The building sustainable peace through multicultural religious education in the contemporary era of Poso, Indonesia

This research aims to investigate multicultural religious education in post-conflict areas, focusing on the learning strategy used in Poso to enhance sustainable peace among religious communities from January to May 2019. A qualitative method and multisite design examined two public schools sharing essential characteristics and geographical proximity. The informants consisted of 24 informants: 2 school principals, 4 vice principals, 8 teachers, as well as 10 Christian and Muslim students in sites A and B. Meanwhile, data collection methods include interviews, observation, and document analysis to obtain parallels, differences, and relationships between the two locations in the peacebuilding context. The results showed that the schools actualized multicultural content in the classroom and social activities based on humanity. Muslim and Christian teachers or students collaborated harmoniously, transcending differences in beliefs, rituals, ethnicity, and majority-minority status beyond classroom activities. The contextualization of multicultural religious education in classroom programs and social activities was according to the setting of Poso’s contemporary society, which built harmony as a relevant past-conflict resolution. This learning strategy model has supported sustainable peace in schools, Poso society, and today’s Indonesian nation.