Examining the enactment of digital literacy in Islamic education across two school contexts in Indonesia and Thailand

Abstract

This study examines how digital-literacy-related practices are enacted in Islamic education across two contrasting secondary school contexts in Indonesia and Thailand, and how these practices are associated with students’ self-reported academic understanding of Islamic education and character-related learning habits. Rather than evaluating a common intervention, the study explores naturally occurring pedagogical practices within two different institutional settings. The Stake Countenance Model was used as an evaluative framework to examine institutional conditions (antecedents), pedagogical processes (transactions), and educational outcomes. A convergent mixed-methods design with qualitative interpretive emphasis was employed. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected during the same general phase, analyzed separately, and integrated at the interpretation stage. The quantitative strand used questionnaire data to estimate pooled associations among digital literacy, students’ self-reported academic understanding of Islamic education, and character-related learning habits. The qualitative strand drew on classroom observations, semi-structured teacher interviews, and student reflective journals to examine how institutional conditions and pedagogical practices shaped these outcomes in each context. The quantitative findings indicated significant positive associations between digital literacy and both student-reported outcomes, although the relationship was stronger for students’ self-reported academic understanding of Islamic education than for character-related learning habits. The qualitative findings further showed that differences in institutional readiness shaped distinct pedagogical pathways. In the Indonesian school, relatively stronger digital infrastructure supported more structured digital inquiry and information-based learning, whereas in the Thai school, more limited resources were accompanied by stronger reliance on teacher-mediated reflective dialogue and ethical guidance. Overall, the study suggests that the enactment of digital literacy in Islamic education is context-sensitive and pedagogically mediated rather than uniform across settings. The findings highlight the importance of teacher mediation, institutional conditions, and ethical framing in linking students’ digital engagement with Islamic learning across diverse socio-religious contexts.