This study aims to uncover the ideological dynamics of Gendang Bugis in Islamic schools, by mapping how educational actors (teachers, students, principals) articulate this symbol in the tension between Islam and tradition. The methods used are qualitative approaches based on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and symbolic ethnography, with data collection techniques through participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and document studies in a number of Islamic traditions. The results of the study show that religious schools are not monolithic spaces, but rather a battleground of discourse between normative Islamic expressions and local Islam that lives in tradition. Student identity is also formed through a process of ambivalence between religious demands and cultural memory. The discussion placed Gendang Bugis as a locus of ideological articulation, where cultural symbols were contested, reinterpreted, and reproduced according to power relations and dominant discourse. Religious education becomes an arena of reproduction and symbolic resistance that forms the subject of religion in a particular social context. The importance of integrating cultural values in religious education without sacrificing the universal values of Islam, as well as the need for dialogue between education stakeholders to build a more inclusive, participatory, and locality-based model of religious learning.
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