Progressive Islamic Education: Bridging the Gap of Islam, Indonesianness, and Modernity

Progressive Islamic education is a model developed by Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's largest modern Islamic organization. This model combines secular sciences from the modern education system with religious ones from Islamic teachings to reduce the gap between Islamic values, Indonesianess, and modernity, often a source of tension. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate Progressive Islamic education values and consider how to bridge the gap between Islam, Indonesianess, and modernity. An interpretive phenomenological approach was used to conduct semi-structured interviews with ten Muhammadiyah elementary and middle school teachers. The results showed that participants believe Progressive Islamic education comprises dynamic values, monotheism values, grace for the universe values, balance values, nationalism values, and justice values. These six values imply that the model can be framed harmoniously between Islam, Indonesianess, and modernity and thus bridge the gap between these three aspects. Therefore, this research contributes to new potentials in developing an educational model that creates a modern generation of Indonesian Muslims.