification’ of IRE in this study. Furthermore, the components of intended IRE outcomes, formation activities that shape the threefold purpose, and assessment methods are often unaligned with one another, especially in designing IRE related to the domains of ta’deeb and tarbiyah. Finally, IRE is generally designed to help students contribute at the personal, local and national levels although its contribution to the global one is only expected from upper secondary school students. Based on these findings, this study calls for developing a taxonomy of IRE and rethinking the role of IRE in addressing multiple challenges at various levels.

KEYWORDS:

• Islamic Religious Education
• purpose of Islamic Religious Education
• constructive alignment
• contextual level

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Suhayib

Suhayib, received his doctoral degree in Sufism morality from the State Islamic University of Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau, Indonesia. At this university, he is an associate professor at the faculty of Shari’a and Law. He is interested in studying classical Islamic thought, and his research deals with the scholarship of Islamic thought by focusing particularly on ethics and Sufism.

M. F. Ansyari

Muhammad Fauzan Ansyari, holds a PhD degree in economics of education from the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics in the Netherlands. He currently serves as an associate professor of curriculum development and the director of Satya Institute for Sustainability at the State Islamic University of Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau, Indonesia. Additionally, he is an affiliated researcher at United Nations University-Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT), the Netherlands. In this position, he has worked on consultancy projects for International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). His research interests focus on the role of education in sustainability or sustainable development goals (SDGs), digitalisation and economic transformation, educational technology, teacher professional development, and teaching English to speakers of other languages.