Indonesia has set ambitious targets to achieve the SDGs by 2030, focussing on accelerating the fulfilment of 169 targets across 17 goals, which was initiated in 2015. Early Childhood Education in Indonesia is one of the priorities within the SDGs, specifically under Goal 4: Quality Education. Quality education is regulated in the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia Number 137 of 2014 on the National Standards for Early Childhood Education. This regulation is further reinforced by the Regulation of the Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Number 7 of 2022 on Content Standards for Early Childhood Education, Basic Education, and Secondary Education. To meet this goal, Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency has set specific milestones to be achieved by 2030 (Amanah, Riyanto & Rizqullah 2023).

In alignment with this objective, ECE is recognised as a key priority in the SDGs. Early Childhood Education contributes to achieving these targets by fostering children’s awareness and responsibility for the environment from an early age (between 2 years and 5 years of age). In Indonesia, society places a strong emphasis on religious and cultural values. Introducing religious moderation at a young age can be effectively carried out in educational institutions and at home through parental involvement. Early childhood is known as the ‘golden age’, a period of rapid development that is considered crucial because it represents the best time to stimulate a child’s growth.

In Indonesia, ECE is defined as efforts aimed at nurturing children from birth to the age of six, providing educational stimulation to support their physical and spiritual growth. It prepares children to transition into more advanced stages of education. The standards for Early Childhood Development focus on aspects of child development, including religious and moral values, Pancasila values, physical motor skills, cognitive, language and socio-emotional development (Kemendikbudristek 2024). Thus, ECE plays a critical and strategic role in Indonesia’s educational policies, both in terms of institutional setup and the fulfilment of educational standards.

Indonesia is a highly diverse country with numerous ethnic groups, languages and religions, necessitating a moderate understanding of religion to prevent extremism. Three key reasons underline why Indonesia needs religious moderation. Firstly, religion is inherently peaceful and values humanity. Secondly, sectarianism, often caused by extreme interpretations of religious texts, can lead to conflict and must be avoided. Thirdly, in Indonesia, religious moderation is seen as a strategy for nation-building (Pokja 2020; Saifuddin 2019). For these three reasons, religious moderation has become a social-religious policy implemented by the government through the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Religious moderation has four indicators: national commitment, tolerance, anti-violence and accommodation of local cultures (Mulyana 2023). National commitment refers to a shared national ideology, where Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution and the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia are final and binding for all citizens. No group, ethnicity or religion should challenge or question these foundations. Tolerance is implemented as a movement to respect ethnic and religious differences, allowing each religion to practice its beliefs freely. Anti-violence is a commitment to peaceful conflict resolution through consensus rather than violence. Finally, accommodating local cultures emphasises the importance of preserving Indonesia’s original cultures, which number in the thousands across the nation.

This study aims to develop a collaborative model between teachers and parents in nurturing, maintaining and fostering religious values in early childhood. The data sources in this research consist of subjects from whom the data is obtained (Arikunto 2013; Moleong 2007). This qualitative research paradigm assumes that social, cultural and human behaviour phenomena cannot be fully understood through mere observation but must also be examined in their total context (Murdiyanto 2020). The qualitative paradigm believes that there is natural order within a society, and the researcher’s task is to discover this order rather than impose theoretical boundaries.

Participants were identified using purposive sampling techniques. The study involved three ECE institutions: Bustanul Athfal Aisyiyah Kindergartens in Palopo, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. In Indonesia, ECE institutions are categorised into two types: government-run and foundation-managed. Bustanul Athfal Aisyiyah Kindergartens are operated by the Aisyiyah Foundation, a religious organisation that is part of Muhammadiyah. Bustanul Athfal Aisyiyah. Kindergartens were selected because of their uniqueness in incorporating the Al-Islam Kemuhammadiyahan aspect, which serves as one of the implementations of moderate religious practice. A total of 15 teachers were selected as participants based on inclusion criteria of having taught for at least 5 years and willingness to participate. Likewise, 15 parents were chosen based on having children in the selected institutions and their consent to participate.

The research was conducted in Palopo, Indonesia, a country known for its rich biodiversity, diverse tribes, ethnicities and religions (Von Rintelen, Arida & Häuser 2017). This megadiverse country is home to thousands of tribes and sub-tribes, hundreds of languages and a wide range of religions, all contributing to its unique cultural landscape (Pajarianto 2022). The informants for this study were teachers and parents from three Bustanul Athfal Aisyiyah ECE institutions in Palopo, providing a diverse and representative sample for the research. Bustanul Athfal Aisyiyah ECE institutions are managed by the Aisyiyah women’s religious organisation, which is part of the Muhammadiyah organisation. In Palopo, there are six Bustanul Athfal Aisyiyah schools, all following a relatively similar standard and curriculum to government-managed ECE institutions, with an additional unique curriculum of Al-Islam Kemuhammadiyahan as a characteristic feature of these institutions.

The researcher carried out data collection through semi-structured interviews and observations at the research site. Interviews were conducted with 15 teachers selected as participants at the school during school days, while simultaneously observing educational activities related to religious moderation education. Interviews were also conducted with 15 parents selected as participants at their homes, alongside observing educational activities at home. Data collection began on 01 January and continued until 30 February 2024.

Interviews have the advantage of obtaining current constructions about people, events, activities, organisations, feelings, motivations, acknowledgements, concerns and so forth (Murdiyanto 2020), The reconstruction of these conditions is expected to occur in the future and serves as verification, checking and development of information through construction, reconstruction and projections derived from previous data.

Data analysis was ongoing throughout the data collection process. The analytical approach employed was the Discovering Cultural Themes model, which involved collecting various themes, cultural foci, values and symbols present in each domain (Spradley 1980). The Discovering Cultural Themes method was utilised because, at the final stage of analysis, it forms a holistic unity, ultimately revealing which themes are dominant and which are less dominant. Data analysis occurred simultaneously with the data collection process, following the suggested flow: data reduction, data presentation and conclusion or verification (Miles, Huberman & Saldaña 2018).

Data reduction is used to select data that aligns with the researcher’s needs. After the reduction and sorting stages, the data are then presented. Following this, verification is carried out, and conclusions relevant to the research theme are drawn. In addition, conceptualisation, categorisation and description are developed based on field incidents (Miles et al. 2018).

Ethical approval to conduct this study was obtained from the Institution of Research and Community Services, Muhammadiyah University Palopo (No. 01/KEP/III.3. AU/F/2023).

Etymologically, the word ‘collaboration’ comes from ‘co’ and ‘labour’, which means combining energies or enhancing capacities to achieve pre-set or mutually agreed-upon goals (O’Leary & Van Slyke 2010). Collaboration often refers to the process of working together across borders, sectors, relationships (O’Leary & Van Slyke 2010), or across organisations and even across countries.

In general, collaboration is a pattern and form of relationship carried out between individuals or organisations who wish to share, participate fully with each other and mutually agree to take joint action by sharing information, resources, benefits and responsibility in making joint decisions to achieve a common goal or to resolve various problems faced by those collaborating.

Based on in-depth interviews with teacher informants (1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12) and parent informants (3, 6, 9, 13, 15), the model of collaboration between teachers and parents in instilling religious moderation values in early childhood can be summarised as follows:

In summary, the collaborative model between parents and teachers in delivering religious moderation education can be illustrated as shown in Figure 1.

In Figure 1, teacher and parent collaboration is divided into two main tasks. Firstly, the teacher plays a structural role using the cultural carnival method, mediator, praying according to religion and teaching the national anthem. Teachers carry out the value of moderation in loving culture by involving students in various cultural carnival activities, and teachers play anti-violent attitudes by mediating with other teachers if student disputes occur. Meanwhile, tolerance is a value that provides opportunities for all students to pray based on their respective religious beliefs. Meanwhile, the value of nationalism is instilled by teachers by teaching students various national songs that are sung during each learning break.

Secondly, parents play a cultural role by continuing what the teacher has done with a cultural approach. To instil the value of love for culture, parents introduce their children’s mother tongue (regional language) to sustain the family environment. Meanwhile, the value of anti-violence is carried out by providing an example of resolving problems with dialogue and kinship. Parents instil the value of tolerance by allowing their children to socialise and make friends with their peers in their environment. Parents instil nationalist values by repeating the national anthem taught at school.

Based on information from informants, teachers and parents, a WhatsApp group is used to communicate various aspects related to instilling the value of moderation:

Meanwhile, the values of religious moderation instilled include national commitment or nationalism, non-violence, love of local culture and tolerance, which are currently the main issues in implementing a moderate attitude in a multicultural population. Several educational institutions have played a role in forming a moderate character (Makmur et al. 2023); through intellectual humility, young people have an attitude of religious moderation (Pajarianto et al. 2023b, 2024).

In several other research results, young children in Indonesia are accustomed to behaving with mutual respect and love of peace (Amala, Reswari & Iftitah 2022); therefore, the harmonisation process can be carried out in educational institutions containing early childhood children (Fajriyah & Riswandi 2022). Teachers and parents set examples thus children feel respected (Lian et al. 2020). Collaboration between teachers and parents is deemed necessary to build students’ character. Like teachers must understand the lives and conditions of students at home, similarly parents must also understand the conditions of students at school. There needs to be more coordination between parents and teachers in building students’ character because of a need for coordination and in providing each other with information about the child’s condition at school and home. For this reason, with collaboration between teachers and parents, any problems and disparities in students will be resolved. Collaboration between teachers and parents can ensure a good relationship between teachers and parents and that there is no mutual blame.

Forming the character of students takes work. However, it is not easy because it goes through a long process and involves various elements, both from the human element, facilities and infrastructure, as well as the environment in which the child is raised and educated. These three elements greatly influence the formation of students’ character. Building students’ character requires collaboration between parents and teachers to provide each other with information about the child’s condition and behaviour. Parents provide information to teachers about the child’s condition at home. Likewise, teachers provide information about children’s conditions at school. Thus, parents and teachers work together and each have responsibility. If a child has problems at home, the teacher quickly finds out, and if a child has problems at school, the parents quickly find out. With collaboration between parents and teachers, there will be no mutual blame between teachers and parents if the student has problems.

One area for improvement in educating children so far is that we still find parents who completely hand over their children to the teacher while they are at school and are no longer responsible while they are at school. It is very wrong because parents educate their children not only at home but must also always monitor where their children are.

Based on the observations, it is evident that several activities (Table 1) are carried out by early childhood children at schools which illustrate religious moderation education.

As seen in Table 1, parents and teachers provide support for various respective activities. Parents help their children carry out school programmes that teachers teach. It is a mutual desire to carry out communication that is appropriate to the conditions of the educational unit and the parents. The school community, from class to teachers, can manage communication with parents to unit heads or committees. Units need to manage when and how to communicate appropriately to convey something. The parent’s committee can also take the initiative. Communication can be done in general and in a personal approach.

The collaboration between parents and teachers will be an excellent example of educating young children. Early childhood children tend to imitate what their teachers and parents do (Syuraini et al. 2018); if teachers and parents establish a good relationship, it will become a solid basis for instilling character values in early childhood (Jaedun & Manaf 2020). The gentleness and cooperation among all the parties can help teach children values of tolerance and cooperation, which will provide guidance to the child and penetrate their heart with gentleness and love (Thaib & Syah 2019), resulting in the relationship between all parties becoming stronger (Meron 2021).

The collaboration between teachers and parents in building children’s character is essential since both teachers and parents are responsible for educating children. Parents are responsible for educating their children at home, while teachers are responsible for educating them at school. For this reason, good collaboration between teachers and parents is necessary to foster a reciprocal relationship to build students’ character in accordance with shared hopes, namely, creating a generation with character. Character formation is a long and continuous process starting as early as possible. The character formation process involves interactions between internal and external factors that build students’ attitudes and values. Internal factors are meant to be parents and/or family, while external factors are meant to be schools.