Muslim Educators’ Pedagogies: Tools for Self, Social, and Spiritual Transformation

Abstract

In this interpretive research study, Claire Alkouatli inquires into the pedagogical activities Sunni Muslim educators employ in sites of Islamic education that are often marginalized by stereotypes, misperceptions, and charges of anachronism and indoctrination. She invited thirty-five Muslim Canadian educators to share their perspectives on their pedagogies around teaching Islam to children and youth. Her thematic analysis of participants’ variegated descriptions coalesced into a three-theme pedagogical typology. Distinct from mainstream secular pedagogies at the levels of ontology, epistemology, and developmental psychology, Islamic pedagogies are situated within a wider conceptual paradigm. Recognizing their qualities of holism and “double cultural relevance,” they are functionally significant in teachers’ repertoires for helping young Muslims think across paradigms and may contribute to both sociocultural continuity and more equal inter-epistemic interaction in heterogeneous societies.

Something more beautiful: educational and epistemic integrations beyond inequities in Muslim-minority contexts

“…While not every pedagogic pilgrimage is equally transforming for all students, nor do all students participate in the same ways, particular pedagogic activities can yield incalculable transformative results. Such results were described by Canadian Muslim educators in another study (Alkouatli, 2022a) whereby transformative pedagogies included metacognitive practices of triangulated reflection; supplication (dua) with and for learners (Alkouatli, 2022a); and spiritual transference between a learner and a more-conscious other (Alkouatli, 2022b). Sahin (2013) described the primary Islamic text, the Qur'an, as itself a "divine educational intervention programme" (p. 15): a transformative pedagogical hermeneutic approach that propels individuals forward in processes of self-development:…”

“…The presence of a variably experienced Dual Consciousness was widely described across the literature reviewed here. In a study on Canadian Muslim educators' pedagogies (Alkouatli, 2022a), educators described Muslim youth as "stuck between two worlds," and as moving between multiple worlds, as this dialogue between two educators attests: This excerpt describes a girl negotiating different "countries" within Canada rooted in differing ontoepistemic paradigms and expressed in differing lifestyles, social practices and identities. This girl's point about the beach, and Huda's assertation that the beach is itself a different country, is connected to a deeper sociospiritual concept called hayya (modesty), which is centrally positioned within Islamic tradition.…”

“…We envision this field as including both education in the Islamic faith tradition and the ideational blending of secular and spiritual into a holistic ( tawhi¯di) educational approach (Ahmed, 2019; Zaman, 2016). Literature in the field encompasses a growing number of scholars, educators and practitioners exploring Islamic faith development through education within larger pluralistic societies; calling for renewals of Islamic schools in alignment with more deeply rooted Islamic philosophies for education (Abdalla et al , 2018; Ahmed, 2019; Memon, 2021); exploring new pedagogies toward unique educational objectives; and teaching back to systematic Islamophobia (Alkouatli, 2022a).…”

“…The first theme, Dual Consciousness , is described as young people living parallel lives, “with one lifestyle and identity at home and in madrasah and another at state-funded schools” (Ahmed, 2019, p. 647), which is also understood as a “felt dual alienation” (Panjwani, 2017, p. 603). The second theme, Educational Transferables , is a coalescence of abilities that young Muslims develop within sites of Islamic education that can enhance their experiences in secular societies, including academic skills (Berglund, 2019a), aspects of character development (Ahmed, 2019) and pedagogies for development (Alkouatli, 2022a). Multiple scholars have identified these transferables as originating within sites of Islamic education and having benefit for (Muslim and maybe also non-Muslim) learners in sites of public secular education.…”

“…The presence of a variably experienced Dual Consciousness was widely described across the literature reviewed here. In a study on Canadian Muslim educators’ pedagogies (Alkouatli, 2022a), educators described Muslim youth as “stuck between two worlds,” and as moving between multiple worlds, as this dialogue between two educators attests:…”