Competence as License: Shared Learning and the Problem of Telos in Pesantren Knowledge Transmission
Authors
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Ujam Jaenudin
UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung
Indonesia
Author
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M. Rachmatullah Arken
UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung
Indonesia
Author
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53515/alqodiri.v24i3.324Keywords:
Situated learning, Shared regulation of learning, Communities of practice, Knowledge transmission, ScaffoldingAbstract
Background: Shared-learning theories often describe development as movement from socially supported performance toward increasingly self-directed competence. This trajectory may not fully explain learning systems in which authorization remains relational even after task-level mastery has developed. Aims: This article examines documented Javanese salaf pesantren practices to analyze how mastery of classical texts, participation in learning communities, and authorization to transmit knowledge may follow partly different trajectories. Methods: The study used conceptual-theoretical analysis supported by purposive library research. It integrated foundational and recent scholarship on situated learning, communities of practice, self-, co-, and socially shared regulation, scaffolding, help-seeking, and professional entrustment with historical and ethnographic literature on pesantren pedagogy, ijazah, and sanad. The analysis mapped sorogan, bandongan, musyawarah, memorization, and graded participation onto established theoretical categories and then examined the point at which mastery and authorization diverged. Results: Pesantren learning practices could be described through situated and regulated-learning concepts across much of the learning trajectory, but practices involving ijazah and sanad introduced a distinct relational dimension. The article proposes licensed competence as competence conferred by an authorized holder, recorded through a relation between identified persons, and sustained by that relation as part of the warrant for practice. It also distinguishes transitional shared regulation from terminal shared regulation. Conclusion: Persistent relational dependence should not automatically be interpreted as deficient task independence. The proposed concepts are theoretical and require empirical testing before broader generalization across pesantren or other domains of Islamic learning.
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