On being a religiously tolerant Muslim: discursive contestations among pre-service teachers in contemporary Indonesia

ABSTRACT

This study examines the constitution of religiously tolerant subjectivity among Indonesian Muslim pre-service teachers. Complementing existing studies in religious tolerance education which were mainly survey-based and experimental, this qualitative research employed a discourse analysis methodology which connects individual-level analysis with the larger socio-religio-political situations in contemporary Indonesia. Specifically, this study aims to explore discourses drawn upon by young Muslim pre-service teachers to understand religious tolerance in the context of contemporary Indonesia, a Muslim-majority Southeast Asian country struggling to navigate its history of moderate Islam and a recent surge of conservatism. The findings exhibited three key discourses through which participants’ religiously tolerant subjectivity was constituted, namely, a discourse of spiritual Islam, a discourse of postmodern sensibilities, and a discourse of concern over the growing conservative, Islamist, and radical groups. The implications were discussed in relation to how religious tolerance education can be advanced by drawing upon these key discourses.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious tolerance
• pre-service teachers
• Islam
• Indonesia

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. Hadists are sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. In Islam, Hadists are considered to be the second primary source of Islamic jurisprudence, after the Quran.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Indonesia Democracy Hallmark Research Initiative, The University of Melbourne

Notes on contributors

Teguh Wijaya Mulya

Teguh Wijaya Mulya is a lecturer in the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Surabaya, Indonesia. He specialises in critical research in the areas of sexuality, gender, religion, youth, and education. His work is inspired by the work of Michel Foucault, post-structuralist feminism, and discourse theories.

Anindito Aditomo

Anindito Aditomo is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Surabaya, Indonesia. He holds a bachelor degree from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia, and master and doctoral degrees from the University of Sydney, Australia. With a background in both psychology and education, he is particularly interested in how the sciences of learning can inform instruction and broader educational processes. Anindito was a guest researcher at the DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Germany. His research at DIPF was funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and focused on the analysis of international large-scale assessments of learning data.

Anne Suryani

Anne Suryani is a Research Fellow at Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne. She has completed a range of government-funded, consultancy and grant-based educational research, including on teacher motivation, teacher education, teacher professional development, and educational policy.