Environmental Education and Indonesia's Traditional Islamic Boarding Schools

Abstract

Presenting notable curricular, pedagogical and ‘green’ initiatives in Indonesian pesantren, the country’s traditional Islamic boarding schools, this chapter proceeds from the assumption that education in general and Islamic schools specifically have a critical role in raising public awareness of environmental problems. More specifically, the chapter has three key objectives. First, we review some of the challenges with introducing environmental education in Islamic schools in a societal context where state and local government leadership is sorely lacking. We then offer a case study of Pesantren Annuqayah in East Java, one especially prominent school in Indonesia’s Pesantren Hijau or Green Pesantren programme. Our analysis focusses on the school’s holistic curriculum, innovative pedagogy and community engagement efforts. Finally, we reflect on the broader takeaways for a culturally relevant environmental education in Islamic schools beyond Indonesia by paying specific attention to connections and dissonances with the dominant discourse on environmental education cultivated in the Global North.