Religious Moderation in the School Curriculum: Its Influence on Students' Tolerance and Character Strengthening

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of religious moderation integrated into the school curriculum on students' tolerance and character strengthening in Indonesian senior high schools. A mixed-methods approach employing a sequential explanatory design was adopted to obtain comprehensive quantitative and qualitative evidence. The research was conducted at SMAN 3 Jombang and SMA PGRI 1 Jombang, East Java, Indonesia. Quantitative data were collected through questionnaires administered to students and analyzed using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression. Qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews, classroom and school observations, and document analysis, and were analyzed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña. The findings reveal that students' understanding of religious moderation positively and significantly influences both tolerance and character strengthening. Religious moderation contributes 53.0% and 40.1% to students' tolerance at SMAN 3 Jombang and SMA PGRI 1 Jombang, respectively, while its contribution to character strengthening reaches 35.9% and 39.3%. Qualitative findings indicate that these influences are strengthened through curriculum integration, classroom learning, teacher role modelling, religious habituation, and an inclusive school culture. This study proposes the Curriculum-Based Religious Moderation Internalization (CRMI) Model, explaining that curriculum integration, pedagogical implementation, value internalization, and school culture interact to foster tolerance and positive character. The study contributes theoretically by extending religious moderation from a normative concept into a comprehensive curriculum-based educational framework and provides practical implications for strengthening inclusive and character-oriented education in multicultural schools