Curriculum Management Based on Modern Skills in Islamic Schools: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Entering the middle of the 21st-century decade, the global educational landscape is marked by massive technological disruptions and rapidly shifting workforce dynamics. This phenomenon demands Islamic educational institutions, such as integrated Islamic schools and madrasahs, to urgently reorient their core curriculum designs. However, these schools face complex challenges in integrating modern competencies while maintaining their fundamental responsibility to preserve spiritual identities and noble Islamic characters. This structural friction often results in curriculum overload and fragmented implementation without an optimized, strategic governance roadmap. Therefore, this study aims to comprehensively analyze, integrate, and synthesize scientific evidence regarding the formulation mechanisms, operational barriers, and ideal models of modern skills-based curriculum management within the Islamic education ecosystem. Utilizing a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) guided by the PRISMA protocol, a comprehensive selection of 20 peer-reviewed articles published between 2020 and 2026 was carefully extracted from reputable academic databases including Google Scholar, Garuda, SINTA, and Scopus. The content analysis and cross-analysis reveal that successfully embedding 21st-century competencies like digital literacy and critical thinking requires a synchronous, bilateral integration model during the initial planning stage, rather than treating them as superficial additions. Furthermore, operational bottlenecks are primarily driven by specific behavioral and managerial dimensions chiefly the acute psychological resistance of senior educators toward digital instruction frameworks and fragmented governance lines between institutional foundations and school principals—rather than systemic financial or infrastructure shortages. Ultimately, this research reconstructs an adaptive theoretical model based on the integrated POAC functions (Planning, Organizing, Actuating, Controlling). This holistic framework ensures that technological advancements and modern skill developments can be smoothly executed while firmly anchoring Islamic moral ethics as the ultimate behavioral filter for students in the digital era.