Science teachers' views of science and religion vs. the Islamic perspective: Conflicting or compatible?

Abstract

This paper reports a study that explores Egyptian science teachers' views on religion and science within the context of Islam. It also highlights an ontological and epistemological consideration of these views, particularly the ways through which Egyptian Muslim teachers understand such a relationship with reference to the Qur'anic/Islamic attitude toward science and knowledge. The study built upon Barbour's categorization scheme to guide the data collection and analysis and to guide the interpretation of the teachers' responses in the interviews. Informed by a multigrounded theory of the teachers' views of science and religion, and using Roth and Alexander's analytical framework to interpret how teachers accommodate the relationship between science and religion within their belief system, the findings suggest that participants' views of the relationship between science and a specific religion (Islam) confirmed the centrality of teachers' personal religious beliefs to their own thoughts and views concerning issues of both science and Islam. This centralization, in some cases, appeared to lead teachers to hold a conflicting relationship, hence to a creation of a false contradiction between science and Islam. Therefore, it could be concluded that teachers' personal Islamic‐religious beliefs inform their beliefs about the nature of science and its purpose. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 95:281–309, 2011

The Effects of an Integrated Curriculum on Student Achievement in Saudi Arabia

“…After all, as Mansour (2011) explained, 'the Prophet's sayings take a pragmatic and utilitarian view of knowledge, which can be sought outside Islam if necessity demands it' (p. 303). The author agrees with this interpretation of the Hadith suggested by Mansour (2011) and Golshani (2007) and, in particular, with the view that science and mathematics are compatible with traditional Islamic beliefs.…”

Insights Into the Diversity of Attitudes Concerning Evolution and Creation: A Multidimensional Approach

“…There is a range of primarily qualitative studies that have described different views regarding the science and religion issue. Many of these studies use Barbour's () typology of science and religion relationships to identify students’ or teachers’ views (e.g., Mansour, ; Taber et al., ). In our study, several attitude profiles match the conflict view ( P1 , P3 , P4 , and P7 ), whereas the more‐harmonious profiles ( P2 and P5 ) belong to dialogue, independence or integration.…”

Canadian and Pakistani Muslim teachers’ perceptions of evolutionary science and evolution education

“…Other inquiries revealed that Muslim teachers and students tend to use a combination of theological and biological explanations when making sense of evolution and other biology concepts because scientific and theological domains are often intertwined or diffused in their minds (Haidar 1999(Haidar , 2002Aroua et al 2009;Asghar et al 2009a). The tensions that arise between the secular values that come with modern science and teachers' theological frameworks may lead to outright rejection or modification of certain scientific ideas to seek harmony between Islam and science (Mansour 2008(Mansour , 2011. Notably, scientific evidence did not seem to influence the thinking of those who rejected or selectively accepted evolution.…”

“…Importantly, the Scientific Academies of several predominantly Muslim countries (e.g., Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan) are signatory to a statement proclaiming that evolution is an 'evidence based fact' which has never been contradicted by scientific evidence (Inter-Academy Panel 2006). Mansour (2011) explicates the powerful role of Islam in shaping Muslim intellectual and broader publics' response to modern science. According to him, Islam in most contemporary Muslim communities is not just restricted to moral and spiritual beliefs like other religions.…”

“…Studies with Muslim teachers in Islamic schools indicated that preparing Muslim students to succeed in western cultures while holding on to their distinct values was central to these teachers' pedagogical practice (Selby 1992;Zine 2001;Niyozov and Pluim 2009). Exploring Muslim teachers' religious and scientific perspectives on evolution is, thus, very important to develop a better understanding of how they enact the curriculum in their classrooms (Mansour 2011). Some recent studies are beginning to shed light on the ways in which social and religious debates about evolution influence how the science of evolution is taught in predominantly Muslim societies.…”