EXPLORING TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS OF SPIRITUALITY AND THEIR PERCEPTIONS ABOUT ITS INTEGRATION INTO EFL CLASSROOMS IN PESANTREN-BASED MADRASAS

This study aims to describe madrasa English teachers‟ conceptions of spirituality and their perceptions on its integration into classroom at one of Islamic boarding schools in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. This study involved four teachers from each of the four educational units, Junior high school (male and female) and Senior high school (male and female). Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with the four teachers and through the analysis of teaching documents. The findings orchestrate that spirituality, as conceptualized by these teachers, is centered upon divinity thus establishing a transcendental bond in which God‟s role is related to all matters including their personal being and becoming as well as their connectedness with other humans and nature. This is seemingly in contrary with contemporary western account that narrows down the role of religiousity on spirituality. Additionally, through thematic analysis, four major themes related to their perceptions of integrating sprituality into classroom were obtained, namely the important role of spirituality in English language teaching, the potential for integration into learning, challenges in integrating and the integration models. All teachers considered that Islamic spirituality plays a central role, especially in learning and teaching activities, and can be integrated through classroom instructional activities and teaching materials such as greeting and praying, using Islamic nuanced media, and teaching texts with the theme of Islamic figures. This is supported by the core competence elements contained in the learning syllabus about the practice of religious teachings. However, the teachers also revealed the various challenges in carrying out the integration in question, including students' comprehension, difficulty in exemplifying the connection between spiritual values and existing teaching materials, and teacher qualifications.


INTRODUCTION
English has often been stereotyped as the language of imperialism rooted in Judeo-Christian culture. Despite this, learning English does not necessarily contradict Islam, as the Muslim paradigm shifts from a negative attitude to more open and promotes a positive response (Alalwi, 2021;Mohd-Asraf, 2005). In a similar vein, learning a foreign language, be it English, German, and the like, when viewed from an Islamic perspective, can be mandatory if the languages serve as the only media or tools to achieve predetermined goals, such as gaining knowledge and propagation to English speaking communities. In the Islamic tradition, the infamous jurisprudical rule of al washilatu laha ahkaamul maqashid, which means the ruling of the medium highly depends on the purpose, is widely known. At the same time, language teaching has also evolved to consider the sociocultural background of learners.
Learning a language can help pupils become fully immersed in the lives of others and can promote empathy and understanding across social and political divisions when adequately it accounts for language and culture research and instruction (Kim, 2020). Furthermore, for decades, a variety of theoretical stances have been used to explore social elements of second language acquisition (SLA) and the situations in which people strive to learn and use languages while attempting to integrate themselves into new and changing cultures (Duff, 2019). One of the most important part of students" backgrounds is their spirituality. Consequently, the relationship between spirituality and language teaching remains interesting to explore. Galeh and Dorcheh revealed that the role of spirituality in language teaching as a catalyst for the learning process by increasing autonomy, self-confidence, and self-esteem (Galeh & Dorcheh, 2015). However, inquiries on the relationship between spirituality and English language learning still tend to be marginalised despite having a central role in everyday life, culture, and politics (Mahboob & Courtney, 2018). Although spiritual beliefs and experiences have always influenced teaching and scholarship, the modern education system leaves little room to discuss both.
Education as embodied in Western European tradition assumes that religion is a dangerous form of bias, blind adherence to tradition, and untested knowledge that needs to be kept away from teaching and scholarship (Canagarajah, 2018). The global literature on the relationship between spirituality and English language instruction has also been narrowly focused on Christianity (Mahboob & Courtney, 2018), and it is quite rare to find specific studies on the same topic, especially on Islamic spirituality and language pedagogy. Therefore, this study aims to address the aforementioned gap by investigating how English teachers conceptualize the term spirituality and their perceptions about the integration of Islamic spirituality into EFL classrooms in madrasas of a pesantren located in Lombok, Indonesia. This is an open access article under the CC-BY-SA license

LITERATURE REVIEW
In Islamic literature, as stated by Nasr in the introduction to his book, the equivalence of the terminology of spirituality is the terms ruhaniyyah, ma'nawiyyah, and barakah, and the source of spirituality is the Qur'an and Sunnah (Nasr, 2013). Ruhaniyyah refers to something that is spiritual (esoteric), ma'nawiyah means inner meaning or strength, while barakah refers to continuous goodness. Furthermore, he said that the essence of Islamic spirituality is the realization of monotheism (tawhid) as written in the Qur'an based on the models from the Prophet. This is in line with the Islamic perspective which emphasizes Islamic spirituality as proximity to Allah and is manifested in actions to seek spiritual satisfaction (Dasti & Sitwat, 2014). The goal is none other than to become adorned with divine values by attaining virtues like those of prophet Muhammad based on his example and divine revelation. The branch of science that specifically discusses spirituality in Islamic literature is tashawwuf which can be interpreted as the science of purifying the soul and character. In the view of Al-Ghazali's tashawwuf, rituals (shari'a) will dry up if not based on and accompanied by spirituality (haqiqat). This also applies to any actions, including language teaching and learning, committed by a Muslim who has to enact spiritual values.
Scholars have spent their time and effort to explore the connection between spirituality and language teaching and have tried to put it into practices. Schiller, for example, attempted to teach composition and literature courses through a spiritual approach that was manifested through meditation activities undertaken by her students. All her students were asked to practice daily meditation after classes, and the results of this study indicated that students obtained several benefits in the form of a developed ability to stay focused, especially during college, calmness and patience when dealing with stressful situations and people, a new appreciation for education that goes beyond "learning for grades only", a greater appreciation for nature and environmental issues, improvement of cognitive skills such as creativity, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, the ability to clear the mind of the chat (Schiller, 1999). However, she reminded us that the spiritual approach includes the same mechanism, the same process, the same content as the conventional approach. The difference lies in the addition of noncognitive experiences to meet innate needs in students, needs that have been neglected for too long because of the isolation of learning into the cognitive domain.
Through a spiritual approach, her students were helped to discover their potential in their deepest subconsciousness. In line with this study, Kanaoka"s inquiry discusses the relationship between spirituality and motivation in learning English in Japan (Kanaoka, 2018 increased motivation for L2 (English as a second language) and increased use of L2 related to self-identity. In other words, spirituality can contribute to students' awareness of their capabilities both in terms of language production and self-description. Similar research was also carried out in Indonesian context by Cahyani & Akmal, whose studies addressed the influence of spirituality on student resilience in thesis writing. Both proved that students with a good spirituality level are better able to overcome difficulties in the thesis writing process (Cahyani & Akmal, 2017). On the contrary, a study aimed at identifying the philosophy and practice of spirituality of English teachers in Iran revealed that none of the teachers studied integrated spiritual values into their teaching (Suleimani & Sahragard, 2016). This is due to the assumption of some teachers that teaching English only teaches listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and nothing more.
Some of the respondents to their research also stated that they were worried about being stereotyped due to the political conditions in Iran. The rest of the research respondents said that they only discussed spirituality in class if the topic or material was related to spirituality. Another study worthy of a look was conducted to express higher education teachers" reflection on communicating the Christian spirituality in English lectures at universities with students who were heterogeneous in terms of religion (Mambu, 2017). By interviewing three English teachers from two countries, the United States and Indonesia, his study revealed the representation of spiritual values through reflexive interreligious interactions with critical thinking and religious reflexivity.
From the previous research, it can be concluded that spirituality has an important role in education in the form of increasing cognitive abilities, resilience and motivation of students. However, the integration of these spiritual values in learning is influenced by the educational context entailing who teaches and who is taught and the institution where the learning is carried out. When compared with all previous studies, this study takes a different context because it focuses on the cognition and practice of teachers about the integration of Islamic spirituality in English language teaching in madrasas (Islamic schools) and more specifically in the context of homogeneous religiosity. In the context of religious madrasas, such as those under pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), religious teachers tend to think that religionbased spirituality is extremely important to communicate.
In such a very religious condition, all kinds of knowledge and knowledge learnt are based on faith and directed towards the goals of Islamic life. Modern Islamic boarding schools design their curriculum by incorporating foreign languages into the core curriculum. Therefore, it is appealing to explore information on how Islamic spirituality is negotiated and integrated in This is an open access article under the CC-BY-SA license English classrooms at madrasas. In addition, it is suggested that Islamic educational resources can enhance students" achievement significantly more (Djamdjuri et al., 2022)

METHOD
Since case study does not recognize the term sampling and the case is not a sampling unit (Yin, 2018), the nature of the research subjects in this study is purposive . The respondents were chosen as they were able to provide pertinent information and data about the research objectives. Four English teachers of Madrasah Tsanawiyah (junior secondary school) and Aliyah (senior secondary school) at a Pesantren situated in Lombok Barat, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia were sufficient to represent as research subjects to answer the research questions. The selection of the four research subjects was also based on the principle of balance because at the research location, madrasa level education was divided based on gender. Madrasah Tsanawiyah was divided into male and female categories and so was Aliyah. In addition, the small number of subjects allows for in-depth and holistic data collection because data collection is multiinstrumental. The following is demographic information about the research subjects. The data of this research is mainly in the form of data from a semi-structured interview with four respondents related to the research topic as well as the results of analysis of supporting documents such as syllabus, lesson plans, and textbooks. The instrument for interview was designed and reviewed by an expert to ensure its validity (expert judgment). In addition, the interview guide was piloted to ensure that it serves to elicit an answer for the research questions.
The interview mainly consisted of two parts: The first part focusses on demographic information about the background entailing their gender, age, and teaching experience, while the second part comprises questions about their conceptions on the term spirituality, its roles on their workplace and teaching, and how it can be integrated into their lessons. This is an open access article under the CC-BY-SA license Research data were collected from four madrasa teachers from both the Tsanawiyah and Aliyah at an Islamic boarding school in West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. The data in this study were collected through two data collection techniques, namely semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. The interview was conducted for approximately 30 minutes for each respondent and was recorded. Furthermore, once recodrded, the transcripts were created based on the recording and were repeatedly read for analysis. In addition, archival documents in the form of formal documents such as syllabus, lesson plans, and textbooks that served as additional data to help validate findings.
In terms of data analysis, the results of interviews/dialogues with teachers were converted into transcripts and analyzed using thematic analysis. According to Braun & Clarke, qualitative thematic analysis aims to identify, analyse, and present patterns that appear in research data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Themes will be drawn from the data after the interview transcripts are compared. The following are the six stages that must be carried out in the thematic analysis.

Familiarize oneself with data
In this phase, activities are carried out to transcribe data (if necessary), read and reread the data, and record the initial ideas. During this phase, it's a good idea to start taking notes or marking ideas for coding. Once this is done, the more formal coding process is ready to begin. In essence, coding is constantly being developed and defined throughout the analysis.

Generate the initial code
This activity aims to code the interesting features of the data systematically across the entire data set as well as compiling the relevant data for each code. This phase then involves the production of the initial code from the data. The code identifies data features (content or latent semantics) that appear to be of interest to analysis, and refers to the most basic segment of raw data or information that can be assessed in a meaningful way about the phenomenon.

Search for themes
In this phase, the researcher compiles the code into potential themes and collects all data relevant to each potential theme. This phase begins when all the data has been coded and collated, and we have a long list of different codes identified across the data set. This phase refocuses analysis on a broader theme at the theme level, not code, involving sorting different codes into potential themes and compiling all relevant code based on extracts of data in the identified themes.

Review the theme
This step requires the researcher to check whether the themes are appropriate in terms of the code extract (level 1) and the entire data set (Level 2), resulting in the thematic map of the This is an open access article under the CC-BY-SA license analysis. This phase begins when the researcher has compiled a set of candidate themes and involves refining those themes.

Define and name the theme
This stage includes continuous analysis to refine the specifications of each theme, and the overall narrative presented by the analysis results, producing a clear definition and name for each theme. This fifth phase begins when the researcher has a thematic map of the data. At this point, the researcher then defines and further refines the themes that will be presented for analysis. By 'defining and refining', it means identifying the 'essence' of each theme (as well as the overall theme), and determining what aspects of the data each theme draws on.
6. Make a report The last stage of the analysis includes selecting a clear and interesting sample extract, final analysis of the selected extract, reconnecting the analysis with research questions and literature, and producing a scientific analysis report. Phase 6 begins when the researcher has a full set of themes discovered, and involves final analysis and report generation. Writing a thematic analysis report requires the researcher to tell the complex story of the data in a way that convinces readers of the merits and validity of your analysis.
Along with the stages above, the data were analysed using a post-method pedagogy framework as the anlytical lens. The main purpose of post-method pedagogy is to facilitate the development of the teacher's own theory into learning practise. This is necessary given that the existing theory of language learning methods has limitations, especially related to language learning which is sensitive to the socio-cultural context and the role of teachers and students as autonomous entities. According to Kumaravadivelu, there are three pedagogical parameters in his theory: Particularity, practicality, and possibility (Kumaravadivelu, 2006). Using these three parameters, teachers are encouraged to create their own theories and apply them in learning. Particularity includes specificity in terms of teachers, students, goals, context, and sociocultural context. This parameter emphasises the local importance and life experience. Meanwhile, practicality refers to the inseparable relationship between theory and practise. Here, practicality can be interpreted as the process through which a teacher constructs their own theory by testing, interpreting, and assessing theory. However, caution is needed here in distinguishing between professional theory and personal theory. Professional theory is theory generated by experts, and generally transmitted from higher learning centers. Personal theory, on the other hand, is a theory developed by teachers by interpreting and applying professional theories to practical situations while they are working.
In the present research, the practicality parameter is closely related to the second research question, which aims to see the extent to which the perceptions built by teachers can be implemented in their teaching activities so that the term theory of practise appears emphasizing the unity between thoughts and actions where in the mind there is action and in action there is thought. Furthermore, possibility refers to the awareness of the sociopolitical environment that shapes the experiences of teachers and students. The experiences that participants bring into pedagogical settings are shaped, not only by what they experience in the classroom, but also by the broader social, economic, and political environment in which they grow up. This experience has the potential to change classroom goals and activities in ways that policy or curriculum planners, publishers of textbooks, do not want and expect. In addition, this parameter can also be related to language ideology and learner identity.

A. Teachers' Conceptions of Spirituality
Based on the results of the interviews, all teachers are of the view that Islamic spirituality plays a central role in their working environment and must be manifested in teaching and learning activities. This is also in line with one of the profiles of Pancasila students (Character traits for students campaigned by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture), namely faith, fear of God Almighty and noble character (Sufyadi et al., 2021). For M1, spirituality is rooted in faith about God"s oneness which is reflected in all daily actions ranging from simple to complex activities. Meanwhile, according to M2, the value of spirituality includes the spiritual aspect of religion, which is the spirit that underlies one's behaviour. In everyday life, the value of spirituality comes from the value of religious teachings. This is an open access article under the CC-BY-SA license "Spirituality is faith, our belief in one God, which is contained in the heart, which is applied or practiced through our actions such as praying, reciting (Qur"an) and studying." (M1) "My understanding of the Islamic spirituality is that of course what is meant here are religious spirits, especially in terms of practice, in terms of daily activities and of course they must be decorated with religious values or teachings." (M2) Similar to previous teachers, M3 also emphasised spirituality as a religious value that must be implemented particularly in the life of a religious boarding school.
"The values of Islamic spirituality are the values contained in the teachings of the Islamic religion that we apply in our daily lives, especially in the pesantren." (M3) In essence, Islamic spirituality in the context of life, as stated by research teachers, cannot be separated from daily activities, and this is also in line with Nasr's opinion, which states that spirituality in Islam comes from the teachings of monotheism which are realised based on the Qur'an and Sunnah (Nasr, 2013). It also shows how the teachers' perceptions of the spiritual values shape their identity. However, if we look back, the concept of spirituality according to the teachers of this research is limited to the religious realm even though in global literature, spirituality is not only interpreted as a connection or connectedness with God (transcendental), but also with the universe and fellow human beings. Understanding a teacher's spirituality can also bee seen from the standpoint of their personal and professional being and becoming (Farrell et al., 2020). This is not surprising considering the religious context in Islamic boarding schools also influences the mindset and worldview of the teachers who become teachers.
In the modern pedagogical theoreries, Gardner introduces the notion multiple intelligence where new types of intelligence beyond IQ and EQ were formulated and one of the most appealing concepts is spiritual intelligence (SI). Numerous supporters of SI have suggested that spirituality should be taught in schools due to the advantages of preparing students or teachers with spiritual intelligence (Azadi et al., 2022). However, there is still a gap between the concept of spirituality and religion where in pesantren-based madrasas spirituality and religion are inseparable, while in the contemporary concepts, some of the components once found in religion have been included into spirituality as it has grown to be distinct from religion (and religiousness). As a result, modern notions of religion have grown more restrictive and exclusive (Hill et al., 2000). To sum up, these teachers believe that God as source of divinity is omniscient of all things happening to them including any bit of their activities and relationship with human beings and nature. This contradicts the modern account that separates religion and spirituality and narrows down the role of religiosity on spirituality.

B. Perceptions on the Integration of Islamic Spirituality into English Language
Teaching.

Based on the stages and results of data analysis, information was obtained that teachers'
perceptions of the integration of spirituality into English language teaching were divided into three major discovered themes including the importance of the integration, potential for integration and challenges in integrating these values into teaching and learning.

The Importance of Spirituality in English Language Learning
At the time of the interview, all the teachers agreed with the idea of integrating spiritual values into English teaching and learning activities in madrasas. One of the teachers (M1) even mentioned that the spiritual part is the main element in life that needs to be a source of inspiration and guidance in all activities, and English learning activities are not an exception.
"...even bathing as well as teaching is because we want to unite God, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala." (M1) Although English comes from cultures external to Islam, it needs to be adorned with Islamic spiritual values. In other words, linguistic aspects such as vocabulary, grammar, speech, language skills are material aspects, while the value of Islamic spirituality can be used as a spiritual aspect or foreign language learning and teaching activities can be carried out with a religious spirit.
In line with M1, the second and third teachers also agreed on the importance of the role of spirituality in learning English.
"Even in the learning process, we are in this Madrasa, of course, there is a very close relationship or influence between the spiritual values of religious teachings and the learning process in Madrasas, especially in our study of learning English, so what I understand here is spirituality. Islam needs to be considered or what needs to be taught and mandated to children." (M2) "I always tell the students that by mastering English, you will live, or for example, you will study or study abroad so you can spread Islamic spirituality to the outside social world if for example you live in the world. English-speaking westerners are all able to spread Islamic values" (M4) The findings from this interview contradict the research of Suleimani and Sharzad in Iran, where political conditions and different student backgrounds hinder teachers from integrating spiritual values into the classroom (Suleimani & Sahragard, 2016). This is due to the social context in which learning is carried out. Talking about spirituality in a multicultural and multireligious context is quite vulnerable to accusations of proselytizing or trying to change other people's beliefs. This may also occur in the context of public schools in Indonesia which consist of teachers and students who have heterogeneously religious and diverse cultural backgrounds.
Despite these, whatever its definition, spirituality is fundamental to language teacher oidentities, and disregarding it is harmful to both teachers and students (Bradley, 2011).

Potential Integration of Islamic Spirituality into English Pedagogy.
According to research teachers, the integration of Islamic spirituality values into English language learning is very possible and can be inserted into the learning process. Even according to M4, these values can be integrated with all subjects and can be linked to the themes contained in the Qur'an.
"English can be associated with spiritual values, can be integrated into our Islamic religion, Islamic boarding schools and adherents of Islamic beliefs can be in narrative and so on." (M1) "The integration or connection between spiritual values and plans in learning English at Islamic boarding schools can be applied and that is in the learning process." (M2) This is an open access article under the CC-BY-SA license "...we can insert Islamic values, the Quran and da'wah (propagation) into curriculum planning, lesson plans, with teaching materials, later when we are in the classroom all of our interactions with students are slightly unrelated to Islamic values" (M3) "Speaking of spirituality, especially Islam, actually will be related to all subjects not only English, let's see in the Qur'an all elements are in it." (M4) The integration of Islamic spirituality values is a necessity because there is support in the curriculum used in madrasas, the ideological potential and the pesantren environment. This is in line with the possibility parameter in the post-method pedagogy framework which emphasizes the influence of ideology and power in educational institutions. In addition, as an example in the syllabus used, there are several elements in basic competencies that represent spiritual values such as gratitude.
Core Competence 1: Appreciate and practice the teachings of your religion.
Basic Competence 1.1: Be grateful for the opportunity to learn English as the language of instruction for international communication, which is manifested in the spirit of learning.
These comptences are taken from the structure of curriculum 2013 (Kemendikbud, 2012) issued by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture. One example of the quotation of core competencies and standards from the learning syllabus used by M1 and M2 above at least provides a role for religious spirituality in motivating students. This is in line with Kanaoka's research who found the importance of spirituality in motivating students (Kanaoka, 2018). Also, the process of learning a forein language may foster students' spiritual development while also increasing intercultural awareness, understanding, tolerance, and respect for diversity (Kuimova et al., 2017).

The Challenges of Integrating Islamic Spirituality into English Classroom
Based on the results of the interviews, information was obtained that challenges in integrating spiritual values into English learning in madrasas include student grasping power, teacher difficulties in providing models or examples, teacher knowledge that still needs to be developed, lack of time in implementing learning, and limited use of technology in schools.
madrasas and Islamic boarding schools.

Students' Ability
According to teacher M1, as with the challenges in learning in general, the activity of instilling spiritual values into learning also encountered obstacles in terms of students' comprehension. He admitted that his students often fail to grasp both the materials and the spiritual values he wanted to instill in his lessons. This is an open access article under the CC-BY-SA license "As a teacher or being taught, of course, everyone has problems, such as the student's grasping power of course" (M1) However, the actual values cannot be directly taught even though the concepts can be explained. According to Bruening, a literature review by psychologists and philosophers suggests that values cannot be taught but students must experience values themselves through observing the behavior of ethical people (Bruening, 1979). This implies the importance of examples or models in the learning of values in schools or madrasas even though these values can be communicated to students. However, if the desired outcome of learning is a change in the spiritual attitude of the students, then providing an example or model is the best strategy. This is in line with the Islamic saying of Lisaanul hal afshahu min lisaanil Maqaal which means exemplary means and influences more than speech.

Modeling
As previously explained, the core of learning that integrates values is modeling or the presence of examples, especially from teachers, school administrators, and peers. However, as stated by M2, setting an example is quite a challenge. Creating integration and interconnection between spiritual values and the material being taught is one of the challenges that can be solved in various ways. One of them is by providing material related to the spiritual life of teachers and students themselves at home or in the classroom. Here, most of the teachers rely heavily on the materials provided in the book. In fact, the primary and secondary education curriculum does not provide materials or topics that must be taught, but only competency standards that must be achieved, while the material may come from any source and does not have to come from textbooks published by the ministry of education and culture. This is where the creativity of the teacher is required to provide material that is relevant to both competency standards and Islamic spirituality values.
"In the learning process, we especially value when we find it difficult to give an example, about when we get a material that they think has nothing to do with religious spirituality" (M2) When there are still few relevant learning resources available and not according to the requirements of each educational unit, more efforts are still required. Compared to materials having an Islamic theme, general instructional material still predominates (Amalia et al., 2022) .

Teacher Qualification
Communication about spiritual values to students absolutely requires the expertise or knowledge of teachers about these spiritual values. This is as confirmed by the second teacher (M2). This is in line with what Umam stated that, in addition to learning materials, teachers are Exploring Teachers" Conceptions Of Spirituality….. (Kasyfur Rahman)

|
This is an open access article under the CC-BY-SA license also required to have more qualifications (Umam, 2014). Here, the teacher must have spiritual competence both in terms of science and actions that reflect these spiritual values. In addition, teachers have the ability to encourage pupils to become aware of their values and to educate them on how to reflect on them. The instructor must first acquire the same abilities to encourage pupils to think on and share their values (Sutrop, 2015). Therefore, equipping teachers with activities that increase their spiritual values is necessary for education that integrates spiritual values requires a teacher model who is also spiritual.
"Teachers like me must have determination and broad knowledge in developing students' knowledge of English and Islamic spiritual values." (M2)

C. Models of Integrating of Spiritual Values into Learning
From the results of the interviews, information was obtained that the four teachers agreed "When we teach examples of narrative text learning, we have linked our religion to Islam, storeys of the prophets, stories of the prophets in learning, that is what all subjects are called. If we are in the boarding school, it is enough with the daily culture of the students in the Islamic boarding school such as reciting the Quran, congregational prayers, and ablution, we look for vocabulary-vocabulary that is in accordance with Islamic values " (M1) "Suppose we discuss some of the previous texts that we present to children, for example narrative text, yes, there is descriptive text, we describe a religious figure, we describe Islamic political figures or maybe we can describe physically or mentally. spirituality of a religious figure." (M2) In line with other teachers, M4 also agrees that the genre of texts taught in schools can adapt to the background of prophetic life and scholars. This is supported by previous research on the use of allegoric tales to develop students" spirituality and morality suggesting that these tales aid in the pedagogical correction of young people's social behavior, serve as role models, encourage healthy interpersonal interactions and social skills, lessen stress, and impart dispute resolution lessons (Kalugina et al., 2019 From the results of the interview, it was also revealed that instilling spirituality can be by directing students to create connections with fellow humans or other people such as prophets and Islamic figures. This is one of the concepts of spirituality in which spirituality includes not only a vertical relationship with God but also with fellow human beings. "When we give examples to children, we exemplify that description about spiritual values that we can convey to students, because there is no one around us talking about physically with someone or physically describing the examples we will describe and explain the meaning. but there are spiritual values that we convey to our students so that a religious figure like Kyai Haji Ma'ruf Amin or whoever it is, it is very likely, or there is another possibility that a main character can become another public figure, (M2) An important account was also expressed by the first respondent (M1), where the integration of Islamic spirituality values in the classroom was helped by a non-formal learning process at the boarding school where students were fostered in religious knowledge and attitudes through activities such as halaqah (group study), reciting the Quran and through religious rituals so that it was easier form the character of students who come from religious teachings. The learning model that is spiritually supported by the activities of the santri in the cottage environment can at least be analogous to the results of Schiller's study of the practise of yoga carried out by his students (Schiller, 1999). The form of meditation in the form of remembrance and congregational prayers carried out daily by students can have an important role in shaping This is an open access article under the CC-BY-SA license the personality and spirituality of those who contribute to formal learning activities in the classroom.
"Alhamdulillah, we are helped by the environment of the pesantren, they are shaped from sleeping until they wake up again until they go to sleep again. They are in a conducive environment, they are in one environment, so when we teach things in class, it will be carried over to the cottage, it will not be affected by other things. " (M1) An interesting remark was expressed by the third teacher (M3) who stated that when instilling spiritual values in students, he used technology such as videos and songs in learning activities. This at least reflects the practicality parameters in which teachers experiment using technology in instilling spiritual values into students through their learning. By experimenting using technology, the teacher is attempting to establish her personal theory which later contributes to her best teaching practices.
I usually use Islamic media in the teaching and learning process by example. For example, Islamic videos, Islamic songs with English nuances, which are in English, we insert, we insert, we take lessons or related English language materials, or we change them, we explore and combine to become associated with Islam. (M3) Both from the results of interview data analysis and review of syllabus documents and lesson plans, all teachers who became teachers emphasized the importance of the value of Islamic spirituality in learning. However, based on the results of the study of textbooks used by teachers in madrasas, there is almost no spiritual element in it. Textbooks used by teachers such as When English Rings a Bell and English are more likely to teach about cross-cultural understanding and moral values such as caring and respect. At the same time, the 2013 curriculum implemented in the school gives teachers the freedom to use topics that are contextual to life in Islamic boarding schools and instil spiritual values if the competency standards set can be met. This is a gap that can be optimized by the teacher.
Besides, one thing that has escaped attention is how the value of spirituality has a role in the process of constructing the teacher's identity. The skills and knowledge taught by teachers in the learning process are mediated by their beliefs and experiences (Canagarajah, 2018). Teachers also find satisfaction when their learning matches their spiritual identity (Mahboob & Courtney, 2018). Pattern of interaction between teachers and students based on the value of Islamic spirituality has also not been mentioned by the teachers, even though spirituality can also positively affect the nature of relationships in the classroom because it forms perceptions and understanding of the situation in the classroom (Lin, 2015). In other words, teachers still need to This is an open access article under the CC-BY-SA license gain enlightenment about the operationalization of spirituality in the classroom and how it shapes the teacher's identity which in turn affects the interaction and character of students because one of the principles of value-based learning is modeling or examples.

CONCLUSION
From the findings of this study, information was obtained that the value of spirituality understood by the teachers was the relationship or connection with the creator and other people such as the Prophet and religious figures. All teachers also considered that spirituality has a central role, especially in learning and teaching activities, and can be integrated through instructional activities in the classroom and teaching materials such as greeting and praying, using Islamic nuanced media, teaching texts with the theme of Islamic figures, and so on. This is supported by the competency elements contained in the learning syllabus about the practise of religious teachings. However, teachers also said about the various challenges in carrying out the integration in question, including students' comprehension, difficulty in exemplifying the connection between spirituality values and existing teaching materials, teacher qualifications, limited study time, and limited use of technology.