Implementing the Love-Based Curriculum in Humanistic Islamic Religious Education Learning at a State Islamic Senior High School in Blora

Abstract

Humanistic education places relational quality at the core of learning, yet how the Love-Based Curriculum (Kurikulum Berbasis Cinta/KBC) is translated into everyday pedagogical decisions in madrasahs remains under-examined. This qualitative case study examined KBC implementation at a State Islamic Senior High School (MAN) in Blora, the conditions shaping it, and how it appears in students' learning experiences, drawing on curriculum enactment and teacher agency. Fourteen purposively selected participants took part: one deputy head for curriculum, three Islamic Religious Education teachers, and ten students. Data comprised one interview per participant, three observation sessions, and teaching modules, analysed with the Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña framework and reflexive thematic analysis. Love values were translated into attention to students' conditions, open communication, appreciation, restorative discipline, and adaptive teaching. Only some of these practices were directly observed, because classroom observation was limited to one Akidah Akhlak session; the remainder were reported by informants, as were the institutional supports (policy, lesson-plan templates, religious culture, teacher development) and constraints (limited time, administrative workload, academic demands, uneven student readiness). Students generally described classroom interactions as safe and open, with variation across teachers, and comparisons with earlier experience were drawn only from informants who had spent time at the school before the study. KBC implementation emerges as a relational and contextual translation process shaped by teacher interpretation and institutional conditions rather than uniform procedure, and the findings offer a preliminary indication of a normative-religious anchor for the pedagogy of love. The study does not establish causality or academic effectiveness.