The Elementary School Students’ Thinking on Islamic Moderation: Tracing the construction of the NU Elementary School’s Curriculum in the regency of Kediri

Abstract

Elementary schools were a group that was strongly influenced by the values of religious radicalism, then how elementary schools were able to transmit moderation and internalize it to students, considering that so far, the study of Islamic moderation had not seriously targeted the world of basic education. The object of this research was to examine the NU Elementary School of Insan Cendekia Kediri by using a qualitative sociological phenomenological research method. This study produced Islamic moderation reasoning through the construction of an Islamic elementary school curriculum, as follows: First, the understanding of ahlusunnah wal jama'ah (aswaja) was used as the basis for curriculum preparation, the school integrates the 2013 curriculum and the Ma'arif NU curriculum, schools implement an integrated activity-integrated curriculum system, thus enabling parents and teachers to carry out education together; Second; Internalization was done by combining academic education, religion, skills, and attitudes. In the learning process, the Elementary School of NU Insan Cendekia Kediri combines various learning methodologies, as well as child-friendly schools, character-based learning, instilling school culture, and religious learning applications. For this reason, in practice, many things at school prioritize an attitude of being moderate (tawwasut), tolerant (tasamuh), not extreme, balanced (tawazun), and always taking a consistent attitude (i'tidal) as the basis for developing Islamic moderation reasoning in schools. The curriculum implemented by NU elementary schools could shape Islamic moderation reasoning. This could be seen from the formation of the moderate character of students during activities at school. As well as the commitment of all school members to be a very important factor in realizing students with moderate Islamic ideological characteristics.