Transformative islamic education as a resource for religious education in the anthropocene: an eco-social synthesis

This scoping review examines how contemporary Islamic education integrates environmental ethics (Eco-Islam) and democratic multicultural values as potential resources for reimagining Religious Education (RE) in the Anthropocene. Drawing on a corpus of 120 international scholarly articles (2014–2025), the study maps dominant thematic mechanisms, evaluates their strengths and weaknesses, and proposes a conceptual framework for transformative RE. While the corpus is dominated by Indonesian studies (79%), reflecting its role as a laboratory for Islamic education innovation, the proposed TES-RE framework is presented as a transferable heuristic, not a prescriptive model, with explicitly stated contextual limitations. The findings identify three integrative mechanisms: Critical Wisdom-Based Environments, which foster holistic, spiritually-grounded pedagogies; Prophetic Eco-Pedagogy, which roots environmental stewardship in Qur’anic hermeneutics and jurisprudence; and Critical Democratic Encounter, which engages Islamic traditions with pluralistic citizenship. Using Floridi’s ‘infosphere’ and Chasokela’s Transformative Learning Theory as lenses, the review argues that these mechanisms offer viable pathways for developing an eco-social, critically reflective RE paradigm. The study concludes with a SWOT analysis and a CIMO-logic framework to guide curriculum and pedagogical innovation in RE, aiming to equip learners for ethical, ecological, and civic engagement in a pluralistic world.