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This community engagement program was initiated in response to the predominance of academically oriented perceptions among parents regarding children’s intelligence, which tend to limit the recognition of children’s potential to cognitive achievement alone. The program aimed to enhance parents’ literacy and awareness of the Multiple Intelligences framework as a foundational basis for holistic child education in an Islamic elementary school context. A Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach was employed, encompassing participatory planning, conceptual socialization sessions, child potential mapping workshops, collective reflection, and continuous evaluation. The findings highlight substantive outcomes. Parents experienced a significant paradigm shift in understanding the diversity of children’s intelligences, moving from a single-dimensional academic perspective toward a more comprehensive and appreciative view of individual potential. Parenting practices became more supportive, dialogical, and less comparative. In addition, a parents’ communication forum emerged as a new social institution within the school community, accompanied by the rise of local leadership that contributes to program sustainability. These results demonstrate that educational mentoring grounded in the Multiple Intelligences framework effectively promotes social transformation in Islamic elementary education through strengthened collaboration between school and family.

This study investigates teachers’ perceptions, challenges, and institutional support related to the implementation of Differentiated Instruction (DI) in a rural Indonesian secondary school under the context of the Kurikulum Merdeka reform. While DI is widely recognized as a student-centered pedagogical framework that adapts content, process, product, and learning environment to students’ readiness, interests, and learning profiles (Tomlinson, 2017), its application in rural contexts remains underexplored. Employing a qualitative case study design, data were collected from three English teachers and two school stakeholders at MTs N 2 Manggarai Barat through semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and classroom observations. Thematic analysis revealed that teachers perceived DI as a way to recognize learner diversity and as part of curriculum compliance, but their practices often remained partial and uneven. Stakeholders expressed awareness of DI, though with differing emphases: the headmaster focused on inclusivity, while the curriculum coordinator referred to multiple intelligences and student potential. Teachers faced challenges in three main areas: managing student diversity and curriculum shifts, preparing the Modul Ajar, and addressing students’ limited English vocabulary. Institutional support was evident through facilities, monitoring, and professional development, yet remained largely administrative rather than pedagogical. These findings confirm earlier studies that DI in Indonesia is conceptually valued but practically constrained by systemic, contextual, and linguistic barriers. The study recommends sustained, hands-on professional development, leadership mentoring, and reduced administrative burdens to enable DI’s transformative potential in rural schools.

Learning style theories have long been used to understand individual differences in learning processes. Models such as VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic) and Multiple Intelligences offer frameworks for adapting instructional strategies to students’ preferences. However, these approaches have been criticized for their reductionism and limited empirical validity, often neglecting the holistic nature of human learning. In contrast, the Islamic concept of fitrah provides a more comprehensive perspective, encompassing intellectual, spiritual, moral, and emotional dimensions in an integrated manner. This conceptual article aims to analyze and integrate Western learning style theories with Islamic perspectives to develop a more holistic learning paradigm. Through an extensive literature review and theoretical analysis, the article proposes an integrative model that bridges empirical approaches with spiritual values. Theoretically, this integration enriches academic discourse by connecting two distinct knowledge traditions. Practically, it offers a framework for educators and institutions to design adaptive learning processes that address learner diversity while fostering spiritual and moral development.