Glocalization of Islamic Education among Khmer Muslims in Post-Conflict Cambodia

Abstract

Islamic education in post-conflict minority contexts serves as an important arena for negotiating state integration, religious identity, and community reconstruction. This study examines the glocalization of Islamic education among Khmer Muslims in post-conflict Cambodia, focusing on how Islamic educational institutions adapt to national education requirements while preserving religious and cultural identity. Using a qualitative historical-analytical design, data were collected through in-depth interviews with 18 participants, including school administrators, teachers, religious leaders, and community education activists, supported by analysis of policy documents, institutional records, donor publications, and archival materials. The findings reveal three major patterns. First, curriculum integration is implemented as strategic adaptation, in which national subjects are selectively adopted to support recognition and student mobility while Islamic instruction remains central to identity formation. Second, institutional governance is hybrid and negotiated, involving state regulation, community authority, parental expectations, and donor influence under asymmetrical power relations. Third, Islamic education functions as a site of identity reconstruction by restoring religious knowledge, collective memory, and moral belonging after historical disruption. The study concludes that glocalization in minority Islamic education is not a seamless process of integration but a negotiated practice shaped by constraint, agency, and survival. These findings refine glocalization theory and highlight the need for flexible, context-sensitive education policies that recognize epistemological plurality and support substantive inclusion for minority communities.