Religious Moderation Education: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis on Identity Reconstruction in Polite Islamic Literacy Ambassadors

Abstract

Purpose – Literasi Islam Santun’s or LISAN’s program stresses the necessity for religious moderation education around State Universities. Millennials are the main target of this program. It is clearly seen that intolerant values on social media considerably affect their personal and social identity so it further requires an understanding of how to establish identity reconstruction in millennials who become the ambassadors of LISAN. The purpose of this research is to find out how self-and social identity reconstruction in students who become LISAN Ambassadors. Design/methods/approach – The research is qualitative research with an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach. The data source of this study is millennials who participated in the ambassadors of LISAN. Data collection techniques were conducted through interviews and collection of essay writings by research subjects. Findings – The results of this study showed that according to the analysis of two main superordinates and the five subordinate themes presented by seven informants, it can be concluded that the reconstruction of the informants’ identity as the ambassador of LISAN involves important aspects in the process of individual development, namely cognitive, emotional and behavioral. Thus, this gives rise to a new identity that makes them become individuals as the LISAN’s ambassadors who have new behaviors that are more moderate and tolerant. Research limitation – The study has limitations as it covers only a small number of respondents in one locus. Future research is suggested to investigate a wide range of respondents. Originality/value – The research contributes to motivating academics for promoting moderation in practicing faith and religion in the milieu of State University.