Social Engineering of Islamic Religious Education in Preventing Intolerance and Radicalism in the School Environment

Abstract

This research paper aimed to explain the social engineering model of Islamic religious education carried out by the principals and Islamic religious education teachers at the Khadijah and Muhammadiyah 3 senior high schools in Surabaya in warding off intolerance and radicalism in the school environment. This research used a qualitative descriptive phenomenology approach by extracting data from observations and in-depth interviews with key informants. The results demonstrated that: (1) there was intolerance and radicalism in both schools that were wrapped in social prejudice; (2) the principal and the Islamic religious teachers acted as ‘agents of change’ in the social engineering of education, which has prevented intolerance and radicalism through two models in Islamic religious education – the social engineering model of education carried out by the principal with the ASWAJA Islamic religious education curriculum model, and the ISMUBA Islamic religious education curriculum model; (3) the teachers of ASWAJA and ISMUBA Islamic religious education have practiced their learning and educating processes to support the goal of the principals; and (4) the obstacles faced by the principals and teachers in these efforts include the influence of online media, which contains messages of intolerance and radicalism and which is accessed by the students inside and outside of the school, and the limitations of the principals and teachers to carry out a control function for the students continuously. Keywords: social engineering, Islamic religious education, intolerance, radicalism