<![CDATA[This study aims to examine how urban Muslim communities in Indonesia construct trust in madrasahs and understand the transformation of madrasahs from being perceived as second-class religious schools into strategic educational choices. This study employed a qualitative approach with a phenomenological orientation. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observations, and documentation, and analyzed using an interactive model with Berger and Luckmann’s theory of the social construction of reality as the interpretive framework. The findings reveal that educational trust in madrasahs is constructed through four interconnected processes: lived educational evidence, social reputation circulation, alumni trajectories, and individual confidence in educational choice. Parents’ direct experiences of their children’s academic, moral, religious, and behavioral development provide concrete evidence of educational quality. These experiences are subsequently circulated through family, neighborhood, and community networks, transforming individual evaluations into shared reputational knowledge. Alumni trajectories further strengthen institutional credibility by providing visible evidence of academic, professional, social, and religious outcomes. The findings imply that madrasahs need to strengthen educational quality, communication with parents and communities, alumni engagement, and systematic documentation of graduate outcomes to sustain public trust, strengthen institutional legitimacy, and position madrasahs as strategic educational choices among urban Muslim communities.]]>
