What Islamic school teachers want: towards developing an Islamic teacher education programme

In the 70 year history of Islamic schools in North America, there is yet to be an accredited teacher education programme to train and professionally equip Islamic school teachers with an understanding of an Islamic pedagogy. Arguably, there has been an imbalance of energy placed on curriculum development projects over the considerations of teacher training. From my experience working as a teacher trainer/education consultant for Islamic schools for the past 10 years, it is evident that the underlying assumption for many school administrators is that a State/Ministry certified teacher who is Muslim will know how to teach ‘Islamically’. The aims of this paper are to first establish some semblance of what it means to teach Islamically or, more accurately, to teach through an Islamic pedagogy. From this framework, the crux of the paper is to present findings from a series of focus groups with Islamic school educators about their teacher training needs. The findings of this study establish the need for a formal teacher education programme in Islamic pedagogy within an established faculty of education. Such a programme would achieve three major ends in cultivating the stewardship of Islamic schools in North America: 1. Define and establish Islamic education as a valid and relevant pedagogical model that can contribute to the broader discourse of alternative, faith-based education;

2. Standardise the pedagogy and curriculum of Islamic schools based on the principles of education in Islam and to make both contextually relevant;

3. Contribute to raising the standards of Islamic schools through a teacher education programme at credible faculties of education where ongoing research and development will also be supported.

     

Islamic education and the challenge of democratic citizenship: a critical perspective

This article analyzes how concepts of liberal and progressive Islam, which have been developed in the political and theological academic literature, may inform the curriculum of Islamic education and the practice of religious educators in Islamic schools in the US. We investigate the meaning of in-faith Islamic education and how it can conform to the life in a democratic, multicultural, and multi-faith society. Liberal Islam challenges the transmission-oriented and rigid interpretations of Islam and seeks to appreciate and to contextualize the religious claims which are compatible with ideals of reflective education, rational thinking, mutual respect, and equal citizenship. It suggests that students become critical ‘consumers’ of Islam, its moral and civic purposes, and the cultural politics of religious interrogations.     

伊斯兰法源探微

在伊斯兰社会中，法律被认为是永恒的、神定的，人是不能修改法律的。某个行为是否合法，需要教法学家依据伊斯兰教法的有效法源进行论证。这些法源一般认为由四个部分组成，即古兰经、圣训、公议和类比。古兰经和圣训保证了沙里阿的伊斯兰教特性，而建立在古兰经基础上的公议和类比则使沙里阿具有了时代性和适应性。     

Between “Islamic” and “un-Islamic”: Navigating Religion at an American Islamic High School

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate how one American Islamic school community grapples with external and internal demands on religion, and how this process impacts notions of what is religious. At ‘Ilm High School, an Islamic high school on America’s West Coast, school administrators and teachers must accommodate students’ and parents’ diverse and often competing ideas about Islam and the “Islamic.” In doing so, they sometimes downplay the “Islamic” in their Islamic Studies classes, policies, and school representation. They do this without venturing into the “un-Islamic”, casting a wide “religious net” and keeping Islam capacious and relevant enough for Muslim students.     

Islamic higher education and social cohesion in Indonesia

This study explores the role of public Islamic higher education in promoting better relations between various religious communities in post-authoritarian Indonesia. Based on field research conducted between December 2005 and March 2006, it documents how progressive Islamic education leaders have advanced a tradition of critical intellectualism in efforts toward the “renewal” of Islamic thought. This report provides an analysis of how this tradition has served as a foundation for educators seeking to promote democratization and address issues of social cohesion. It examines some of the core values expressed by educational leaders as they have aspired to transform the most prominent State Institutes for Islamic Studies (IAIN) into genuine universities. The study also highlights the conservative backlash against public Islamic higher education and other purveyors of progressive ideas within Indonesian society.

Education in the Sudan: the privileging of an Islamic discourse

This article examines the educational discourse in the part of the Sudan administered by the Government of the Sudan. It first analyses the value system upon which the Sudanese education is based by focusing on the nature of Islamism. Such a discussion is necessary because the dominant discourse is a discourse where power and Islamic theocracy legitimise each other and spill over into the educational discourse. Given the ethnic and religious complexity in the Sudan the imposition of a fundamentalist Islamic discourse is fiercely contested. The second part of the article, therefore, discusses the educational discourse of the government and relates it to the oppositional discourses in the country. It pays particular attention to the homogenising efforts of the dominant discourse to eradicate difference as a constituting factor in the Sudanese education system. The attempts to recognise difference have not led to a fundamental negotiation of the consequences of Islamism in the official school system.     

Islamic pedagogy and embodiment: an anthropological study of a British Madrasah

This anthropological study of a higher education British Madrasah was undertaken to increase our awareness of the spectrum of sensory experiences that shape Islamic pedagogy. We started our anthropological study from an Islamic premise of the inseparable nature of knowledge and the sacred. Pedagogy is defined as not a matter of simple methods and technique but as a holistic approach that deals with the capacity to form the human person. Islamic pedagogy is represented by the heartfelt interactions between the teacher and learner through orality, facilitating memorization, and the didactic approach towards sacred texts. This research has explored the sensoria of a British Madrasah from a spiritual approach and this provides the foundation for shaping our understanding of the madrasah concept of Islamic pedagogy. An Al-Ghazali’s mystical-theoretical approach toward learning is evident in this research in defining the madrasah as a spiritual rather than social construct, and is optimized by the embodiment of learning.     

A model for Islamic education from Turkey: the Imam-Hatip schools

The aim of this article is to examine the Imam-Hatip schools and their basic features, the characteristic model of Islamic education in Turkey that was proposed as an alternative model for other Muslim countries during their madrasa reform movements in the aftermath of the September 11 events in the USA. In the continuation of the madrasa tradition during the Saljuki period under state supervision, along with the modernisation efforts in education since the late Ottoman period, these schools have been revitalised and adapted to the contemporary conditions of educational institutions. At the foundation of these schools, there lay a notion of reconciliation between the ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’. Throughout the years of the Turkish Republic, these schools have constantly become a controversial issue in terms of their number, structure, and student and alumni profiles. Especially after the opening process of the Turkish people and Turkish foreign policies to the world, the issue has become an international one since the 1980s. After the events of 11 September 2001, these schools were offered as an alternative model for madrasas in Muslim countries and therefore drew international attention to themselves.     

Empirical research: Challenges and impulses for Islamic religious education

ABSTRACT

The following article describes how empirical research can give new impulses to Islamic religious education. These impulses could lead to a reconciliation of the Islamic religious heritage with the fast-changing reality of Muslims in non-Muslim countries and societies. Due to the presence of Muslim children in public schools and the urgent question of their religious education, as an academic discipline, Islamic religious pedagogy (Islamische Religionspädagogik) has acquired a pioneering role among the various Islamic theological disciplines. On a scientific level, it has already taken its first steps in the scientific landscape in Germany and Austria and has established diverse references to modern science. Islamic religious pedagogy, as a young scientific discipline, necessarily requires empirical research to provide sound foundations for the quality of Islamic religious education and for a better understanding of religious educational processes. This calls for a dialogue between empirical educational research and theology and cannot be achieved based on purely theoretical assumptions.     

教师道德从何而来

本文通过分析教师的不道德行为的突出表现、产生根源和解决对策 ,指出教师道德首先来源于社会对于教师职业的切实保障 ,而不仅仅是教师教育培训这一种途径。要妥善处理教师素质与教师待遇、个人道德与社会道德的关系     

Teaching Islamic education in Finnish schools: A field of negotiations

The challenges of contemporary multicultural societies have resulted in changing aims for religious education and the necessity to adjust teacher education accordingly. The processes of negotiation related to the coexistence of different religious and cultural groups are intertwined in the Finnish curriculum for religious education. This case study examines three Islamic education teachers who negotiated intra- and inter-religious tensions as well as tensions between societal and religious orientations of education. Through their ideological, pedagogical and interpersonal negotiations teachers can mediate the contested practices of Islam as well as the ideals of liberal democracies and contribute to the emergence of Finnish Islam.     

当代土耳其伊斯兰政治的变迁——从救国党到繁荣党

随着伊斯兰复兴运动的广泛发展 ,70年代以来 ,伊斯兰主义作为一种重要的意识形态进入土耳其的政治生活之中。从那时起 ,在多种力量推动下 ,土耳其的伊斯兰政治经历了许多变化 ,这从繁荣党和救国党之间的差异方面可以反映出来。 90年代土耳其的伊斯兰主义政党在世俗主义势力的压力下被迫在许多方面与世俗主义妥协 ,但这并没有促进土耳其的民主。道德党的出现将会给土耳其的伊斯兰政治带来新变化     

浅论清真词的集大成

周邦彦是北宋后期集婉约大成的重要词人，其集大成主要在艺术上。他在吸取温、柳、秦、苏等优长的基础上进一步创新，形成了“富艳精工”的特有词风。通过具体词作的比较，分析清真词是如何继承发展温、柳、秦、苏等人的长处，成为一个集大成词人的。     

国外马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动研究述评

20世纪60年代末、70年代初以来,马来西亚兴起伊斯兰复兴运动,对马来西亚的政治、经济、社会与文化发展都产生了深远的影响。从马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动的历史沿革、马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动的典型组织和团体、马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动与政治民主化的关系以及马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动与经济现代化的关系四个方面,综合分析了国外关于马来西亚伊斯兰复兴运动在理论与实践上取得的成果,提出国内学者需要推进的研究方向。     

浅析互联网道德

通过分析互联网道德的特征,强调互联网道德建设的两大环节.     

从青年学生"回归"伊斯兰现象透视萨达特时期的伊斯兰运动

萨达特时期的伊斯兰复兴运动吸引了大批青年学生，出现了学生大规模“回归”伊斯兰的现象，主要表现为组织上倾向于联合和集体行动、思想上倾向于激进和暴力、着装上主张恢复传统服饰。由此可以引发我们对这一时期埃及伊斯兰运动的进一步思考。只有当遭受外力推动的时候，宗教才会显示出它的力量，伊斯兰运动并非源于伊斯兰教本身，而是各种社会经济矛盾聚积的结果。     

网络道德问题辨析

当前，网络道德研究中存在四个方面的争论，即网络道德问题产生的根源；网络道德与传统道德的关系问题；网络行为靠什么来规范；网络对人格发展的影响。应该仔细探究争论双方的观点及其分歧的深层原因，并从理论和实践两个层面寻找问题解决的方法和途径，以利于争端的解决和网络的健康发展。     

从自然法的角度出发——探讨法律与道德之间的必然联系

法律与道德之间的关系可谓前千丝万缕,纵观古今中外,对于道德与法律之间关系的讨论可谓形形色色。本文中,笔者试图绕过法律与道德之间联系的种类,从自然法的角度出发,探讨法律与道德之间存在必然联系的原因。     

蒙古西征下的伊斯兰世界——试论13世纪伊斯兰教的发展

1206年成吉思汗统一蒙古后,新兴的蒙古帝国先后发动三次西征。蒙古的西征一直打到地中海沿岸,其对伊斯兰世界的破坏可以说是毁灭性的。在蒙古军的暴力破坏下,短短数年一大批城市变成废墟,同时伊斯兰的哈里发教廷亦遭摧毁。然而,在伊斯兰教临近灭亡的边缘时,却得以奇迹般地生存下来,并开始了新一轮的发展,蒙古人建立的察合台汗国、伊尔汗国、金帐汗国纷纷伊斯兰化,同时,伊斯兰教在中国亦得到长足发展。整个13世纪可以说是伊斯兰教在其历史中的一个转折点。     

角色道德自觉及其实现路径

社会角色是现代社会生活的重要因子,角色道德自觉是社会发展和进步的重要表征。角色道德自觉既是当前道德生活现状的时代吁求,又是角色自身道德精神和伦理价值外显与升华。新形势下探索角色道德自觉实现路径必然成为文化自觉和道德自觉的重要议题。