The purpose of this quantitative research was to examine whether there were statistically significant differences in Islamic elementary public school teachers’ curriculum orientation and teaching conception across demographic variables of gender, age, and teaching experience. Data were collected through questionnaires from 65 Islamic elementary public school teachers. Data were analysed through Rasch analysis and tests of inferential statistics. The results of the data analysis show that, over all: 1) the teachers’ curriculum orientation tended to be “technological” and “academic” rather than “social reconstructionistic”; and 2) the teachers tended to conceptualize teaching as “apprenticeshipdevelopmental” and “knowledge transmission” rather than “nurturing” or “social reform”. Tests of inferential statistics revealed a significant difference between male and female teachers’ conception of teaching. A significant difference was also found in the teachers’ curriculum orientation across the demographic variable of teaching experience. No significant difference was found across the variable of age. Correlations were identified between the teachers’ curriculum orientation and teaching conception. The findings of this study provide evidence for policy makers, school leaders, researchers, parents, and teacher educators that the curriculum orientation and teaching conception of the majority of the teachers seems to be incompatible with the nature of character education that necessitates teachers to be “nurturing” and “social reconstructionistic”. In addition, evaluation and reorientation of paradigms and approaches in teacher education and educational objectives and further research are suggested.

• Dairabi Kamil(Islamic State College of Kerinci, Indonesia)
• Amirul Mukminin(Faculty of Education, Jambi University, Indonesia)
• Ahmad Jamin(State Islamic College of Kerinci)
• Muhammad Yusuf(Indonesia at Islamic State College of Kerinci)
• Ali Idrus(Faculty of Education, Jambi University, Indonesia)