Shaping Professional Identity and Integrating Islamic Values in English Language Teaching: Evidence from a Pesantren Context
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59141/jiss.v7i8.2523Keywords:
professional identity, English language teaching, Islamic educational values, pesantrenAbstract
The professional identity of English teachers in Islamic educational contexts remains underexplored, particularly in Pesantren-based schools where academic education integrates with religious and moral development. English teachers in these settings face potential tensions between global language education and local cultural-religious values, yet limited attention has been given to how institutional, cultural-religious, and personal factors jointly shape their professional identity and how this identity is enacted through pedagogical decisions. This research investigates the factors shaping the professional identity of high school English teachers at Pondok Pesantren Nurul Jadid and examines how they balance English instruction with Islamic educational values. Employing a qualitative multiple case study design, the study involved six English teachers from three educational institutions within the Pesantren. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, post-observation interviews, and document analysis, and were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings show that teachers' professional identity is shaped through the interaction of institutional expectations, cultural-religious values, and personal beliefs, with teachers perceiving their roles as both language instructors and moral educators. Teachers balanced English instruction with Islamic values by integrating these values into classroom interaction, adapting materials to the Pesantren context, and embedding them across lesson planning, implementation, assessment, and reflection, while maintaining English as the primary instructional objective. This study contributes empirical evidence from the Pesantren context, demonstrating that professional identity in faith-based settings is reflected in teachers' pedagogical decisions, with implications for teacher development programs and further research across similar educational contexts.
References
Aliakbari, M., & Sadeghi, S. (2022). The professional identity of Iranian teachers: A case of professional practices. Teacher Development, 26(3), 411–431.
Almayez, M. (2022). Investigating the place of religion within the professional identity construction of two Muslim English language teachers in Saudi Arabia. Cogent Education, 9(1), 2091632.
Barkhuizen, G. (2017). Language teacher identity research: An introduction. In G. Barkhuizen (Ed.), Reflections on language teacher identity research (pp. 1–11). Routledge.
Beijaard, D. (2019). Teacher learning as identity learning: Models, practices, and topics. Teachers and Teaching, 25(1), 1–6.
Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 107–128.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597.
Casanova-Fernández, M., Joo-Nagata, J., Dobbs-Díaz, E., & Mardones-Nichi, T. (2022). Construction of teacher professional identity through initial training. Education Sciences, 12(11), 822.
Deniz, Ü. (2022). What should we understand from teachers’ professional identity? An overview of the literature. Journal of Innovative Research in Teacher Education, 3(2).
Efrizal, D. (2022). Implementation of Islamic values and character education in English teaching materials for students in Islamic boarding schools. At-Ta’lim: Media Informasi Pendidikan Islam, 21(2), 244–252.
Gay, G. (2018). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice (3rd ed.). Teachers College Press.
Hidayati, T. (2016). English language teaching in Islamic education in Indonesia: Challenges and opportunities. Englisia: Journal of Language, Education, and Humanities, 3(2), 65–82.
Madkur, A., As’ad, M. S., Prayogo, A., Sunarwan, A., Siregar, S., Harya, T. D., & Irwansyah, D. (2024). Context-responsive pedagogy in English language teaching in Indonesian Islamic boarding schools. Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn), 18(3), 626–638.
Malisi, M. A. S., & SulaSMAn, S. (2024). Institutionalizing educational reform: Balancing tradition and modernity at Pesantren. Jurnal Pendidikan Islam, 10(2), 363–374.
Maulana, T., Andriyani, A., Chusnan, M., Arief, A., & Pakarti, M. H. A. (2023). Curriculum management system in religious education: Insights from Diniyah Takmiliyah Al-Wahdah, Bandung City. International Journal of Nusantara Islam, 11(2), 182–205.
Muhalim, M. (2023). Negotiating religious discourses in English language teaching: Reorienting and reframing dominant English ideologies. Changing English, 30(3), 209–222.
Mulu, Y., Tadesse, A., Wolyie, J., & Admasu, A. (2022). Unpacking the perceived personal and contextual conditions shaping English language teachers’ professional identity formation in secondary schools. Education Research International, 2022, 2145435.
Nazari, M. (2024). Ecological intersections of religious ideology, agency, and identity: Voices of Iranian English language teachers. TESL-EJ, 28(1), n1.
Pennington, M. C., & Richards, J. C. (2016). Teacher identity in language teaching: Integrating personal, contextual, and professional factors. RELC Journal, 47(1), 1–15.
Priestley, M., Biesta, G., & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher agency: An ecological approach to teacher agency. Bloomsbury Academic.
Rambe, Z. P. (2022). Religious character as a control for moral degradation of learners in the globalization era. Ruhama: Islamic Education Journal, 5(2), 121–130.
Richards, J. C. (2023). Teacher beliefs and classroom practice in language teaching. RELC Journal.
Saepudin, S., Rohimin, R., Suhirman, S., & Lestari, M. (2025). The values of Islamic education based on Sufism in the Manaqib tradition. Journal Evaluation in Education (JEE), 6(1), 177–184.
Skourdoumbis, A., & Madkur, A. (2020). Symbolic capital and the problem of navigating English language teacher practice: The case of Indonesian Pesantren. TESOL in Context, 29(2), 15–34.
Thompson, I. (2022). Identity formation in beginning English teachers. In Theory and Practice in Second Language Teacher Identity: Researching, Theorising and Enacting (pp. 45–57). Springer International Publishing.
Yuan, R., & Lee, I. (2014). The cognitive, social and emotional processes of teacher identity development in the context of educational reform. Teaching and Teacher Education, 41, 66–74.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Mohammad Rosi Ilham, Bradhiansyah Tri Suryanto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
