Transformative Multiculturalism in Islamic Higher Education: Reconstructing Academic Culture through the Synergy of Teaching, Research, and Community Engagement
Abstract
This study was motivated by the growing need to manage diversity in Islamic Higher Education Institutions (Perguruan Tinggi Keagamaan Islam, PTKI), particularly as multiculturalism is still often understood normatively as tolerance, religious moderation, or the prevention of radicalism, rather than as a transformative academic culture. This study aims to analyze the transformation of multiculturalism in PTKI through the reconstruction of academic culture based on the synergy of the three missions of higher education. Employing a qualitative approach, this study used library research as its research design. The data were obtained from academic books, journal articles, previous studies, policy documents, and relevant literature on multicultural education, critical pedagogy, religious moderation, academic culture, and Islamic higher education. The data were collected through documentation and analyzed using critical-interpretative analysis through the stages of data condensation, thematic categorization, critical interpretation, and conceptual synthesis. The findings indicate that the strengthening of multiculturalism in PTKI remains largely normative-formalistic, previous studies have predominantly focused on the issues of moderation, curriculum, and institutional policy, and the three missions of higher education have not been sufficiently positioned as a basis for multicultural transformation. This study produces a conceptual construction called the Transformative Multiculturalism Framework in Islamic Higher Education, which integrates the epistemological foundation of inclusive Islam, multicultural education, critical pedagogy, deliberative democracy, religious moderation, and the synergy of the three missions of higher education. This framework contributes to the development of multicultural Islamic education studies and serves as a practical reference for PTKI in building an academic culture that is democratic, inclusive, reflective, and emancipatory.
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