Strategies and Challenges in Implementing Multicultural Education on Religious-Based School: An Indonesian Context

This article describes empirically the strategies and challenges of implementing multicultural education in religion-based high schools (SMA). This study uses a qualitative approach through interviews and observation as the primary data collection techniques. Sources of data in this study are principals, teachers, and students from Islamic, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and Catholic-based schools located in DKI Jakarta, Kota Tangerang, and Kota Bekasi. Based on the results of the study, multicultural education has practically been applied to eight schools. The application of multicultural education to these faith-based schools is not based on the substance of their religious teachings, which is the basis of school beliefs, but on school considerations and policies based on the diversity of ethnic and religious backgrounds adopted by students and teachers in schools. At the high school level, the multicultural education model is implemented through the transformation of schools as educational institutions. Multicultural values are directly integrated with relevant subjects such as Sociology, PPKn, Religious Education, and History. Also, multicultural education was inserted in the extracurricular activities of Scouting, Social Service, Out bond through art activities performed by groups of students who had different cultures. The implementation of multicultural education values in extracurricular subjects and events in religious-based high schools is believed to be able to anticipate the symptoms of national disintegration. The impression of religious-based high school is proven not to foster an idea of exclusivism, but rather, on the contrary, implying a moral message that multiculturalism in religion is the glue of continuous nation integration.