Exploring the management strategies of integrated islamic school in facing the contemporary challenges : a study of pondok pesantren modern in Indonesia

Abstract

The main objective of this qualitative study was to examine the management understanding about the concept of integrated Islamic schools in facing 21st century challenges in terms of vision and structure at a Pondok Pesantren Modern in Ponorogo, Indonesia. Specifically, this study aimed to explore school leaders’ strategies and approaches in facilitating the implementation of 21st century teaching and learning skills, to examine how the school leaders’ strategies change the teaching and learning practices in integrated Islamic schools, and to investigate the challenges faced by the school leaders and how they overcome the problems. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten informants consisting of a director, headmasters, and senior teachers of Pondok Pesantren Modern, Indonesia. In addition, observation and document analysis were used in order to triangulate the data. The data were then analyzed using thematic analysis and discussed by describing, comparing and relating to previous literature reviews. The results emerged from this study showed that school leaders understood the concept of integrated Islamic schools in responding to 21st century challenges as mainly a combination of Islamic and modern education, and integration of theory and practice. Some of the 21st century challenges reported by the informants are lacking professional teachers, globalization, and different human characters. In facilitating 21st century learning, the school leaders used strategies and approaches such as developing human resource, curriculum, standard operating procedure, and utilizing technology. Several recommendations were made for future research to investigate effective systems that can help students to improve their knowledge, skills, and behaviours that meet the needs of 21st century skills.