Islamic Religious Education (PAI) is an integral part of the education system Aimed at shaping student’s whole character. In practice, PAI not only contains religious aspectsBut also serves as a means to build national identity, morality, and personality of the nation's identity, morality, and personality. Therefore, the preparation and implementation of the PAI curriculum needs to be carefully designed and structured from the highest policy level to its implementation in the field.

In the era of globalization, the challenges of religious education are increasingly complex, including in terms of curriculum policies. Countries like Indonesia and Thailand, which have different demographic and ideological backgrounds, face their own challenges in managing the PAI curriculum. Therefore, studying how to harmonize curriculum policies is important to ensure that regulations from the central goverment can work together in supporting diversity and national integration.

Harmonization is basically a process of creating harmony between various different elements to achieve order and unity within a system. In a social context, harmonization is refers to social order, which is a consistent pattern of relationships and behaviors in order to achieve shared goals. This consept illustrates that harmonization is not about standardization, but about building bridges between differences towards understanding and cooperation.

Fonkeng (2007) and Tchombe (1999) points out that in the contex of education politics, harmonization requires curriculum alignment that is described concretely through a syllabus and work scheme that can be understood in two official languages. This approach is very relevant when comparing education practices across countries such as Thailand and Indonesia (Ngalim, 2014). In the Islamic Religious Education (PAI) curriculum, harmonization has a deeper meaning. It is not only unifies the learning material, but also harmonizes the vision of education, basic religious values, and policy direction from the central level to the smallest educational unit. In Thailand and Indonesia, two countries with different histories and religious background, harmonizing the PAI curriculum is a strategic effort to adapt Islamic teachings to local socio-cultural conditions without losing the universal value of Islam.

From an epistemological perspective, harmonization in the PAI curriculum also requires harmony in the way of thinking: how Islamic knowledge is taught, the teaching methods used, and how those values are internalized by students (Insuasti & Zapata-Jaramillo, 2024). Therefore, a harmonious curriculum should not be trapped in delivering material in a dogmatic or textual way, but also encourage reflective thinking, intercultural dialogue, and the strengthening of Islamic values such as tolerance, justice, and compassion. Thus, the harmonization of the PAI curriculum in both countries becomes important step in shaping a generation of Muslims who are not only ritually obedient, but also spiritually and socially mature.

In the educational literature, the curriculum is understood as a structured and planned tool to achieve educational goals. Abuddin Nata (1997:123), citing Crow and Crow, the curriculum is defined as a teaching design or systematically arranged set of subjects aimed to completing an educational program and obtaining formal recognition such as a diploma. This definition shows that the curriculum is not only a collection of subject matter, but also reflects the direction and policy of education that a nation aspires to achieve.

Nidawati adds that the curriculum is an educational program developed based on applicable norms and designed in systemic manner. This perspective emphasized that the curriculum is not solely the result of academic preparation, but is also a product of policy decisions that reflect the direction of a country's educational ideology (Nidawati, 2021).

The curriculum represent the responsibility of educational institutions in regulating content, objectives, and learning methods (Ratih Rizki Pradika, 2020). This confirms that behind the formulation of a curriculum there are policy that affect both the formulation process and the implementation. In this context, educational institutions cannot be separated from the influence of policies at the national, provincial, and local levels.

In some aspects, the education system in Thailand is not significantly different from that of Indonesia (Hadini et al., 2023). Thailand also implements a nine-year compulsory education system, which can be competed through formal, non-formal, or informal schools. This system provides opportunities for the Muslim community in Thailand to establish and develop their own Islamic educational institutions. The Islamic education curriculum in Thailand, especially in the Patani region, has received legal recognition through the Private Sector Schools Law of 2007 Article 4, which states that formal schools are educational institutions responsible for setting educational objectives, learning methods, curriculum, learning duration, and evaluation criteria as graduation requirements (Harahap & Rajab, 2022).

The religious education curriculum is closely linked to the state-issued policies. According to the Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language, the term of policy originates from the word "wise", which means intellignet and thoughtful. In the field of education, policies serve as strategic guidelines or principles that direct the implementation of learning process, including those related to the PAI curriculum (King, 2025).

Nichols states that policy is the result of decisions made toughfully and carefully by the highest authorithies (Anwar Muhhamad Emnis, 2014). In the context of Islamic education in Thailand and Indonesia, PAI's curriculum policies reflects the role of the state in directing the religious identity of tis citizens through education. Therefore, understanding these curriculum policies is crucial to explaining how PAI is practically implemented at educational level.

In practice, the policy of the education curriculum in Indonesia follows a decentralized structure. The central government through the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Religion Affairs, formulates the national curriculum, while local governments and educational units are given authority to develop local content curriculums (Wakhidah & Erman, 2022). This allows flexibility for educational institution to adapt to the local social, cultural, and religious contexts of their respective regions.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, Islamic education is mainly developed in the Muslim-majority southern regions such as Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat. Thailand's national education system does not formally include Islamic religious lessons within its national curriculum structure. However, the Thai government allows Islamic private schools the flexibility to develop their own PAI curriculum based on the needs of the local Muslim community.

Based on interviews with Thai teachers (July 20, 2024), Islamic education policies in Thailand have emerged as the result of the ongoing tension between the demands of local Muslim identity and the government's nationalist agenda. The PAI curriculum in private Islamic schools reflects a form of negotiation, aiming to preserve Islamic identity while also meeting Thailand's national standards of education.

The Thai government's policy requires Muslim students to study both general and religious education within a single system that integrates national cultural values and promotes an understanding of the country’s dominant Buddihst ideology (Wijayanti & Widhanarto, 2019). Although these policies are formulated at the national level, their implementation is largely determined by flexibility at the school level. This is where the challenge of harmonization policies between central and local levels.

In Indonesia, the PAI curriculum is regulated nationally by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, with relatively uniform content standards applied across the region. However, provincial and district/city governments are authorized to include additional local content based on the regional characters. Furthermore, schools have the autonomy to develop their own internal curriculum, known as educational unit operational curriculum (KOSP), as part of their implementation of educational autonomy.

Policy harmonization in Indonesia generally follows a top-down pattern, where the central goverment establishes the basic framework while provide space for local to adjust the implementation. For example, in areas with based on Islamic boarding schools, the PAI curriculum is often supplemented by nahwu, shorof, tafsir, or other local religious studies.

On the other hand, in Thailand, private Islamic schools such as Yala develop the PAI curriculum independently. Subjects such as aqidah, fiqh, Qur'anic studies, and Islamic history are taught structurally even though these subjects are not required by the government. In fact, some schools enrich their class with additional lessons, such as Arabic calligraphy, the Malay language, and the use of standardized Indonesian textbooks.

The inclusion of religious subjects in the curriculum of private Islamic schools in Thailand shows a horizontal harmonization between school policies and the needs of local Muslim communities. Although these subjects are not regulated at the national level, their presence is strongly legitimized by local Muslim community.

This bottom-up approach which is implemented in Thailand creates unique dynamics. Schools are required to deal with government regulations, which generally emphasize secular principles, and the religious aspirations of the local community. As a results, schools relish broader autonomy in curriculum development. However, this autonomy also facing challenges, particularly concerning the consistency of quality standards and the availability of educational resources.

According to study by Nuruzzahri (2023), Islamic education in Thailand places greater emphasis on the preserving Islamic identity and culture within the dominance of the Buddhist national system. The curriculum tends to be flexible and contextual to local needs (Setiarini, 2024). This contrasts with Indonesia, where Islamic education is more integrated into the national education system through standardized national curricula.

First-hand teaching experience in the Yala region of Southern Thailand shows that, despite the exclusion of PAI is from the national curriculum, local teachers continue to deliver PAI content with dedication. They independently design curricula that incorporate key subjects commonly taught in Indonesia, such as aqidah, fiqh, and Islamic history. This shows the enduring dedication of the Muslim community in Southern Thailand to preserving their religious identity through education.

An additional distinctive feature is the use of Malay-language textbooks that adopt the strandard structure of Indonesian educational materials. This not only facilitates for students to understand the subject, but also reinforces the cultural and historical connections between Muslim communities in southern Thailand and Indonesia, especially those in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Within this context, the harmonization of PAI curriculum policies between Indonesia and Thailand should be understood as a complex and dynamic process. Harmonization does not imply uniformity in curriculum content, but rather, it emphasizes alignment in educational visions, regulations, and policy implementation across multiple levels, ranging from national, provincial, regional, and institutional.

Vertical harmonization in Indonesia is decent due to the centralized and unified structure of the educational bureaucracy. However, challenges arise when central policies do not fully accommodate the diverse social and religious dynamics at the local level. In contrast, Thailand faces a different set of challenges, partiularly in reconciling the state's religiously neutral policies with the educational needs of the Muslim community.

Therefore, it is important to develop a responsive and adaptive PAI curriculum policy ramework at all administrative levels. While the central government should provide a overarching guidelines, but leave sufficeint flexibility must be granted to provicial, regional, and schools authorities to adapt and innovate according to their specific contexts and community needs.

This study is motivated by the author's interest in examining how Islamic religious education is implemented in two countries with distinct social and religious backgrounds: Thailand and Indonesia. Both nations are part of the broader Islamic tradition in Southeast Asia and share a long-standing history of Islamic educationa development. However, their current educational enviroments differ significantly. The Tarbiyatul Wathon School in Thailand operates within a Muslim minority context, requiring it to adjust with non-Islamic national education policy. In contrast, MA Tanwirul Qulub in Indonesia benefits from its location within Muslim-majority society, where the development of religious curricula and receives community support.

The selection of these two schools was based on their distinctive approaches to aligning Islamic religious education curricula with their respective national education policies. Tarbiyatul Wathon demonstrates the ability to maintain its Islamic identity despite operating within a predominantly non-Muslim sociocultural environment. Meanwhile, Tanwirul Qulub showed how the tradition of pesantren can coexist with and adapt to the standardized national curriculum in a Muslim-majority context.

This study seeks to examine how PAI curriculum policies are designed, socialized, and implemented from the national level down to the schools level in both Indonesia and Thailand. The main focus of this study is to analyze the common points and differences between the curriculum policies made by the central government and their implementation at the Islamic private school level.

By investigating policy processes from top-down (goverment to schools) and bottom-up (school to goverment) perspectives, this research aims to offer concrete recommendations for Islamic education policymakers and education practitioners. These recommendations are intended to support the development of curriculum harmonization model that is not only compliant with national regulations but also contextually relevant and sustainable in the long term.

A number of previous studies have discussed Islamic religious education in the context of national policy and school practices, such as the study by Setiarini (2024) which highlights the flexibility of the PAI curriculum in Thailand, and Wakhidah and Erman (2022) which examines the autonomy of curriculum implementation in Indonesia. Meanwhile, Nuruzzahri (2023) emphasizes the importance of Islamic education as a tool for preserving identity in minority communities. However, most of these studies only focus on one country or highlight general aspects of the curriculum without considering the dynamics of cross-level policy harmonization in a comparative manner. Few, if any, studies have deeply compared how PAI curriculum policy harmonization is implemented in private Islamic schools in Indonesia and Thailand using a qualitative approach that captures the dynamics from the central level to the educational unit level. This is where the urgency and novelty of this research lies namely, presenting a cross-national perspective in understanding how the PAI curriculum can be harmonized with vastly different social, cultural, and policy contexts. Thus, this research is expected to fill a gap in the literature while contributing to the discourse on the harmonization of Islamic education policies at the Southeast Asian regional level.

This study uses a descriptive qualitative approach, selected for its relevance in providing an in-depth understanding of the harmonizing process of Islamic Religious Education (PAI) curriculum policies in two countries: Indonesia and Thailand. The research focuses specifically on two Islamic private schools: MA Tanwirul Qulub in Lamongan (Indonesia) and Tarbiyatul Wathon in Yala (Thailand). A qualitative approach allows the researchers to understand the meaning behind curriculum policies and their implementation from the perspective of education practitioners in the field.

According to Denzin and Lincoln (1994), qualitative research is conducted in a natural setting and seeks to interpret phenomena through the use of various data collection methods. Erickson (1968) further emphasizes that qualitative research aims to narratively describe the action and the impact of these actions on the lives of the subjects involved (Albi Anggito & Johan Setiawan, 2018). In this context, the research aims to comprehensively depict the formulation, implementation, and contextual adjustment of PAI curriculum policies from the national to local levels, as practiced in the selected schools.

This research was conducted over a period of two to three months, utilizing three main data collection techniques: in-depth interviews, observations, and document analysis (Kosim et al., 2023). Interviews were conducted directly with school principals, vice principals in charge of curriculum, and PAI teachers at both schools. Interviews are conducted with semi-structured guidance to allow for more open-ended, reflective discussion, enabling a deeper exploration of participant perspective. Observation techniques were used to directly examine the teaching and learning processes, both within and outside the classroom, with particular attention to how PAI curriculum policies are enacted in practice. Meanwhile, document analysis was carried out on official school documents including curriculum structure, syllabus, learning implementation plans (RPP), and relevant education policy documents from both local and national authorities.

The data analysis in this study follows the interactive model proposed by Miles and Huberman, which consists of three main stages: data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion/verification (Sugiyono, 2011: 246–247). Data reduction involves selecting, focusing, and simplifying data obtained from the field to facilitate meaningful analysis. Data presentation is conducted through the construction of descriptive narrative that illustrate the relationship among components of curriculum policy across various levels. Meanwhile, conclusions occur continuously throughout the research process, enabling the identification of emerging patterns, relationships, and insight based on collected data.

The location of the research conducted in two different countries: Indonesia and Thailand, provides a valuable perspective on how each country formulates and implements PAI curriculum policies within private education units. The research sites, MA Tanwirul Qulub and Tarbiyatul Wathon, were selected purposively because both represent Islamic private schools with distinct local characteristics and relatively autonomous approach to curriculum implementation, despite under national educational regulations.

By applying this methodological framework, this study aims to explore the processes of PAI curriculum formulation and harmonization from the national level down to the to school levels. The results are expected to contribute to the development of adaptive and contextual of PAI curriculum policy, especially relevant in cross-border education context such as those between Indonesia and Thailand.

To clarify the flow and stages of this research, the following is a research process diagram that visually illustrates the steps taken by the researcher, from the planning stage to the drawing of conclusions. This diagram helps to provide a comprehensive overview of the research process in a systematic and structured manner.