Indonesian Pesantren: Creating ‘Good’ Citizens for Indonesia’s Multicultural Society

Abstract

As an emerging democratic country, Indonesia faces notable challenges in building harmony and peace in its multicultural society. Many scholars have argued that educational institutions including pesantren can play a crucial role in addressing those challenges. More specifically pesantren citizenship education has the potential to create citizens who can address the potential challenges of multicultural societies. The primary aim of this study was to investigate conceptions of citizenship education; curriculum design for citizenship education; and the delivery of that curriculum in three types of Indonesian pesantren. While multiple case study and phenomenography were used as research design, Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological Systems Theory was employed as theoretical framework. This study found that the conceptions of citizenship education were similar across pesantren. Distinct curriculum design for citizenship education was found in each pesantren, reflecting differences in attributes within the referential and structural aspects of the citizenship education conceptions across pesantren. However, each pesantren had a similar combination of formal, informal and hidden curricula. This model of curriculum was integrated into the pesantren’s environmental factors. Similar pedagogy was found in the delivery of the formal curriculum. Regarding the delivery of informal and hidden curriculum, the unique system of pesantren facilitated a more intricate curriculum implementation than is possible for other models of school. One implication of this study is that religious citizenship education could be considered an alternative for Indonesia in addressing the challenges of a multicultural society. Also, educational institutions aiming to employ a comprehensive approach to their citizenship education might consider an ecological model of pesantren-based citizenship education as a reference.