Introductory description

This module aims to enable students to engage critically with the concept of Islamic pedagogy through exploring historical formation of Islamic traditions of learning and teaching and assessing their contemporay applications in diverse educational settings. Students will be taught the principles of historical, cultural and pedagogic analysis in relation to selected texts, context(s) and topics in particular research projects in the inter-disciplinary field of Islamic Education.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Working within the context of workshops, independent studye and group-supported seminars each course participant will be required to identify issues of practical professional relevance with the context of their personal and individual experience developing competence for research-based reflective practice through academic exploration and illumination by means of historical research approraches.

The participants are encouraged to consider the implications of their specific inquiries using diverse historical approaches and methods for the contemporary theory and practice of Islamic Education.

Within this context of independent study and group-supported seminars, each course participant will be required to develop knowledge of research literature relevant to the identified issues.

The course content is designed to provide access to a range of historical, textual, cultural and educational research methodologies capable of exploring and illuminating research questions including references to:

• Interdisciplinary research methods in understanding diverse pedagogies practices in historical and contemporary Islamic Education
  -Exploring critical, comparative understanding concerning the values and principles informing major perspectives developed to interpret the concept of pedagogy in Islamic and western educational traditions.
  -Reflect on the nature of historical thinking and employing critical historical study methods, research designs in critical and contemporary framework in Islamic Education.
  -Explore stages of historical formation of educational and pedagogic thought, practice and institutions within diverse geographical locations and cultural contexts informing Islamic Education studies.
  -Explore a range of methods and approaches such as historical-textual hermeneutics, sources-criticism, biographical, archival research, historiography, psychohistory and oral history in the study of pedagogic practices, principles and values in Islamic Education.
  -Critically consider pedagogic challenges facing modern Islamic edcuational practice in Muslim majority and minority communities.
  -Critically analyse the relationship between identity formation, intercultural awareness and educational process within diverse historical and Islamic pedagogic practices.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Develop critical, comparative understanding concerning the values and principles informing major perspectives developed to interpret the concept of pedagogy in Islamic and western educational traditions;
• Apply a systematic knowledge and critical understanding of selected areas in Islamic pedagogy to historical and contemporary issues, demonstrating knowledge of current reserach debate and methodological awareness in relation to the use of historical methods, nature of historical analysis and inquiry and, historiography-based research approaches in Islamic Education.
• Critically analyse the relationship between identity formation, intercultural awareness and educational process within diverse historical and Islamic pedagogic practices.
• Indepenedently gather, organise and critique research data related to historical and contemproary Islamic pedagogic practices gathered from a broad range of primary and secondary sources, communicating concisely in writing using sophisticated concepts and vocabulary relevant to Islamic Educaiton and proposing new hypotheses where appropriate.
• Critically consider the implications of pedagogy-focused interdisciplinary research for professional/vocational context of Islamic Educational practice where appropriate.

Indicative reading list

Berkey, J.P (1992) The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education, Princeton, Princeton university press.

Cook, B (2011) Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought: A Compendium of Parallel English-Arabic Texts (Islamic Translation Series), London. University of Chicago Press.

Crawford A et al (eds)(2005) Teaching And Learning Strategies For The Thinking Classroom, London, International Debate Education Association.

Eickelman, D.F (1978) The Art of Memory: Islamic Education and its social reproduction, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 20, No. 4. pp. 485-516

Giladi, A (1992) Children of Islam; concepts of childhood in medieval Muslim society, London, Palgrave.

Janin, H (2006) The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World, 610-2003, London, McFarland & Co.

Kanpol, B (1999) Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction, London, Bergin & Garvey.

Lee Too, Y (2001) Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity, London, Brill.

McLaren, P (2009) ‘Critical pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts’. In The Critical Pedagogy Reader. Edited by Antonia Darder, Marta Baltodano and Rodolfo D. Torres. London: Routledge, pp. 61–84.

Metcalf , B.D (1984) Moral Conduct and Authority: the place of Adab in South Asian Islam, University of California press.

Rahman, F (1984) Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition, University of Chicago Press.

Rosenthal, F (2007) Knowledge Triumphant; the concept of knowledge in medieval Islam, Brill, Leiden.

Sahin, A (2014) New Directions in Islamic Education: pedagogy and identity formation, Kube Academic, Markfield.

Sahin, A (2016) ‘Islam’s Heritage of Critical Education: The Missing Catalyst in Addressing the Crisis Informing Modern Muslim Presence. The Muslim World Book Review, 36: 6–20

Al-Zarnuji, (2001) Instruction of the student. The method of learning (Trans. with an introduction by G.E. von Grunebaum and Theodora M. Abel), Chicago, Chicago Uni. Press.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Interdisciplinary

The module enables students to examine historical development of Islamic pedagogy and engage with a critical and comparative analysis of pedagogic theories/practices within educational traditions in Islam and the West. As such disciplines within social sciences and humanities including history, sociology, psychology, philosophy will be used to explore the pedagogic focus of the module.

International

Students will have the opportunity of exploring Islamic pedagogy within context of Muslim majority and minority societies across the globe.

Subject specific skills

• Apply a systematic knowledge and critical understanding of selected areas in Islamic pedagogy to historical and contemporary issues
• Demonstrate knowledge of current research, debate and methodological awareness in relation to the use of historical methods and interdisciplinary pedagogic inquiries in Islamic Education Studies.
• Independently gather, organize and critique interdisciplinary research data gathered from a broad range of primary, secondary and scholarly sources, communicating concisely in writing using sophisticated concepts and vocabulary relevant to Islamic Pedagogy.
• Demonstrate competence to critically analyse the relationship between identity formation, intercultural awareness and educational process within contemporary Islamic pedagogic practices.
• Critically explore stages of historical formation of educational and pedagogic thought, practice and institutions within diverse geographical locations and cultural contexts informing Islamic Education Studies.
• Enrage with critical /comparative analysis between Islamic and western pedagogic theories and practices with aim of facilitating initiative perspectives on Islamic pedagogy.
• Critically evaluate the current models of teaching Islam, Islamic Sciences within the context of diverse Islamic education settings and mainstream schools.

Transferable skills

• Be able to deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively, make sound judgements in the absence of complete data, and communicate their conclusions clearly to specialist and non-specialist audiences
• Demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems, and act autonomously in planning and implementing tasks at a professional or equivalent level
• Continue to advance their knowledge and understanding, and to develop new skills to a high level.
• Demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems, and act autonomously in planning and implementing tasks at a professional or equivalent level
• Evaluating their own achievement and that of others
• Independent learning and the ability to work in a way which ensures continuing professional development
• Critically to engage in the development of professional/disciplinary boundaries and norms