The Digital Professional Adab Paradigm: Reconstructing Classical Islamic Educator Ethics for Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Teachers

Abstract

The digitalization of education has placed Madrasah Ibtidaiyah teachers within ethical dilemmas accommodated neither by conventional professional codes nor by legal-formalistic data protection regulations, particularly because primary-age learners cannot yet negotiate their own digital footprints. This study aims to reconstruct the values of educator adab in the classical Islamic tradition into an operational ethical framework for the digital context. Employing a qualitative approach with the library research method, it combines content analysis of globally indexed scholarly literature with a hermeneutic reading of two primary texts, Ibn Jamāʿah’s Tadhkirat al-Sāmiʿ and al-Ghazālī’s Kitāb al-ʿIlm in Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn. Analysis proceeded through thematic reduction and cross-testing between contemporary empirical findings and classical normative categories to avoid anachronistic readings. The findings identify three multiplicatively interacting zones of ethical tension, namely boundaryless synchronous communication, the visual representation of learners, and public-persona management, with the dilemma burden distributed asymmetrically between teachers and learners. The study further finds that the normative structure of classical adab is relational rather than situational, and can therefore be transposed to the digital locus without losing its normative force. Four adab categories, ikhlāṣ, amānah, ḥifẓ al-lisān, and murūʾah, prove analytically sharper than secular professionalism on certain aspects. On this basis, the study formulates a Digital Professional Adab Paradigm bridging legal-formalistic and turats-revitalization approaches. Field-based case studies are recommended to test the applicability of its four pillars