Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia Mukhammad Wahyudi Institut Agama Islam YPBWI Surabaya ibien79@gmail.
Agus Darmawan Institut Agama Islam YPBWI Surabaya agoesd1508@gmail.
Sevilla Dian Mumtaz Universitas Negeri Surabaya sevillamumtaz06@gmail.
Corresponding Author: Mukhammad Wahyudi Article history: Received: March 18, 2026 | Revised: April 22, 2026 | Available Online: June
20, 2026
Abstract Inclusive education in Indonesia faces persistent tension between global normative commitments and systemic implementation gaps, compounded by efforts to align international inclusion frameworks with the constitutional ethos of Pancasila and Bhinneka Tunggal Ika.
Indonesia's foundational principles of unity in diversity.
Disability-centered models have largely failed to accommodate Indonesia's democratic and cultural specificities, leaving a conceptual void in policy and pedagogical practice.
This study reconstructs inclusive education as a democratic, cultural, and humanistic project through Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS).
This methodology generates interpretive and theory-building outputs from qualitative and mixed-methods evidence, and was applied to 111 studies published between 2014 and 2026.
The synthesis yielded a conceptual model termed culturally grounded democratic humanism, integrating four constructs: inclusivity, democratic education, national culture and local wisdom, and humanistic character.
Three core propositions are advanced.
First, national cultural frameworks.
Pancasila.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, gotong royong .
ommunal cooperatio.
, and local wisdom function not as curricular ornaments but as an ethical grammar that structures institutional governance, social relations, and learning design.
Second, humanistic character constitutes the internal telos of inclusive education, operationalized through five capacities: relational dignity, critical empathy, cooperative solidarity, dialogical courage, and ethical responsibility.
Third, the model bridges critical inclusive theory.
Indonesian constitutional values, and humanistic pedagogy into a coherent architecture, avoiding both abstract universalism and cultural parochialism.
The framework offers a culturally grounded alternative to disability-based paradigms and a testable conceptual architecture for inclusive education policy, school governance, and pedagogical practice across Indonesian educational levels and comparable democraticpluralist societies.
Keywords: democratic inclusive education.
Pancasila.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika.
humanistic character.
Copyright: A 2026.
The authors.
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Introduction Inclusive education in Indonesia faces a tension between normative commitments and implementation capacity.
Only 1.
48% of higher education institutions have Disability Service Units, far below the 4.
7% in the United States and 60% in Singapore.
1 A similar gap is evident at the elementary level: a survey of 108 inclusive elementary schools recorded high scores in the student dimension .
%) but low scores in infrastructure .
%) and funding .
%), with significant disparities across regions.
2 Evaluations in South Sulawesi and East Java found that teacher training was rated as adequate by 72Ae 75% of respondents in major cities but only 48Ae55% in outlying areas.
3 Conversely, a meta-analysis of 30 studies showed a significant effect of learning media based on local wisdom on character development .
= 1.
z = 9.
p < 0.
This situation places national education under three concurrent demands.
The global inclusive agenda binds Indonesia through SDG 4 and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
the Merdeka Curriculum mainstreams the Pancasila Student Profile as a framework for character development.
5 and the literature positions Bhinneka Tunggal Ika not merely as a social reality that needs to be accommodated, but as the constitutive foundation of national identity.
6 Therefore, inclusive education in Indonesia cannot be viewed solely as an access program.
it is simultaneously a democratic, cultural, and humanistic project.
Structural issues remain entrenched at the implementation level:
inadequate teacher training, uneven parental involvement, resource disparities, inclusive practices that rely on individual initiative, and special-assistance teachers (GPK) who Amnesti et al.
AuHigher Education Policy for Students with Disabilities: Ensuring Equality and Inclusive Education in Indonesia.
Singapore, and the United States,Ay Journal of Human Rights.
Culture, and Legal System 3, no.
: 412Ae40.
Utami.
AuExploring Physical Education TeachersAo Perspectives on Inclusive Education in Bandung.
Indonesia,Ay International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2025.
N Fauziyah et al.
AuEvaluating Inclusive Education Initiatives in Indonesia: From Policy to Practice,Ay Educational Process: International Journal 16 .
: e2025232.
Yusuf.
AuMeta-Analysis: The Influence of Local Wisdom-Based Learning Media on StudentsAo Character in Indonesia,Ay International Journal of Educational Methodology 9, no.
: 237Ae48.
A Abdulkarim et al.
AuDevelopment of a AoUnity in DiversityAo-Based Pancasila Education Textbook for Indonesian Universities,Ay International Journal of Instruction 13, no.
: 371Ae86.
F K Fitriyah et al.
AuAnalysis of Character Values in the Indonesian National Motto AoBhinneka Tunggal IkaAo through an Emancipatory Hermeneutical Study,Ay Pegem Education and Teaching Journal 12, no.
: 1Ae9.
F D Harjanti et al.
AuImplementing the Pancasila Student Profile through the Merdeka Curriculum,Ay Social Sciences and Humanities Open, 2025.
Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia have yet to receive formal recognition.
7 A study of teachersAo perceptions revealed a combination of positive attitudes toward inclusion and conceptual ambiguity regarding its meaning.
Based on the literature review above, four gaps in the literature on inclusion in Indonesia have been identified: the field remains dominated by disability studies, while the democratic dimensions of inclusion recognition, representation, and participation have not been adequately developed (RQ.
Studies on Pancasila.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, and local wisdom are empirically rich but have not yet been mobilized as the constitutive foundation of inclusive theory (RQ.
A humanistic character orientation has not yet been operationalized as an internal goal of inclusive education (RQ.
Furthermore, no model integrates these three dimensions into a reconstructive framework for the Indonesian context (RQ.
This study does not limit itself to an implementational diagnosis but rather reconstructs a conceptual architecture that guides practice.
Unlike studies on local wisdom that treat culture as teaching material or character enrichment, this study positions Pancasila.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, and local wisdom as an ethical framework governing institutional governance, social relations, and instructional design.
It also differs from Anglo-European democratic education, which is based on liberal-individualistic assumptions,9 by constructing a version rooted in IndonesiaAos communal orientation.
The primary innovation is the formulation of a culturally grounded democratic humanism model, an integrative framework that, based on the authorAos systematic review, has not yet been explicitly articulated in the literature on inclusive education.
Similar efforts have been made in other contexts, particularly through the integration of Ubuntu with social justice theory in South Africa.
10 however, this model distinctively integrates critical inclusive theory, the constitutional ethos of PancasilaAeBhinneka Tunggal Ika, and Harjanti et al.
AuImplementing the Pancasila Student ProfileAy.
Kawakip.
Murfi, and T.
Taufik.
AuPolicy Analysis of Inclusive Education in Madrasahs in East Java.
Indonesia,Ay Journal of Education in Muslim Societies, 2025.
Sowiyah and R.
Perdana.
AuInclusive Education in Indonesia: TeachersAo Perceptions,Ay WSEAS Transactions on Environment and Development 18 .
: 27Ae36.
Aquarone.
AuStudent Experiences of Democratic Education and the Implications for Social Justice,Ay Theory and Research in Education 19, no.
: 40Ae64.
Mutanga.
AuPerceptions and Experiences of Teachers in Zimbabwe on Inclusive Education and Teacher Training: The Value of the Unhu/Ubuntu Philosophy,Ay International Journal of Inclusive Education 28, no.
: 2032Ae51.
L Seeko.
AuDemocracy and Inclusive Education Policy in Post-1994 South African Schools,Ay Educational Research for Social Change 12, no.
: 114Ae29.
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pedagogical humanism into a single framework rooted in IndonesiaAos pluralisticdemocratic context and operationalizable across educational levels.
Four questions guide this study: how is democratic inclusive education conceptualized and what are its philosophical boundaries (RQ.
to what extent can the values of Pancasila.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, and local wisdom serve as a constitutive foundation rather than a mere supplement (RQ.
what shapes the humanistic character orientation in the Indonesian context (RQ.
and how can these four principles be integrated into a coherent and operational model (RQ.
Three theoretical traditions form the basis of this study while mapping the paradigmatic tensions addressed by the model.
The first tradition, critical theory of inclusive education, employs Nancy FraserAos framework of social justice redistribution, recognition, and representation to demonstrate that inclusion can devolve into tokenism without meaningful democratic participation,11 and that the rhetoric of inclusion can mask new forms of exclusion if power relations in schools are not scrutinized.
12 The second tradition, humanistic-communal philosophy of education, positions humans as relational subjects who grow through community: the philosophy of Ubuntu resonates directly with gotong royong.
13 In the Indonesian Islamic intellectual tradition, moral humanism, tolerance, and openness serve as the orientation for inclusive character education.
14 The third tradition, character education based on national culture and local wisdom, positions local wisdom as a pillar of multicultural national development and demonstrates how the Samin.
Betawi, and Sundanese traditions serve as sources of vibrant character formation, with Syamsi strategically linking local wisdom, character education, and inclusive education in elementary schools.
Each tradition has both strengths and limitations.
The critical-inclusive tradition sharply exposes exclusion, but its liberal-individualistic assumptions are not in harmony Aquarone.
AuStudent Experiences of Democratic Education.
Ay Portelli and P.
Koneeny.
AuInclusive Education: Beyond Popular Discourses,Ay International Journal of Emotional Education 10, no.
: 133Ae44.
Mutanga.
AuPerceptions and Experiences of Teachers in Zimbabwe.
Ay Safitri.
Manshur, and H.
Thoyyar.
AuNurcholish Madjid on Indonesian Islamic Education: A Hermeneutical Study,Ay Jurnal Ilmiah Islam Futura 22, no.
: 244Ae59.
Usman.
AuHumanism in Islamic Education: Indonesian References,Ay International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies 13, no.
95Ae113.
Puspitarini et al.
AuHumanistic Pesantren,Ay Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities 31, no.
I Syamsi.
AuLocal Wisdom-Based Character Education for Students with Special Needs in Inclusive Elementary Schools,Ay Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences 16, no.
: 3329Ae42.
Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia with IndonesiaAos communal orientation.
The humanistic-communal tradition offers a relational foundation that closely aligns with gotong royong, yet it is rarely systematically linked to critical-inclusive theory.
The tradition of local wisdom is empirically robust and culturally authentic, yet it is often treated as a source of particularistic values rather than a theoretical foundation.
This tension is not a technical implementation issue but a philosophical one: what does inclusive education mean in a pluralistic-democratic society? It is these three traditions that are integrated in this study.
Research Methodology This study employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) design16 integrated with Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS).
17 The SLR ensures transparency and traceability in the selection process.
CIS enables the interpretation, configuration, and reconstruction of diverse literary traditions into new conceptual constructs.
This combination aligns with the studyAos configurative orientation of constructing a theoretical framework, rather than testing causal hypotheses or calculating aggregate effect sizes.
18 This design was chosen because the corpus includes quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies.
conceptual reviews.
systematic reviews.
book chapters.
and policy documents relevant to the four main constructs.
The review does not merely select and summarize findings but also assesses conceptual assumptions, theoretical limitations, and the potential for integration across the literature.
The review was conducted in four phases of protocol development: identification, deduplication, and screening based on PRISMA 2020.
data extraction and quality and thematic-interpretive synthesis and conceptual reconstruction, with the protocol developed before the search in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines and additional methodological references.
19 Three databases were used: Scopus .
nternational multidisciplinar.
ERIC .
ducation-specifi.
, and Google Scholar via Page et al.
AuThe PRISMA 2020 Statement,Ay BMJ 372 .
: n71.
M Dixon-Woods et al.
AuConducting a Critical Interpretive Synthesis of the Literature on Access to Healthcare by Vulnerable Groups,Ay BMC Medical Research Methodology 6 .
: 35.
D Gough.
J Thomas, and S Oliver.
AuClarifying Differences between Review Designs and Methods,Ay Systematic Reviews 1 .
: 28.
J Thomas and A Harden.
AuMethods for the Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Research in Systematic Reviews,Ay BMC Medical Research Methodology 8 .
: 45.
D Tranfield.
D Denyer, and P Smart.
AuToward a Methodology for Developing Evidence-Informed Management Knowledge,Ay British Journal of Management 14, no.
: 207Ae22.
H Snyder.
AuLiterature Review as a Research Methodology,Ay Journal of Business Research 104 .
: 333Ae39.
J Paul and A R Criado.
AuThe Art of Writing a Literature Review,Ay International Business Review 29, no.
: 101717.
A Booth et al.
Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review, 3rd ed.
(Sage, 2.
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Publish or Perish v8 .
or Southeast Asian and Indonesian literature that is not fully this combination followed recommendations for cross-regional educational 20 Backward and forward snowballing were conducted via reference lists and citation tracking.
Searches were conducted from October 12, 2025, to April 15, 2026, and updated via PoP on May 31, 2026.
Search strings were constructed from four main constructs and refined through pilot The final Scopus string used full Boolean syntax.
the ERIC search used simple Boolean with the ERIC thesaurus.
and the Google Scholar search via PoP used three separate queries per construct because PoP does not support complex Boolean operations equivalent to those in Scopus (Table .
Table 1.
Search Strings by Database Database Scopus
ERIC
Google Scholar via PoP v8 Search String TITLE-ABS-KEY: (Auinclusive educationAy OR Auinclusive schoolAy OR Auinclusion in educationA.
AND (Audemocratic educationAy OR Audemocratic valueAy OR Aucitizenship educationAy OR Aucivic educationAy OR Audemocratic participationA.
AND (Aucharacter educationAy OR Auhumanistic educationAy OR Auhumane pedagogyAy OR Aumoral educationAy OR Auvalues educationAy OR Aunational identityAy OR Aunational cultureAy OR Aulocal wisdomAy OR Auindigenous knowledgeAy OR AuPancasilaAy OR AuBhinneka Tunggal IkaA.
AND PUBYEAR > 2013 AND PUBYEAR < 2027 AND (LIMIT-TO(DOCTYPE.
AuarA.
OR LIMIT-TO(DOCTYPE.
AureA.
OR LIMIT-TO(DOCTYPE.
AuchA.
) AND (LIMIT-TO(LANGUAGE.
AuEnglishA.
(Descriptors: AuInclusionAy OR AuInclusive SchoolsAy OR AuMainstreamingA.
AND (Descriptors: AuDemocratic ValuesAy OR AuCitizenship EducationAy OR AuCivicsA.
AND (Descriptors: AuValues EducationAy OR AuMoral ValuesAy OR AuCharacter EducationAy OR AuCultural AwarenessAy OR AuIndigenous KnowledgeA.
Publication Date: 2014Ae2026.
Publication Type: Journal Articles.
Reports.
Book Chapters.
Language: English.
Query 1 (Inclusion-Democrac.
: Auinclusive educationAy Audemocratic educationAy Indonesia.
Query 2 (Character-Humanisti.
: Aucharacter educationAy AuhumanisticAy AuinclusiveAy Indonesia.
Query 3 (Culture-Local Wisdo.
: Aulocal wisdomAy OR AuPancasilaAy OR AuBhinneka Tunggal IkaAy Auinclusive educationAy.
All from 2014Ae2026, max 200 results per query, merged and internally deduplicated before cross-database merging.
The 2014Ae2026 range was selected because 2014 marked the beginning of the implementation of broader, more inclusive policies following the evaluation of the Ministry of Education and Culture Regulation No.
70/2009, and it also captures Gusenbauer and N.
Haddaway.
AuWhich Academic Search Systems Are Suitable for Systematic Reviews or Meta-Analyses?,Ay Research Synthesis Methods 11, no.
: 181Ae217.
Bramer et .
AuOptimal Database Combinations for Literature Searches in Systematic Reviews,Ay Systematic Reviews 6, no.
: 245.
Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia developments in the Merdeka Curriculum and the Pancasila Student Profile in 2022 and Theoretical works published before 2014 were still included if identified through snowball sampling.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria encompass contextual dimensions .
ll levels of education within a pluralistic-democratic society, with a balanced emphasis on Indonesia.
Southeast Asia, and the Global Sout.
, concepts .
nclusive, democratic, humanistic, nationally-rooted, locally-informed education, or community-based pedagog.
, types of contributions .
mpirical, conceptual, theoretical, reviews, book chapters, dissertations, and policy document.
, year, language (English, or Indonesian with adequate English metadat.
, and source quality .
ndexed and verifiabl.
Editorials, short opinion pieces, news articles, blogs, conference abstracts without full text, technical accessibility studies without pedagogical discussion, and predatory journals were The identification phase yielded 1,345 database records (Scopus n = 698.
ERIC n = 143.
Google Scholar via PoP after internal deduplication n = .
plus 63 snowballing records .
ackward = 41.
forward = .
, for a total of 1,408 records.
After cross-database normalization and deduplication using Mendeley .
xact DOI matching and title similarity Ou 90%), 217 duplicates were removed, leaving 1,191 records for title-abstract screening.
During this screening, 874 records were excluded .
158 non-academic.
did not meet language criteri.
, leaving 317 records for full-text assessment.
Of these, 12 were inaccessible .
due to paywalls.
4 due to broken link.
, leaving 305 full texts for A total of 194 were excluded at this stage .
did not address at least two main constructs.
47 had methodological weaknesses based on the MMAT.
26 were duplicate.
, leaving 111 studies for the final synthesis (Table .
Figure 1.
PRISMA 2020 Flowchart for the Literature Selection Process FIKROTUNA: Jurnal Pendidikan dan Manajemen Islam.
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Table 2.
Summary of the PRISMA 2020 Flowchart Stage Identification: Scopus Identification: ERIC Identification: Google Scholar via PoP Snowballing .
Total identifications Duplicates removed Number Description Initial search October 12, 2025.
updated May 31, 2026.
Simple Boolean search using the ERIC Three separate queries were internally Tracking of bibliographies and 1,408 Before combined deduplication.
Mendeley: Exact DOI and title similarity Ou 90%.
Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia Stage Filtered records .
itles and abstract.
Excluded during screening Full-text articles assessed Excluded after full text review Final inclusion in the CIS synthesis Number Description 1,191 Two independent reviewers.
Irrelevant .
non-academic .
After 12 were inaccessible .
behind a 4 broken link.
Inadequate constructs .
Distribution in Table 4.
Screening was conducted independently by two reviewers using three decision categories .
nclude, exclude, uncertai.
discrepancies were resolved through structured discussion and, when necessary, re-examination of the full text.
Inter-rater agreement was measured using CohenAos kappa: for title-abstract screening, = 0.
% CI: 0.
80Ae0.
almost perfec.
, and for full-text assessment, = 0.
% CI: 0.
73Ae 21 Disagreement primarily arose in distinguishing adequate conceptual studies from extensive opinions lacking a theoretical foundation.
The data extraction matrix was developed a priori, pilot-tested on 10 randomly selected articles.
It included author/year, source, region, level of education, design, sample, theoretical framework, treatment of the four constructs, findings, and limitations.
Two independent coders extracted the data and then reconciled their results.
Quality assessment used the 2018 version of the MMAT for empirical studies.
22 and the adapted MacInnisAeJaakkola rigor checklist for conceptual articles .
larity of contribution, integration of theory, internal coherence, positionin.
23 Studies were classified as high (Ou 80%), moderate .
Ae79%), and low (< 60%): 62 .
9%) were high, 38 .
2%) were moderate, and 11 .
9%) were low.
Consistent with the CIS logic, low-quality studies were not automatically excluded but were assigned a lower interpretive weight.
based solely on low-quality studies were included only if they converged with at least two high- or moderate-quality studies.
otherwise, they were marked as indicative.
The synthesis was conducted in three stages: .
line-by-line coding of the 111 studies using an inductive framework organized around four constructs.
identification Landis and G.
Koch.
AuThe Measurement of Observer Agreement for Categorical Data,Ay Biometrics 33, no.
: 159Ae74.
Q N Hong et al.
AuMixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT).
Version 2018Ay (Canadian Intellectual Property Office, 2.
MacInnis.
AuA Framework for Conceptual Contributions in Marketing,Ay Journal of Marketing 75, 4 .
: 136Ae54.
Jaakkola.
AuDesigning Conceptual Articles: Four Approaches,Ay AMS Review 10 .
: 18Ae26.
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of six descriptive themes of inclusion as accommodation.
inclusion as recognition and democratic participation as a pedagogical practice.
Pancasila and Bhinneka Tunggal Ika as an integrative ethos.
local wisdom as a source of character and humanism as a relational ontology.
the formulation of analytical themes and conceptual reconstruction, resulting in a framework of culturally grounded democratic humanism.
Validity was strengthened through four procedures:
creening, extraction, and independent coding by two reviewer.
etention of contextual informatio.
udit trail of search strings and eligibility decision.
and confirmability .
eflective memos regarding the researcherAos position as an Indonesian education scholar committed to Pancasila, inclusive pedagogy, and humanistic educatio.
24 The study used only publicly available secondary literature and therefore did not require formal ethical approval.
Three methodological limitations must be acknowledged: the restriction to Englishlanguage sources potentially excludes some Indonesian or regional-language Google Scholar via PoP does not support complex Boolean operators equivalent to those in Scopus, which was compensated for by using three separate queries per construct .
aximum of 200 result.
and the studyAos reconstructive ambition involves an interpretive dimension that was safeguarded through audit trails and reflexivity.
Results This section presents descriptive findings and thematic configurations from 111 interpretations of meaning and implications are presented in the Discussion.
The corpus is heterogeneous in terms of methodology, geography, and educational level, which reinforces the use of CIS, since the focus is not on a single effect but on the structure of meaning that explains how the four constructs are interrelated (Table .
Table 3.
Characteristics of the Corpus of 111 Studies Dimension Year of publication Region Category 2014Ae2017 / 2018Ae2021 / 2022Ae2024 / 2025Ae2026 Indonesia Other Southeast Asia Other Global South Europe North America/Australia/New Zealand Cross-national/comparative Number .
= .
18 / 39 / 42 / 12 48 .
Lincoln and E.
Guba.
Naturalistic Inquiry (Beverly Hills.
CA: Sage, 1.
Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia Level Design Dominant Construct Early Childhood Education / Elementary School / 5 / 34 / 21 / 12 / 17 Junior HighAeHigh School / MadrasahAeIslamic / 22 Boarding School / Higher Education / Cross-level Quantitative / Qualitative / Mixed / Conceptual / 28 / 34 / 12 / 19 / 9 Review / Book Chapter / Policy-Dissertation /6/3 Inclusivity 57 .
Democracy/Citizenship 19 .
National culture/local wisdom 23 .
Humanistic character 12 .
The corpus reveals four initial patterns.
First, the international literature on inclusion remains strongly shaped by discourses on rights, disability, access, and accommodation .
4% position inclusivity as the dominant construc.
Second, the literature on democratic education emphasizes participation, student voice, and social justice, but does not always link these to everyday inclusion practices.
Third, the Indonesian literature on Pancasila.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, and local wisdom is empirically rich .
7%) but is often positioned as a source of values or character-building material rather than a theoretical foundation.
Fourth, humanistic literature is strongly oriented toward dignity, empathy, and moral development .
8%) but has not yet been operationalized as a goal of democratic inclusive education.
RQ1 Results: Conceptualization of Democratic Inclusive Education.
The synthesis indicates that democratic inclusive education goes beyond a technical definition of services for students with special needs.
it encompasses the right to be recognized, heard, involved, and to influence the structure of learning.
25 Three dimensions recur as its core:
he fair distribution of resources, support, time, and opportunitie.
, recognition .
he acceptance of identity, abilities, religion, language, culture, gender, and physical conditions as legitimate parts of the school communit.
, and representation .
he involvement of students, teachers, parents, and the community in formulating rules and The synthesis also identified a significant limitation: many studies, including Indonesian research on teachersAo perceptions, school readiness, and policy implementation, still frame inclusion within the context of disability or policy Aquarone.
AuStudent ExperiencesAy.
Bell.
AuTheoretical Foundations for Social Justice Education,Ay in Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice (Routledge, 2.
, 3Ae26.
Feu.
AuDemocracy and Education,Ay Studies in Philosophy and Education 36, no.
: 647Ae61.
Sanahuja.
Moliner, and L.
Moliner.
AuInclusive and Democratic Practices in Primary School Classrooms,Ay Educational Research 62, no.
: 111Ae27.
Bartlett.
AuInclusive Civic Education and School Democracy through Participatory Budgeting,Ay Education.
Citizenship and Social Justice 19, no.
: 362Ae80.
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compliance, so the core issue is not merely the availability of facilities or training but structural readiness and disparities in implementation across regions.
RQ2 Findings: National Culture and Local Wisdom as a Constitutive Foundation.
Pancasila.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, gotong royong, and local wisdom have the theoretical capacity to serve as a constitutive foundation for inclusion.
In Indonesian literature, these values are not merely normative themes but social practices that shape how communities understand togetherness, difference, responsibility, and harmony.
Pancasila and Bhinneka Tunggal Ika function as a framework for plural citizenship,27 and local wisdom as pillars of multicultural nation-building.
28 Studies of the Samin.
Betawi.
Sunda.
Javanese Keraton, and Menyama Braya traditions demonstrate that local culture operates through narratives, symbols, rituals, art, and community experiences.
29 SyamsiAos contribution stands out for directly linking local wisdom, character education, and inclusion in elementary schools.
The dominant weakness of the corpus: most literature on local wisdom still treats culture as teaching material or as a means of character enrichment, rather than as a guiding principle for institutional design, classroom management, teacher-student relationships, and community participation.
thus, culture risks becoming a symbolic ornament that does not shape the structure of inclusion.
RQ3 Results: Humanistic Character Orientation.
Humanistic character is not a list of moral values taught in isolation, but rather a pedagogical orientation that views students as dignified, relational human beings who grow through ethical interactions.
Ubuntu reinforces the idea that humans become fully human through relationships with their community, a framework aligned with gotong royong, as both reject extreme individualism and view educational success as a relational achievement.
30 Humanistic pedagogy and prosocial character education strengthen social participation, a sense of Sowiyah and Perdana.
AuInclusive Education in IndonesiaAy.
Efendi et al.
AuInclusive Education for Students with Special Needs at Indonesian Public Schools,Ay International Journal of Instruction 15, no.
: 967Ae80.
Fauziyah et al.
AuEvaluating Inclusive Education Initiatives.
Ay Abdulkarim et al.
AuDevelopment of a AoUnity in DiversityAo-Based Pancasila Education TextbookAy.
Fitriyah et al.
AuAnalysis of Character Values.
Ay Suwito Eko et al.
AuLocal Wisdom: Pillar Development.
Ay Hidayati et al.
AuExploring the ImplementationAy.
Suswandari.
AuIncorporating BeliefsAy.
Rosala and Budiman.
AuDance Learning Based on Local WisdomAy.
Sedya Santosa.
Handoko Santoso, and Ichsan.
AuIntegrating Values from Early 19th-Century Javanese Court Literature into Multicultural Character Education,Ay Educational Process: International Journal, 2025.
Syamsi.
AuCharacter Education Based on Local Wisdom.
Ay Mutanga.
AuPerceptions and Experiences of Teachers in Zimbabwe.
Ay Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia belonging, and the development of character strengths in inclusive classrooms.
31 In the context of Indonesian Islam, a thought that emphasizes morality, freedom, tolerance, and respect for pluralism strengthens humanistic foundations through Islamic education.
Islamic boarding schools .
, school management, and Neo-Humanistic RQ4 Results: Integrative Synthesis.
The four constructs cannot be treated as standalone components.
Inclusive education provides an orientation toward rights and democracy provides the principles of participation and representation.
culture provides local legitimacy and the ethics of community.
and humanistic character provides the goal of human formation.
The model emerging from the CIS synthesis is formulated as a Auculturally grounded democratic humanismAy framework that views inclusive education as a democratic project rooted in national culture and directed toward the formation of humanistic character.
Figure 2 visualizes the modelAos architecture as four concentric layers with reciprocal relationships: the outer layer serves as the context and filter for the inner layers, while the two-way arrows indicate dialectical interactions rather than a unidirectional hierarchy.
The normative-democratic layer filters cultural elements entering the constitutive foundation.
the cultural-constitutive layer contextualizes pedagogical practices.
and the pedagogical-inclusive layer is directed toward a humanistic-character telos that strengthens the capacity for democratic participation through reflective feedback.
The mapping of results according to the research questions is summarized in Table 4.
Figure 2.
Elements of the Culturally Grounded Democratic Humanism Model N E Krivas.
AuIntegrating Humane Pedagogy and Whole-School SustainabilityAy (Saybrook University.
N Leach.
AuImpactful Learning Environments,Ay Journal of Humanistic Psychology 62, no.
377Ae96.
R White.
AuSchool-Wide Mediated Prosocial Development,Ay Multicultural Education Review 8, 4 .
: 213Ae29.
K Vuorinen.
AuA Character Strength Intervention in 11 Inclusive Finnish Classrooms,Ay Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs 19, no.
: 45Ae57.
Safitri.
Manshur, and Thoyyar.
AuNurcholish MadjidAy.
Usman.
AuHumanism in Islamic EducationAy.
Puspitarini et al.
AuHumanistic PesantrenAy.
A Rais.
AuHumanistic Education Management Based on the Principle of AoKesangtimuran,AoAy Pegem Education and Teaching Journal 12, no.
: 280Ae87.
N K S K
Wardhani.
AuCultivating Elementary School StudentsAo Characters through Neo-Humanistic Education,Ay Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences 43, no.
: 323Ae28.
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Table 4.
Mapping of Synthesis Results According to Research Questions Main Analytical Themes Synthetic Meaning RQ1 Inclusion redistribution.
Democratic inclusive education is not about recognition, representation, and placement or accommodation, but rather a democratic participation.
school structure that ensures participatory RQ2 Pancasila.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika.
National culture serves as an ethical grammar gotong royong, and local wisdom for grounding inclusion, not merely as a serve as constitutive values.
curricular ornament.
RQ3 Humanistic character encompasses The goal of inclusion is not merely access to empathy, learning, but the formation of individuals solidarity, and moral responsibility.
capable of living together justly.
Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia Main Analytical Themes Synthetic Meaning RQ4 The integration of democracy.
A model of culturally grounded democratic inclusivity, national culture, and humanism: an inclusive framework that is pedagogical humanism.
globally valid while rooted in Indonesian To enhance transparency between the propositions and the corpus.
Table 5 presents an evidence map linking the five synthetic propositions to key supporting studies and evidence categories.
Table 5.
Evidence Map of Synthetic Propositions and Supporting Studies No.
Synthetic Propositions P1 Democratic participatory parity through redistribution of support.
P2 National culture and local wisdom can serve as the constitutive foundation of inclusion when they shape relationships, and practices.
Humanistic character is an internal goal of inclusion because meaningful inclusion must foster relational dignity, empathy, solidarity, and ethical responsibility.
IndonesiaAos inclusion model requires integrating global rights norms with local values to avoid falling into abstract Culturally democratic humanism unites pedagogical humanism within Key Supporting Studies Aquarone .
Bell .
Feu .
Sanahuja et al.
Bartlett .
Portelli & Koneeny .
Seeko .
Curieses .
Mansimova .
Abdulkarim et al.
Fitriyah et al.
Suwito Eko et al.
Hidayati et al.
Suswandari .
Rosala & Budiman .
Syamsi .
Sedya Santosa et al.
Hendratno et al.
Mutanga .
White .
Vuorinen .
Leach .
Krivas .
Safitri et al.
Usman .
Puspitarini .
Rais .
Wardhani .
Giannakakis .
Amnesti et al.
Nuryadi .
Japar .
Efendi et .
Fauziyah et al.
Harjanti et al.
Kawakip et .
Utami .
Evidence Strong: 7 high.
Moderate: 2.
Convergence of P1AeP4 with the anchor studies by Mutanga .
Aquarone .
Syamsi .
Fitriyah et al.
, and Suwito Eko et al.
Strengths: crossthematic convergence, 5 anchor studies.
Strong: 8 high.
Moderate: 3.
Strong: 8 high.
Moderate: 3.
Strong: 6 high.
Moderate: 4.
Based on the characteristics of the corpus and the four sets of findings, this study yields five synthetic propositions.
P1: Democratic inclusive education ensures participatory parity through access, recognition, representation, and the redistribution of P2: National culture and local wisdom can serve as a constitutive foundation FIKROTUNA: Jurnal Pendidikan dan Manajemen Islam.
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when used to shape school structures, relationships, and practices, rather than merely enriching curriculum content.
P3: Humanistic character is an intrinsic goal of inclusion because meaningful inclusion must foster relational dignity, empathy, solidarity, and ethical responsibility.
P4: The Indonesian model of inclusion requires integrating global rights norms with local values to avoid falling into either abstract universalism or cultural P5: Culturally grounded democratic humanism offers a reconstructive framework that ties these four dimensions together into a coherent conceptual Discussion The Results section presents thematic findings from 111 studies.
it interprets their meaning in dialogue with theory, the Indonesian context, and opposing positions, and links each interpretation to the research questions that guide it.
The main finding is a shift in how inclusion is understood: from accommodation policies toward an educational architecture that ensures participatory parity, is rooted in national culture, and is directed toward the formation of humanistic character.
The discussion is organized in the order of RQ1AeRQ4, preceded by an interpretation of the corpusAos characteristics and the strength of the evidence underpinning all claims of the model.
The nature of the corpus as a finding, not a backdrop The corpus distribution should be interpreted as a finding in its own right.
The dominance of inclusivity as the primary construct .
4%) over humanistic characteristics .
8%) suggests that the literature continues to frame inclusion as a matter of access and In contrast, the dimension of the purpose for which inclusion is pursued is rarely articulated.
The dominance of Indonesian studies .
2%) underscores their contextual relevance, but the skewed distribution across educational levels .
lementary school: 34 studies.
early childhood education: only 5 studie.
indicates an uneven evidence base.
This pattern is not merely a quantitative map: the construct that should serve as the telos is, in fact, the least developed.
thus, integrating it into the framework of inclusion is a contribution demanded by the state of the literature itself, not merely a theoretical choice of the author.
Heterogeneity and Calibration of Evidence Strength The corpus is heterogeneous methodologically, geographically, and by educational Within the logic of critical interpretive synthesis, heterogeneity is not a threat to Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia validity but a prerequisite.
What is sought is a structure of meaning that explains the interconnectedness of constructs, not a single effect size.
33 Consequently, the strength of a modelAos claims depends on cross-tradition convergence, not on statistical weight.
Quality assessment reinforces this calibration: of 111 studies, 62 were categorized as high, 38 as moderate, and 11 as low.
34 Claims based solely on low-quality studies are treated as indicative.
therefore, propositions supported by many high-quality studies (P1Ae P.
are stated with higher confidence than integrative claims (P.
, which are configurative in nature and await validation.
This distinction in the degree of confidence is important to prevent the model from being interpreted as a validated finding.
RQ1 Inclusion as a Democratic Project and Its Philosophical Limits RQ1 asks how democratic inclusive education is conceptualized and where its philosophical boundaries lie.
Critical literature agrees that inclusion must be understood beyond administrative placement.
35 The question is what hinders its internalization in Indonesia.
The synthesis identifies the main barriers as paradigmatic, not merely managerial: when regulations and quality indicators position inclusion as a service for specific groups, institutional logic asks how different students adapt to the system.
Democratic reconstruction reverses this question: how should the school system be transformed so that all students can participate with dignity?36 Within FraserAos framework of justice, participatory parity demands the simultaneous redistribution, recognition, and representation.
37 Its application to an evaluation in South Sulawesi and East Java, which found that teachersAo preparedness was rated as adequate by 72Ae75% of respondents in major cities but only 48Ae55% in outlying areas, yields a testable theoretical extension.
This disparity is commonly interpreted as a problem of training distribution.
The synthesis interprets it differently: it may simultaneously reflect a deficit in recognition and representation, as teachers in outlying areas are less recognized as professional agents with a voice in the design of contextual inclusion practices.
Thus.
FraserAos framework, typically applied to students, is here extended to teachers as subjects of parity: teachersAo Dixon-Woods et al.
AuConducting a Critical Interpretive Synthesis.
Ay Hong et al.
AuMixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT).
Version 2018.
Ay Julie Allan.
AuThe Sociology of Disability and the Struggle for Inclusive Education,Ay British Journal of Sociology of Education 31, no.
: 603Ae19.
Navin Kikabhai.
AuHow Educational Systems Respond to Diversity.
Inclusion, and Social Justice,Ay The British Journal of Sociology 73, no.
: 685Ae98.
Aquarone.
AuStudent Experiences of Democratic Education.
Ay FIKROTUNA: Jurnal Pendidikan dan Manajemen Islam.
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recognition and representation become structural prerequisites for parity in student This claim is falsifiable if strengthening teachersAo recognition and representation is not linked to more contextual inclusion practices.
in that case, this extension is invalidated.
Without distributive justice, inclusion degenerates into ability profiling, and policies that fail to transform structures merely produce an illusion of The philosophical limitation of this concept lies in its own prerequisites.
Democratic inclusive education presupposes a community willing to grant participatory standing to all its members.
in contexts with high authority asymmetry, such as the kiaisantri relationship within the sanad structure, for example, the conceptAos scope narrows and requires an additional framework.
The second limitation is practical in nature and is the target of critiques regarding implementation effectiveness, which frame democratic participation as an obstacle to efficiency given resource constraints.
39 This critique is valid in the short term: participatory forums are indeed time-consuming.
However, the synthesis shows that efficiency achieved without participation results in policies that fail to take root because the school community does not own them.
40 The trade-off is not between democracy and effectiveness, but rather between short-term efficiency and medium-term sustainability.
the model treats participatory structures as institutional investments rather than burdens.
RQ2 National culture as a constitutive foundation RQ2 asks to what extent Pancasila.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, and local wisdom can serve as a constitutive foundation, rather than merely a complement.
A constitutive position addresses two opposing risks.
Abstract universalism disregards social structures, moral language, and local historical experiences.
conversely, cultural parochialism uses local wisdom to justify illusory harmony, hierarchy, or exclusion cloaked in tradition.
This study does not absolutize local culture but rather places it in a critical dialogue with the principles of democracy, rights, and dignity: Pancasila provides a horizon of social justice, and humanity.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika provides the principle of unity in diversity.
Mel Ainscow.
AuPromoting Inclusion and Equity in Education,Ay Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy 6, no.
: 7Ae16.
K Mansimova.
AuThe Role of the Teacher in the Inclusive Education System,Ay Scientific Work 19, no.
: 105Ae10.
Efendi et al.
AuInclusive Education for Students with Special Needs.
Ay Sanahuja.
Moliner, and Moliner.
AuInclusive and Democratic Practices.
Ay Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia gotong royong provides a mechanism for solidarity.
and local wisdom offers concrete practices, as seen in the interconnection between local wisdom, character education, and inclusion in elementary schools.
The term Auethical grammarAy does not refer to linguistic grammar but is adapted from PleasantsAo interpretation of Wittgenstein, which posits grammar as the implicit rules governing the use of concepts within a way of life.
42 In this model, ethical grammar is a set of moral principles and customs, such as mutual aid, deliberation, mutual respect, and consideration, that govern how a community understands obligations, rights, differences, and togetherness.
Its distinction from BourdieuAos AuhabitusAy is substantive, not merely Habitus is a descriptive-sociological concept: a disposition that is both produced by and reproduces social structures.
43 Ethical grammar is prescriptiveconstitutive: it sets boundaries regarding what is appropriate, just, and humane in educational relationships.
This is where its theoretical contribution lies, rather than merely borrowing from Bourdieu.
the model rejects the sufficiency of habitus for normative purposes and shifts the function of culture from content .
hat is taugh.
to structure .
ow educational relationships are organize.
This shift can be tested: if cultural integration that stops at the level of content yields inclusion outcomes equivalent to those of structural integration, then this constitutive claim is not supported.
Precisely because it is prescriptive, the constitutive position is vulnerable to postcolonial and feminist critiques that worry that local wisdom perpetuates traditional hierarchies, gender bias, and ableism.
44 These critiques deserve to be fully taken to heart:
not all local practices are automatically inclusive.
The model responds not by defending tradition, but by positioning a normative-democratic layer as a critical filter.
local wisdom is worthy of serving as a foundation only to the extent that it reinforces recognition, participation, and dignity for all students, and is rejected when it perpetuates exclusion.
It is this filter that makes constitutive claims falsifiable at the level of practice: a tradition Syamsi.
AuCharacter Education Based on Local Wisdom.
Ay Nigel Pleasants.
AuWittgenstein.
Ethics, and Basic Moral Certainty,Ay Inquiry 51, no.
: 241Ae67.
Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron.
Reproduction in Education.
Society, and Culture, vol.
(Sage, 1.
Curieses.
AuFor an Inclusive School: The Gender Frontiers,Ay Revista Internacional de Educaciyn para la Justicia Social 6, no.
: 63Ae79.
Portelli and Koneeny.
AuInclusive Education: Beyond Popular Discourses.
Ay FIKROTUNA: Jurnal Pendidikan dan Manajemen Islam.
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that fails the recognition-participation-dignity test is removed from the foundation rather than rationalized as local wisdom.
RQ3 Humanistic character as the telos of inclusive education RQ3 asks what shapes the orientation of humanistic character in the Indonesian The humanistic character in this model is not abstract humanism but rather relational humanism, which places individual dignity within the context of social Without this orientation, the achievements of inclusion can easily become hollow: access without humanism results in physical presence without a sense of differentiation without humanism turns into labeling.
tolerance without humanism stops at a mere attitude of letting things be.
This telos consists of five mutually supportive capacities: relational dignity, critical empathy, cooperative solidarity, dialogical courage, and ethical responsibility, which together make the quality of relationships in the classroom, rather than merely the number of inclusive schools, the measure of success.
Its ontological foundation resonates with the philosophy of Ubuntu, which affirms that humans become human through their relationships with the community, aligning with gotong royong because both reject extreme individualism.
45 The tradition of care ethics places relationships at the center of education with a different emphasis.
46 This difference is not a contradiction but rather a complementarity.
Care ethics provides a microrelational foundation that enriches the operationalization of critical empathy and relational dignity.
The contribution at this level is not to discover a new relationality, but rather to configure it as the internal telos of inclusion, rather than as an additional value beyond the goal of access.
This communal-relational approach can be challenged from two directions.
Secular-liberal humanism is skeptical that a relational orientation obscures individual 47 The response: relational humanism here is not unlimited communitarianism.
it places individual dignity at the core, with relationships serving as the means by which individuals become whole rather than absorbed, and the principle of just and civilized Mutanga.
AuPerceptions and Experiences of Teachers in Zimbabwe.
Ay Nel Noddings.
Caring: A Relational Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (University of California Press, 2.
Giannakakis.
AuNeoliberalism and Culture in Higher Education,Ay Studies in Philosophy and Education 39, no.
: 365Ae82.
Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia humanity acts as a safeguard against the absorption of individuals into the community.
From another perspective, competency-based character education argues that relational humanism is too abstract to be measured.
48 This criticism is valid and constitutes a separate measurement agenda.
however, without a clear telos-oriented focus, character assessment instruments risk becoming mere behavioral checklists detached from relational context.
It is this tension between a rich telos and the need for definitive measures that leads to the limitations and research agenda discussed below.
RQ4 Integrative model architecture RQ4 asks how the four principles are integrated into a coherent and operational The answer is not the sum of the four constructs, but rather their arrangement as four mutually conditioning layers.
Inclusive education provides an orientation toward rights and access.
democracy provides the principles of participation and representation.
national culture provides local legitimacy and an ethic of togetherness.
and humanistic character provides the goal of human development.
The relationships between the layers are dialectical, not unidirectional and hierarchical: the normative-democratic layer filters cultural elements entering the constitutive foundation.
the cultural-constitutive layer contextualizes pedagogical practices.
and the pedagogical-inclusive layer is directed toward a humanistic telos that, through reflective feedback, reinforces the capacity for democratic participation.
It is this configuration that distinguishes the model from a mere list of values: each layer performs a function that cannot be replaced by another layer, so that removing one of them, for example, access without a humanistic telos, can be predicted to result in a sense of presence without a sense of belonging.
Such targeted predictions make the modelAos architecture testable through design-based research, rather than merely being declared coherent.
Conceptual Contributions While the previous section explained the modelAos content, this section outlines what it changes in the theoretical landscape.
The contributions can be mapped across three First, the model reconstructs inclusion as a democratic project rather than a compensatory policy, thereby shifting the focus from Auwho needs to be accommodatedAy to Auwhat structures need to be changed so that every subject can participate.
Ay Second, it Thomas Lickona.
AuSmart and Good High Schools,Ay 2005.
Marvin W.
Berkowitz and Melinda C.
Bier.
AuWhat Works in Character Education,Ay Journal of Research in Character Education .
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mobilizes Pancasila.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, gotong royong, and local wisdom as theoryforming principles, a constitutive ethical grammar rather than rhetorical add-ons.
Third, it overcomes the fragmentation that has long separated inclusive education, democratic citizenship, character education, and humanistic pedagogy, a fragmentation evident when inclusion is discussed as access, democracy as civic practice, culture as local values, and character as a list of moral principles, by uniting all four within a single framework for analyzing policy, school practices, and instructional design.
This contribution claim is configurative in nature: its novelty lies in the configuration itself, not in the discovery of a single previously unknown construct.
Implications for Policy and Practice Practical implications follow directly from this constitutive position.
Improving inclusive education requires more than simply expanding the number of schools.
must ensure that schools possess democratic and humanistic capacities.
Strengthening infrastructure, funding, and teacher training must be accompanied by participatory governance that involves students, parents, teachers, the community, and local The urban-rural divide underscores that equality cannot be achieved through one-size-fits-all policies.
context-sensitive resource allocation is required.
Teacher training should not be limited to techniques for identifying special needs.
Still, it should also encompass classroom democracy, dialogic pedagogy, differentiated instruction, anti-stigma ethics, bias reflection, and the utilization of local wisdom as a design principle.
Table 6 summarizes the implications of the cross-level model.
Table 6.
Implications of the Model for Policy.
Schools, and Pedagogy Level Direction of Implications National/regional Shift the focus of inclusion from administrative compliance to participatory School Transforming schools into Governance moral-democratic Teacher Shaping teachers as democratic-cultural agents.
Operational Examples Aligning regulations, affirmative funding, recognition of GPK, and quality indicators that encompass participation, a sense of belonging, and anti-stigma.
Forums for student and parent voices, inclusive culture audits, and dialogicrestorative Training in differentiated instruction.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL), dialogic pedagogy, bias reflection, antistigma education, and the integration of local wisdom as a design principle.
Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia Curriculum and Learning Integrating constitutive values as the framework for learning experiences.
Assessment and Evaluation Measuring success through the quality of relationships and participation, not just Developing the Pancasila Student Profile project (P-.
, citizenship education, and character through participatory projects that involve real diversity.
Indicators include a sense of safety and belonging, participation by vulnerable students, peer collaboration, and a reduction in labeling practices.
Limitations The studyAos limitations encompass interrelated methodological and substantive On the methodological side, the restriction to English-language sources may exclude Indonesian- or regional-language publications.
Boolean limitations in Google Scholar via PoP were mitigated by running separate queries per construct.
and the studyAos reconstructive ambition entails an interpretive dimension that is safeguarded through audit trails and reflexivity.
On the substantive side, cross-level transferability is limited:
most evidence comes from elementary school .
and middle school .
, while early childhood education (PAUD) accounts for only five studies.
thus, claims regarding a model for PAUD are tentative.
Participation among 3Ae6-year-olds takes the form of participation through play and visual expression rather than deliberative forums.
The higher education context .
, with the autonomy of adult students and research pressures, demands a different operationalization.
The feasibility of gotong royong in highly mobile urban contexts remains uncertain.
large urban schools may require structured peer support networks rather than spontaneous, kinship-based The madrasah-pesantren context .
, with its dynamics of religious authority, sanad structures, and kiai-santri relationships, requires an additional analytical framework, a limitation previously noted as a philosophical boundary of the concept in the discussion of RQ1.
Finally, the reconstructive nature of the studies means that the model is a theoretical framework that has not yet been empirically validated.
Future Research Agenda The agenda for further research flows directly from these limitations and from the identified gaps in the corpus.
The priority is empirical validation: developing and testing instruments to measure participatory parity, a sense of belonging, and the five humanistic character capacities, so that the criticism regarding the measurability of competencybased character education can be directly addressed.
Second, testing the model through cross-level design-based research, with a special focus on early childhood education FIKROTUNA: Jurnal Pendidikan dan Manajemen Islam.
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(PAUD) and higher education, where the evidence base is thin.
Third, contextual studies in madrasahs and pesantren to determine the extent to which ethical grammar and participatory parity can be operationalized within religious authority structures, ideally through research partnerships.
Fourth, a feasibility study of mutual aid solidarity in largescale urban schools.
Since the telos construct of humanistic character is the least developed in the corpus, research that strengthens its operationalization offers the greatest marginal value for the modelAos maturation.
Conclusion This study reconstructs inclusive education in Indonesia as an integrated democratic-cultural-humanistic project through the model of culturally grounded democratic humanism.
Four contributions can be identified.
First, conceptually, the model positions inclusion as participatory parity, not merely accommodation or administrative placement, to ensure redistribution, recognition, and representation.
Second, culturally, the model elevates Pancasila.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, gotong royong, and local wisdom from sources of particular values to a constitutive ethical grammar that shapes institutional governance, social relations, and learning design.
Third, from a humanistic perspective, the model establishes relational humanistic character as an internal telos with five operational capacities: relational dignity, critical empathy, cooperative solidarity, dialogical courage, and ethical responsibility.
Fourth, from an integrative perspective, the model addresses the fragmentation between critical inclusive theory.
IndonesiaAos constitutional ethos, and pedagogical humanism within a single coherent framework.
Inclusive education in Indonesia will not be fully realized merely by expanding the number of schools or adding regulations.
it requires a paradigmatic reconstruction that positions democracy as the internal principle of inclusion, culture as the foundation shaping the structure, and relational humanism as the ultimate goal.
Empirical validation of the model across educational levels, contexts, and cultures is an urgent agenda for further research.
Mukhammad Wahyudi et al.
Reconstructing Democratic Inclusive Education Through National Culture and Humanistic Values: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis from Indonesia
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