Value-Based Governance for Sustainable Islamic Education: A Systematic Review of Islamic Schools, Madrasahs, and Pesantren
Keywords
Islamic educational governance; khalifah; amanah; sustainable education; madrasah; pesantren; systematic literature review.
Abstract
Governance and sustainability in Islamic educational institutions have often been examined as separate domains, leaving the relationship between Islamic ethical values, institutional mechanisms, and long-term educational outcomes insufficiently synthesized. This review aimed to explain how khalifah, amanah, and related Islamic values are conceptualized, translated into governance practices, and connected to sustainable education in Islamic schools, madrasahs, and pesantren. A systematic literature review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020. Searches were undertaken in Scopus, the Education Resources Information Center, Web of Science, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Xplore, the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute platform, and Google Scholar. Of 171 full-text reports assessed, 45 studies were included in the final synthesis. Data were analyzed using thematic and framework synthesis, while methodological quality was appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool and relevant Joanna Briggs Institute checklists. The findings indicate that khalifah primarily provides a foundation for stewardship, whereas amanah underpins vertical and horizontal accountability. These values contributed to sustainability only when institutionalized through value-based leadership, participatory governance, quality assurance, responsible resource management, stakeholder collaboration, monitoring, and continuous improvement. Reported outcomes encompassed environmental, institutional, financial, social, quality, and human-resource sustainability. However, centralized authority, weak documentation, limited resources, uneven professional capacity, and symbolic value implementation constrained these mechanisms. Islamic values therefore support sustainable education only when embedded in formal structures, procedures, distributions of responsibility, and evaluation systems rather than remaining at the level of institutional rhetoric.
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