Peace-Oriented Islamic Education in Primary Schools: Institutional Strategies Management for Cultivating Students’ Peace Behavior in East Java-Indonesia

This study aims to examine how peace-oriented Islamic education management is institutionally implemented in primary schools and to analyze its contribution to the cultivation of students’ peace behavior in East Java, Indonesia. A qualitative multi-site case study approach was employed involving five Islamic primary schools. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with school leaders, teachers, students, and parents, classroom and school environment observations, and institutional document analysis. The data were analyzed using thematic coding and cross-case synthesis to identify recurring institutional patterns and contextual variations. The findings reveal that peace-oriented education management operates through four interconnected institutional strategies: value-based curriculum integration, teacher-mediated ethical leadership, institutionalization of peace-centered school culture, and school–community partnership engagement. These strategies collectively foster students’ empathy, cooperation skills, conflict resolution competence, emotional regulation, and social responsibility. Schools demonstrating strong alignment between leadership vision, curriculum design, and organizational culture exhibited more sustainable peace behavior outcomes. This study provides empirical evidence supporting the integration of peace education within institutional management frameworks of faith-based schools. However, the findings are limited to qualitative case studies in one regional context. Future research should employ longitudinal and mixed-method approaches to examine long-term behavioral impacts and test the scalability of peace-oriented management models across different educational systems. This study offers a novel institutional management perspective on peace education by integrating Islamic pedagogical values with contemporary peace education theory. It contributes a culturally responsive model of peace-oriented school governance that extends peace education discourse beyond classroom-level interventions and provides practical insights for policymakers and educational leaders in multicultural and religiously diverse contexts