Huda, Miftahul 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0196-9262
(2025)
Teaching Tolerance through Literature: A Study in English Language Classrooms in Indonesian Islamic Higher Education.
Doctoral thesis, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
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Abstract
This research aims to explore how religious tolerance is integrated into classroom practices, particularly through the use of literature in EFL classrooms in Indonesian Islamic higher education. It seeks to analyze the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their instructional and interactional activities, and how these practices align or diverge from state and institutional policies. By focusing on the teacher as the key actor who translates policies into practice at the smallest level of the educational system, the research examines the interplay at different tiers: the macro (at the state level), the meso (at the institutional level: the university/faculty directives and the teachers’ collective beliefs and practices), and the micro (at the individual level: teacher’s personal beliefs and teaching practices).
The research applied the integrated paradigm of Critical Pedagogy (CP) and Linguistic Ethnography (LE) due to its dual focus on the teachers’ pedagogical approaches on one side and their interactional strategies on the other side, paying attention not only to what is carried out in the classroom but also to how it is carried out, i.e., through languaging. By combining the broad perspectives of CP with the nuanced insights of LE, a more holistic picture of how moral values like religious tolerance are taught through particular instructional and interactional strategies in English language classrooms may be captured in one frame.
Considering the paradigmatic foundations of CP and LE, as well as the alignment with the RQs, this PhD research adopts a qualitative research approach projected for exploratory purposes. The research design falls under the category of the embedded single-case study as the research object is the teaching of religious tolerance in a single higher education institution in Indonesia, but the data involves instances from diverse (sub)units of classes and lecturers. The research was conducted from October to December 2022 in the Inferential Reading course offered at the English Literature Department of KIND UNIVERSITY, one of the Islamic higher education institutions in Indonesia. There were four lecturers of diverse characteristics who participated in the research. The data were collected through: (1) three-stage interviews; (2) observations on the six classroom sessions per teacher; and (3) documentary evidences. The interviews consisted of preliminary, recall, and reflective interviews. The complete dataset of the observation comprises 1.802 minutes, resulting in an average classroom session duration of 75 minutes. The documentary evidences were collected from policies and regulations at the state level (the national government and the MoRA) and the academic institutional level (university and faculty/department). The data were analyzed by adopting the principles of Grounded Theory (GT).
The results of the analysis reveal five main findings. First, to some extent, the English lecturers play an active role in introducing religious tolerance, though this role manifests in individualized practices and results in varying degrees of ‘active-ness,’ shaped by their understanding of the policies and their beliefs. However, the translation of the beliefs into practices is not always congruent. Paradoxes between what the lecturers believe and what they practice emerge frequently. At the institutional level, the policy vacuum provides insufficient support for the operationalization of value-based EFL teaching. Meanwhile, at the individual level, teacher agency is constantly shaped by intersecting dimensions, e.g., beliefs, biographies, experiences, and pedagogical preferences.
Second, the lecturers employ a variety of teaching approaches to introduce religious tolerance. While the choice of these activities is shaped by individual preferences, the effectiveness of a specific instructional activity lies in its ability to lead students to link the materials with (religious) tolerance and create a classroom environment that genuinely reflects this value. In terms of materials, they use a variety of text types but these materials are often not explicitly selected for their potential to promote (religious) tolerance but primarily guided by practical considerations such as students’ language proficiency and the topics mandated by the syllabus.
Third, the use of literature to instill religious tolerance is context-dependent. While the syllabus requirements serve as the impetus for incorporating literature, its success in promoting tolerance is shaped by several interrelated factors. These include the availability and explicitness of relevant literary texts, students’ linguistic capacities, and the lecturers’ literary competence.
Fourth, the lecturers employ a range of instructional strategies to topicalize religious tolerance. The choice and effectiveness of these strategies are shaped by the lecturers’ literary competence, beliefs, and experiences. The use of these strategies influences the student participation in classroom interactions or engagement with the texts. Thus, any strategies should be implemented with appropriate teacher guidance to lead classroom discourse toward the participatory understanding of values such as religious tolerance. Furthermore, in terms of interactional strategies, the lecturers applied various interactional patterns, from presentational, cumulative, exploratory, to procedural talks. These classroom interactional dynamics have given different effects on student participation in how they reach to the discussion of religious tolerance.
Finally, The incorporation of religious tolerance in EFL literature classrooms is influenced by a complex interplay of several factors that can be categorized into three major areas: institutional policies, lecturer’s individual features, and contextual elements, including students’ language proficiency, their interest in literature, and the nature of the course.
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