Research Note: digital mediation of cultural pluralism in a minority Islamic school in Hindu-majority Bali, Indonesia

This Research Note examines how one Islamic school (madrasah) in Hindu-majority Bali, Indonesia employs digital platforms – Google Classroom, YouTube, Instagram, and Zoom – to mediate intercultural coexistence between Islamic and Balinese Hindu cultural values. Drawing on qualitative interviews with five key stakeholders and grounded in Allport’s Contact Theory, the study identifies four findings: digital platforms function as mediators of cultural convergence through pedagogical reframing of shared values such as gotong royong; intercultural coexistence is co-constructed across digital and physical spaces; religious leadership provides normative scaffolding for culturally sensitive digital integration; and digital mediation is constrained by the digital divide, misinformation risks, and uneven teacher capacity. Theoretically, the study extends Contact Theory to digitally mediated educational contexts through the concept of the ‘digital contact zone’, contributing to frameworks for digital intercultural pedagogy in minority-majority religious settings.