Navigating structural-ecological tensions: adaptive strategies for holistic islamic education assessment in primary school

Holistic assessment encompassing cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains in primary Islamic Religious Education (IRE) faces significant implementation challenges. While previous studies frequently identify technical deficits, empirical understanding of how teachers navigate complex structural and ecological tensions in everyday practice remains limited. This study explores the structural-ecological constraints encountered by IRE teachers and the adaptive strategies they employ to conduct meaningful assessments. Employing an instrumental case study design, qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with four IRE teachers in an Indonesian public primary school and analyzed using categorical aggregation. The findings reveal that cognitive assessments are primarily constrained by curriculum instability and time limitations, psychomotor assessments by inadequate physical facilities, and affective assessments by subjective vulnerabilities and weak school-family synergy. Despite these systemic tensions, teachers demonstrate dynamic professional agency through transformative adaptive strategies, including localized bricolage, longitudinal observation, and peer modeling. This study concludes that effective assessment reform necessitates a multilevel approach, emphasizing targeted professional development and supportive school-family ecosystems rather than rigid, top-down administrative compliance.