Islamic Education

This course explores Islamic educational thought as a living intellectual tradition with enduring significance for contemporary educational philosophy and practice. Part I approaches the classical foundations through four connected questions: Why, What, How, and Who? Why is a distinctively Islamic educational philosophy needed? What understandings of knowledge, reason, and truth make education Islamic? How have Muslim thinkers understood teaching and learning? And who is education ultimately seeking to cultivate? Drawing particularly on Philosophies of Islamic Education: Historical Perspectives and Emerging Discourses (Memon & Zaman, 2016), students engage diverse perspectives within the Islamic intellectual tradition, including theology, reason, knowledge, spirituality, adab, and human formation.

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Part II turns to contemporary Islamic schooling through four turns towards renewal: the Critical Turn, the Inward Turn and Turn Back, the Reflexive Turn, and the Pedagogical Turn. Students examine the philosophical assumptions embedded in contemporary schooling, consider how renewal can reconnect with the Islamic educational tradition, explore how educators and school communities can learn from their own contexts, and investigate how worldview can inform teaching, learning, and school practice.
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Together, the eight sessions move from the philosophical foundations of Islamic education to the work of renewing contemporary schooling. The course invites students to move beyond understanding Islamic education as the addition of religious content or values to conventional schooling, and instead to consider how an Islamic worldview can inform a coherent educational philosophy—one that shapes the purposes of education, understandings of knowledge, pedagogical practice, and the formation of the educated person. The four turns are a course-level adaptation of the Five Turns framework, bringing the Inward Turn and Turn Back together for this four-session sequence.

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Learning Aims
By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Explain key philosophical questions and concepts within Islamic educational thought.
• Critically examine relationships between worldview, knowledge, spirituality, human formation and educational practice.
• Engage with diverse perspectives within the Islamic intellectual tradition.
• Analyse the philosophical assumptions informing contemporary schooling.
• Identify implications of Islamic educational thought for the renewal of teaching, learning and educational institutions.

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Target Audience and Prerequisites  

This course is designed for students, academics, and anyone interested in engaging seriously with the intellectual traditions of Islamic civilization. No prior academic background in the subject is required unless otherwise specified. Participants need only bring intellectual curiosity, openness to new ideas, and a willingness to engage thoughtfully with the course materials and discussions.  

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Texts

Memon, N. & Zaman, M. (Eds.), (2016) Philosophies of Islamic Education: Historical Perspectives and Emerging Discourses. Oxford UK: Routledge

Memon, N. A., Alhashmi, M. & Abdalla, M. (Eds). (2021) Curriculum Renewal for Islamic Education: Critical perspectives on teaching Islam in primary and secondary schools. Oxford UK: Routledge

Memon, N. A., Abdalla, M. & Chown, D. (2026) Islamic Schools of Distinction: Learning and Teaching Rooted in the Islamic Worldview. Palgrave Macmillan

Readings will be mainly selected from the texts. Only one reading is required per session. Additional readings that have been provided are optional.

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