New Directions in Islamic Education: Pedagogy and Identity Formation
Based on empirical research, the book engages critically with the philosophical, theological and cultural dynamics that inform Muslim educational thought and practice. The book offers an integrated model of Islamic education that identifies the heart of the Islamic educational imagination as tarbiyah, a transformative process of becoming. Overall, this book seeks to ground the theory and practice of Islamic education within the experience of the educator and the learner, and it synthesises the spiritual foundations of Islam with the tradition of critical reflection within the classical Muslim educational heritage. This ground breaking and wide-ranging work should be of interest not only to Muslim educators and education specialists, but also to social scientists, theologians and policy makers. Dr Abdullah Sahin is a Muslim educator who comes from an Islamic Studies, Theology and Educational Studies background. He has researched the learning and teaching of Islam within the Muslim majority and minority contexts in the modern world. His work aims to establish Islamic education as an interdisciplinary field of scholarly study, empirical inquiry and professional development. He directs the Centre for Muslim Educational Thought and Practice and is the course leader for the MEd programme in Islamic Education at the Markfield Institute of Higher Education, which is validated by the University of Gloucestershire. He has taught at the universities of Birmingham, Aberdeen and Kuwait. his ground-breaking book is one of the most significant contributions made in recent years to Islamic education and, indeed, to wider religious education.John M. Hull, Honorary Professor of Practical Theology in The Queen Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education and Emeritus Professor of Religious Education in The University of Birmingham hat makes New Directions in Islamic Education inspiring to practitioners in the field is its combination of empirical analysis of our current malaise, its authentic and intellectually provocative theological grounding, and its practical solutions. Abdullah Sahin seminal work has the potential to set the pace in Islamic education in the coming decades.Edris Khamissa, Director of Al-Falah Islamic College, Durban, South Africa n exemplary work of scholarship which both offers an unparalleled insight into the curriculum and ethos of traditional Islamic seminaries and a way to enable a creative conversation with modern educational theory and practice.Dr Philip Lewis, Peace Studies Department, University of Bradford and author of Islamic Britain (2002) and Young, British and Muslim (2007)
