An Analysis Of Islamic Values In English Textbook Used At SMAN 5 Banda Aceh

This study examines how Islamic values are represented in the English textbook Pathway to English for SMA/MA Grade X Phase E, published by Erlangga (2025) and used as the primary learning material at SMAN 5 Banda Aceh. Textbooks in the Indonesian educational context are not value-neutral; they are ideological artifacts that shape students’ worldviews alongside their linguistic competence. Despite the centrality of Islamic values in Indonesian education, the specific ways in which these values are constructed and communicated through EFL learning materials have not been sufficiently explored. This study addresses that gap by analyzing the verbal and non-verbal content of the textbook through the lens of Stuart Hall’s (1997) Theory of Representation, specifically the constructionist approach, combined with Smart’s (as cited in Malhotra, 1999) three religious dimension framework: social, material, and ritual. A qualitative content analysis approach was employed, with data collected through systematic documentation of all six chapters of the textbook. A total of 68 data points were identified and classified. The findings reveal that the social dimension is overwhelmingly dominant, with 68 data points distributed across all six chapters and a wide range of textual genres including dialogues, reading texts, tasks, projects, and visual elements. Islamic social virtues including mutual cooperation (ta‘awun), compassion (rahmah), gratitude (shukr), responsibility (amanah), and environmental stewardship (khalifah) are encoded implicitly within scenarios that appear secular on the surface, making them accessible to students of all religious backgrounds. The material dimension accounts for four data points involving visual representations of Islamic modest dress and halal-haram food distinctions, two of which involve explicit rather than implicit representation. The ritual dimension is entirely absent from the textbook. These findings indicate that the Pathway to English textbook constructs Islamic religiosity primarily as social ethics rather than as a system of ritual observance or symbolic objects, reflecting a moderate, inclusive representational strategy consistent with the character education goals of the Merdeka Curriculum.