INTERNALIZING ECOTHEOLOGICAL VALUES THROUGH LOVE-BASED ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS EDUCATION TO FOSTER ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AMONG MADRASAH IBTIDAIYAH STUDENTS

Abstract

The escalating environmental crisis demands a stronger environmental ethic from the earliest levels of education, including Islamic elementary schools (Madrasah Ibtidaiyah/MI). Indonesia's Ministry of Religious Affairs Love-Based Curriculum (Kurikulum Berbasis Cinta/KBC) opens an opportunity to integrate Islamic ecotheological values tawhid, khalifah, amanah, and mizan into Islamic Religious Education (PAI) as a spiritual foundation for students' ecological responsibility. This article aims to describe how ecotheological values are internalized within love-based PAI learning and their role in shaping students' cognitive, affective, and conative environmental ethics at MIS Syu'abul Hikmah, North Lampung. The study employs a descriptive qualitative approach with a case study design; data are collected through observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation with the school principal, PAI teachers, and students, then analyzed using an interactive model of condensation, display, and conclusion drawing. Findings and implications: the four values are internalized by PAI teachers in an integrated-implicit manner within ongoing lessons, linked to concrete everyday objects, with Akidah Akhlak (Islamic Creed and Ethics) as the primary entry point; the love-based approach operates through the modeling of the principal and teachers. Students display consistent ecological attitudes and behavior, yet their understanding remains at the level of practical rules rather than the theological reasoning behind them indicating that strengthening environmental ethics at the MI level requires making the ecotheological argument explicit, not merely habituating behavior.