Muslim Educators' Perspectives on Human Learning and Development in a Sunni Muslim Weekend School, Canada

• In Event: Roundtable Session 37
  In Roundtable Session: The Culture and Context of Learning and Development

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a sociocultural study that used participant observation and active interviewing to examine four Muslim educators’ perspectives on human learning and development in a mosque school in Canada. Sociocultural conceptions and methods of analysis foregrounded educator/child interactions in social practices. Thematic analysis reflected educators’ perspectives on learning and development as integral to the Islamic system of principles and practices, which contains content, pedagogies and learning goals intrinsic to itself. Distinct social, spiritual and discursive practices play a leading role in the development of a specifically Islamic consciousness. A second finding involved reconciliation between cultural contexts: educators mediated the secular Western culture in which the mosque school is embedded to enrich the teaching of Islam.

Author

• Claire Alkouatli, University of British Columbia