A Conceptual Framework For Students’ Ecological Intelligence in The Merdeka Curriculum

Abstract

Various frameworks such as environmental literacy, ecological literacy, sustainability competencies, ecological intelligence, and Education for Sustainable Development have identified the knowledge, values, skills, and actions students need to address environmental issues. However, they do not operationally explain how such outcomes can be pedagogically aligned with the Merdeka Curriculum, Grade 7 Social Studies content, local socio-ecological issues, active-reflective learning, and authentic assessment. This article formulates a conceptual framework to address this gap. Using an integrative theory-building conceptual review, 18 theoretical, empirical, and policy sources published between 1975 and 2023 were purposively synthesized through conceptual comparison, thematic coding, and curriculum mapping. An author-developed Grade 7 ecological-intelligence instrument blueprint was used only as a secondary check of indicator operability and curriculum fit, not as the theoretical source of the dimensions. The resulting framework aligns six components: the Merdeka Curriculum, Grade 7 Social Studies content, local socio-ecological context, active and reflective learning, authentic assessment, and four interrelated ecological-intelligence outcomes-knowledge, sensitivity and attitudes, skills, and participation and behavior. The novelty lies not in proposing a new ecological construct, but in the integration and alignment mechanism that connects curriculum, subject content, local context, pedagogy, assessment, and multidimensional outcomes in one iterative learning pathway. The framework remains conceptual, is limited to Grade 7 Social Studies in the Indonesian context, and has not yet been empirically tested or validated as a measurement model.