A wide range of studies have examined the impact of collaborative learning (CL) on critical thinking skills in various learning subjects. However, very few of them are conducted in the field of Islamic education. Thus, the current study aimed at examining the impact of CL on learners' critical thinking skills in addressing Islamic radicalism as well as their critical thinking retention. Subsequently, this study also investigated learners' perspectives on CL. A mixed method approach was applied. 40 learners, 18 male and 22 female learners, from an Islamic education department at a university in Bengkulu, Indonesia, were engaged as the samples of experimentation, and 9 of them were purposively selected to be the participants for the purpose of a qualitative investigation. The quantitative data were analyzed using paired sample t-test and independent sample t-test, and the qualitative data were analyzed using an interactive model of analysis. The findings revealed that CL had a positive and significant impact on learners' critical thinking skills. CL also supported the retention of their critical thinking skills. Subsequently, the learners perceived that CL was contributive to their emotional awareness, learning motivation, cognitive development, and broad-mindedness. Grounded in the current findings, further studies can proceed to construct a theoretical CL model which incorporates components such as critical thinking, learning motivation, cognitive development, and social competence.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between minority Muslim families and those of non-Muslims in Banjarasri, Kalibawang, Kulon Progo Yogyakarta; and to find out the religious diversity motivation of the Muslim families. This study used descriptive qualitative method by applying a phenomenological approach. The data were garnered using observation and interview. This study revealed that the acculturation of arts, cultures, and social community made Muslim families and non-Muslim families live side by side. The religious motivation of Muslim minority for the sake of maintaining their faith rested upon both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. Extrinsically, it could be seen from the strong influence of the mosque administrators, the power of various religious activities to enhance religious awareness, and the solid cohesiveness of the group to strengthen as well as protect religious motivation. Intrinsically, the religious motivation of Muslims in Banjarsari was basically the effect of self-awareness by reasons of their minor position, so that such motivation yielded strong inner capacity from each Muslim family to revive and get more deeply into Islam.

The nature of English as the world lingua franca and the nature of Indonesian students who are multicultural call for the application of Intercultural language learning (ILL) approach in English education in Indonesia. However, the complexities of ILL seem to demand English teachers’ positive attitude towards ILL even since they became tertiary English students so that ILL could be ideally implemented in the classroom. This study was conducted to delve into tertiary English students’ attitude towards ILL and to confirm their English teaching practices according to the perspective of ILL principles. Tertiary students taking English Education major at a State University in central Java were chosen to be the participants. Interview, questionnaire, and observation were deployed to garner the data. The findings demonstrated that most of the tertiary English students had a positive attitude towards ILL. Their judgments exhibited a positive tendency to accept and support ILL ideologies and principles. Their positive tendency covered three dimensions: affection (76.13%), cognition (75.08%), and behavior (75.16%). Observations showed that their English teaching practices tended to confirm their positive attitude towards ILL. They were able to apply three ILL principles consisting of active construction, making connection, and interaction. Other studies are expected to address ILL implementation in the formal English classrooms at Indonesian schools so that detailed merits and challenges as well as solutions with respect to ILL implementation can be revealed.

Religious moderation is an urgent entity for Indonesian people because they are multireligious. Hence, this qualitative study aimed to explore the religious moderation factors of multireligious people residing in the Sekaran, Rama Agung, and Cigugur villages of Indonesia and to analyze the people’s most vital factors of religious moderation. Fifteen religious and communal leaders from the three villages were purposively involved as the participants. An interactive model was adopted to analyze the data from interviews and focus group discussions. This study found five factors of religious moderation exhibited by Sekaran people, namely the principle of togetherness, socio-religious traditions, social traditions related to the values of the Indonesian Republic, and family. Rama Agung people showcased three factors: accepting the reality of differences, putting aside exclusivity, and upholding the harmony of life. Cigugur people demonstrated ten factors extending to family, awareness of moderation, mutual respect, tolerance, internalization of multiculturalism, good communication, socio-religious traditions, cultural ties, social relations, and interactions with cultural traditions. Furthermore, three latent and generalizable factors of religious moderation were codified as the strongest. They entailed upholding the principle of togetherness, accepting the reality of differences, and having mutual respect.

The view of culture in EFL learning is growing from modernist to postmodernist perspective (Kramsch, 2013). Such growth gives impacts on the view and implementation of EFL learning. Accordingly, this study investigated the prevailing stance of Indonesian EFL teachers regarding teaching cultures. The stance in this sense was explored from the teachers’ paradigm to practice. This study engaged 17 English teachers with a variety of experiences, and they were purposively selected from different schools. This study revealed evidence that although the nature of Indonesian people were multicultural, and the essence of English as an International language was as a mediator of cross-cultural communication, dominantly Indonesian EFL teachers, the subjects of this study, still stood on modernist perspective and had not incorporated the nuance of multiculturality and interculturality as an important part of EFL learning. Only few of them did otherwise with postmodernist perspective. As an implication, this study really supported Indonesian English teachers to take a stance on postmodernist perspective in executing EFL learning to meet the students’ nature and that of English as a global language. The contribution offered by this study is to give evidence prevailing to Indonesian EFL learning and insights promoting its development in order for the curriculum can help systemize the nuance of multiculturality and interculturality in EFL learning.  Keywords: Indonesian EFL learning; EFL teachers’ stance; teaching culture; English as an international language