Muslim Education Review

Preface

2024-12-31T11:41:50+00:00

Alhamdulillah, the sixth edition of MER is published. As we did before, the sources of articles we received were from our annual conference participants, writing competition participants, our Scholars-in Residence fellows and our invited conference speakers. In the future, we hope that we can receive articles from broader sources, nationally and internationally, that was one of the feedback in order for our journal can be indexed by Scopus database.

Generation Z’s Attitudes and Expectations in the Workplace and Their Implications for Education Policy in Indonesia

2024-12-31T11:41:50+00:00

Generation Z (Gen Z) refers to those who were born between mid-1990s and mid-2010s or currently between 12 and 27 years’ old as per 2024. In many parts of the world, the number of Gen Z employees is growing as this generation has just entered the workforce after finishing college. There has been much research on Gen Z in their work environment, however research on Gen Z and its implications related to educational policy is very limited. Understanding Gen Z’s attitudes and expectations in the workforce helps leaders, educators and other stakeholders to develop curriculum or business plans tailored to their needs and characteristics. This research aims to investigate Gen Z’s attitudes and expectations in the workplace. Data were collected from a survey involving 138 Gen Z who are ready to enter the workforce and in their final year of their study from Indonesia, Thailand and Afghanistan, which is followed up by a focus group discussion. Findings from this study indicate that Gen Z can be described as critical, open-minded and financially literate. Their expectations in their future employment include having ‘smart-office’ technology while at the same time they express an interest in Corporate Social Responsibility. It is expected that the findings will help educators to reconceptualize curriculum and identify strategies in assisting this generation to further develop their potential while maintaining a positive work ethic and realistic expectations in their workplaces.

Exploring the Relationship between Safe Learning Environments and Literacy Skills in Majority Muslim Southeast Asian Nations: Insights from PISA 2022

2024-12-31T11:41:50+00:00

This research investigates the association of safe learning environments with literacy scores in three Southeast Asian countries with Muslim-majority populations: Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia. The study will use data from PISA 2022 to identify factors that promote inclusive learning environments and are related to students’ literacy. The research is grounded in theoretical frameworks, such as Social Cognitive Theory, Ecological Systems Theory, and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, to discern factors associated with students’ literacy and to develop strategies for creating inclusive learning environments. The data will be analyzed using Welch’s ANOVA, Post Hoc Comparison, and regression analysis. The results revealed that bullying, feeling unsafe, and school safety risks are negatively associated with students’ literacy scores and highlight the importance of creating inclusive learning environments. The study’s potential impact on future research and interventions is significant, making it a crucial foundation for further investigation.

Empowered Learners in a Digital Age: The Critical Nexus of Engagement, Agency, Interest, and Motivation

2024-12-31T11:41:50+00:00

Integrating ICT into teaching and learning is critical to raising students’ engagement. As engagement is vital for productive learning, understanding its relevant aspects is eminently important. This paper reports the learning experience of Indonesian students who enrolled in three university courses taught in English (Academic English, Philosophy of Education, and Scientific Paper Writing). The study captured the students’ digital e-learning activities, driven by their interest-related activities and study motivation. How they navigated their way in using information and communication technology (ICT) to help with their course learning was examined. The connection between students’ agency, interest, motivation, and engagement was analyzed. The findings highlighted how the technology strengthened the nexus between agency, interest, motivation and engagement. Students’ interest in ICT uses and activity preferences motivated their learning and promoted their engagement. The students’ agency helped control their effort and perseverance, which enabled lost lasting engagement. Motivated learners with interest showed more developed agency. They exhibited determined goals, self-directed learning, and resoluteness in responding to their surroundings, including access and knowledge of technology use, aligning with their preferred ways of learning and objectives. Pedagogic implementation recommends flexible ways to accommodate students’ interests in ICT use to maintain their motivation, as both are reciprocally connected with their developed agency and engagement.

Learning Beyond Borders: The Teaching of English for Refugees in Jakarta Learning Centers During COVID-19

2024-12-31T11:41:51+00:00

Proficiency in English is essential for refugees as it significantly impacts their integration, social inclusion and self-reliance. In temporary host countries like Indonesia, refugees are keen to learn English before resettlement, but the COVID-19 pandemic hindered this process. Nevertheless, efforts to maintain English education at learning centers continued. What were the experiences of refugees learning English during COVID-19, and how did they navigate access to education amid the pandemic? This qualitative study examines refugees’ experiences in learning English during COVID-19 and their access to education. It focuses on two learning centers managed by Human Initiative (HI), a UNHCR partner organization in Greater Jakarta. Data was collected through interviews with UNHCR staff, Human Initiative employees, refugee students and volunteer teachers, along with class observations. The findings reveal that English instruction functions as a vital support system for refugees. The curriculum was adapted to accommodate their needs, with materials sourced online and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methods applied to improve speaking skills. The study also highlights the obstacles faced by students, teachers, and management as well as highlighting their adaptive and flexible strategies for maintaining education in difficult circumstances.

Managing Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder through Utilizing Islamic Antidotes

2024-12-31T11:41:51+00:00

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a prevalent mental health condition characterized by compulsive behaviors and irrepressible impulses. The treatment for this disorder is challenging due to its complex nature. It is occasionally linked to religious observances referred to as scrupulosity. This disorder exhibits a multitude of consequences. The manifestation of these intrusive thoughts and undesirable behaviors among students impede their ability to study efficiently and negatively impact their academic performance. Researchers and academics have put forth a range of pharmaceutical and psychological remedies and solutions for this catastrophic disorder. This research proposes potential Islamic strategies for resisting and curtailing the disorder. The research findings indicate that the Islamic antidote for managing OCD involves several spiritual and therapeutic practices such as dhikr (remembrance of God), tawakkul (trust in God), salah (prayer), du’a (supplication) and istighfar (seeking forgiveness). Additionally, individuals afflicted with this disorder, should employ strategies such as daily supplications, incantation (Al-uqyah Al-Sharʿiyyah) and efforts to prevent intrusive thoughts. The study effectively employed a descriptive methodology to conduct its examination.

From Traditionality to Modernity: How the Ma’had Aly Contributes to Muslim Society in Indonesia

2024-12-31T11:41:51+00:00

Ma’had Aly is one of the religious-educational institutions based in Islamic boarding schools. This institution is an important actor in the transmission of intellectual and Islamic religious knowledge. In this context, students in Islamic boarding schools study the kitab kuning (yellow book) or kitab turath (traditional Islamic books) and try to contextualize them with the times. Moreover, the problems of the times are increasingly complex, so ma’had aly tries to answer these challenges. This article seeks to examine how ma’had aly has become an important actor in the context of the circulation and transmission of Islamic religious knowledge in Indonesia. This research focuses on three ma’had aly in Indonesia; namely, Ma’had Aly Pondok Pesantren Al-Munawwir Krapyak, Ma’had Aly Pondok Pesantren Al-Falah Ploso, and Ma’had Aly Pondok Pesantren Salafiyah Syafi'iyah Situbondo. The findings in this study show that ma’had aly has contributed greatly to the landscape of the map of intellectual transmission and Islamic religious knowledge in Indonesia. Not only that, ma’had aly also has its style in the pattern of teaching and education, especially related to contextualization between text and context in a heterogeneous society with the complexity of the problems faced. In addition, from initially focusing only on traditional knowledge, now ma’had aly is transforming towards modernity by combining text and context, where the problems of society are increasingly complex.

Not Only One But Many: How is the Islamic Educational Contest Shaping Indonesian Muslim Profiles?

2024-12-31T11:41:52+00:00

Through the historical lens, we can see that the development of religious group diversity in certain religions is real and inevitable, including in Islam. Various factors can be put forward to explain this, but of all possible explanations, education surely has the crucial role. In the Indonesian context, the development of Islamic education has generated multi-faces of Muslims. Since the first educational reform in the early twentieth century, Islamic education has not only been a response to the colonial government’s ethische politiek policy, but has also become a crucial factor in the making of Indonesian Muslim faces. This article attempts to explore how the Islamic educational contest generally has shaped the Indonesian Muslim profile, at least since the early twentieth century until nowadays, with heuristic and sociological approaches in the frame of process philosophy, specifically on development of education, rather than political and ideological debate. The aim of this article is to illustrate the extent to which educational developments and contestations among Islamic groups have general significance for the making of Indonesian Muslim profiles. This article found that: (1) educational contestation has a significant role in the making of multi-faces of Indonesian Muslims; (2) the diversity of Muslim profiles has steadily increased since educational reform and contestation took place; and (3) educational contestation occurs in a very dynamic way that involves not only ideological indoctrination, but also educational innovation and creative adaptation.

Representation of Sexual Harassment Victims in English-based Indonesian Online News: A Critical Discourse Analysis

2024-12-31T11:41:52+00:00

This study aims to investigate representations of sexual harassment victims in English-based Indonesian online news and reveal the underlying ideology behind the representation. This study uses critical discourse analysis with Fairclough’s framework. Halliday’s systemic functional grammar is applied in terms of the transitivity process. Data were news articles published in Tempo.co, The Jakarta Post and Antara. The data were analyzed using Eggins’ transitivity analysis keywords and then classified based on the transitivity process. The result shows that there are 88 transitivity processes consisting of 44 material processes, 26 verbal, ten relational attributive, one relational identifying, four mental and three existential processes. The behavioral process is not found in news articles. All English-based Indonesian online news represents sexual harassment victims positively. All news agencies represent that sexual harassment cases are not handled properly. This representation shows that all online news agencies support the ideology of gender equality and feminism at a varied rate. Tempo.co are less clear in showing their partiality. The news agencies are clear enough in showing their partiality to the sexual harassment victim. However, all of the online news agencies still represent the victim as a powerless object towards the perpetrator’s actions. However, there are misjudgments about the victim presented by The Jakarta Post and misrepresentation represented by Tempo.co and Antara. This implies that English-based Indonesian online news agencies still contain a patriarchal culture in their news reports.