Implementasi Kurikulum Merdeka Pada Mata Pelajaran Pendidikan Agama Islam: Studi Di Sekolah Menengah Pertama Blang Kejeren

Abstract

The Merdeka Curriculum promises pedagogical autonomy, yet that autonomy presumes a digital infrastructure that remains unevenly distributed. This study traces how Islamic Religious Education teachers close the gap between curricular promise and resource availability, and what cultural meaning that closure produces. Using Spradley’s ethnographic approach at SMP Negeri 1 Blangkejeren, Gayo Lues Regency, data were gathered through participant observation, structured and semi-structured interviews with the principal, three Islamic Religious Education teachers, and grade VIII students, alongside analysis of the school operational curriculum, teaching modules, training records, and school funding reports. Analysis proceeded through four stages: domain, taxonomic, componential, and cultural theme. Domain analysis produced four cultural domains, taxonomic analysis detailed teacher strategies into four branches comprising fifteen units of action, and componential analysis revealed that the most frequently used strategies are the cheapest for the school yet the costliest in teacher time. The cultural theme identified is analogue substitution, namely the replacement of technology-based activities with offline activities redesigned by teachers so that student-centred learning requirements are still met. This substitution succeeds pedagogically while simultaneously masking the school’s infrastructure deficit, since classroom success makes budgetary need appear less urgent. The study offers analogue substitution as an analytical lens for reading curriculum implementation in resource-constrained schools