Islamic Education Teachers as Agents of Religious Character Formation in Schools: A Conceptual and Empirical Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59944/postaxial.v3i4.2083Keywords:
character education, Islamic religious education, religious character, uswah hasanah, RiauAbstract
Schools in Riau face a gap between religious routines and moral conduct, as recurring violence involving students shows. This article examines how Islamic Religious Education (PAI) teachers can act as agents of religious character formation and where their role meets its limits. It uses qualitative library research with document analysis. The data consist of Qur’anic verses, hadith, classical and contemporary scholarship, peer reviewed studies from 2016 to 2026, official data on violence against children in Riau for 2023 to 2025, and two school cases reported in Riau in 2025. The analysis yields four teacher functions: exemplar (qudwah), formation of adab through habit (ta’dib), counsel (mau’izah), and gentle correction (rifq). Studies in Riau link teacher example and congregational prayer habits to students’ religious attitudes. Yet the official data and the two cases show that ritual participation does not by itself prevent harm, especially when schools respond slowly or settle cases informally. The article contributes a contextual rereading of classical texts against current child protection rules and proposes that religious character formation should combine modeling, habit, counsel, and restorative correction within a schoolwide system.
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