Sociology of Salafi educational institutions in national curriculum negotiations

Research on pesantren has tended to explain curriculum integration administratively, without treating institutional ideology as the social logic that governs educational decisions. This article analyses how two Salafi pesantren—Ma'had Al Faruq Karanglewas and Pondok Pesantren Ibnu Taimiyyah Sumpiuh in Banyumas, Central Java—negotiate the national curriculum. Drawing on institutional theory (decoupling, strategic responses to institutional pressure and institutional logics) and the sociology of educational institutions, the study used a qualitative multiple-case design. The study collected data through interviews, observation, and documentation with leaders, curriculum managers, teachers (ustadz/ustadzah), and students, and analysed them through within-case and cross-case analysis. The findings show that adopting the national curriculum is not passive compliance but an institutional negotiation governed by the Salafi manhaj as the dominant institutional logic. The national curriculum is positioned as an instrument of legality, recognised certification and administrative connection with the state, while the core values of education remain grounded in tawhid, adab, sunnah and classical texts (turath). Negotiation is visible in a curriculum structure of roughly 70% religious and 30% general content, in the selection and pruning of material deemed doctrinally problematic and in the framing of general subjects within a faith perspective; the two pesantren differ in strategy while sharing the same core ideology. The study conceptualises Salafi pesantren as hybrid institutions that are administratively compliant, pedagogically selective and ideologically autonomous, and argues that curriculum policy should recognise institutional specificity rather than enforce uniformity.