Educating for Agency in Being Muslim: Holistic Islamic Education Through Dialogic Halaqah (Circles of Learning)

• In Event: Centering Holism in Islamic Educational Practices in "Western" Contexts as Integrated Educational Responsibilities

Abstract

Objectives
This paper argues for the use of a traditional Islamic oral pedagogy called halaqah which centres educational responsibility to help develop the personal autonomy of young Muslims in twenty-first century Britain. It begins by outlining the double-consciousness (Ipgrave, 2010) and racist bullying (Milmo, 2015) experienced by British Muslim children in mainstream UK schools, and by exploring the socio-political climate creating these experiences. Muslim and non-Muslim educators are attempting to meet the needs of British Muslim children as they navigate multiple cultures and subcultures to develop a sense of selfhood. Educators aim to provide a holistic faith-based education that supports children and young people to reflect on their beliefs and lived experiences; on how they make choices about their religious beliefs, their multiple identities and integration into British society. Such an aim requires the use of a ‘culturally-relevant’ dialogic pedagogical approach, namely halaqah.
Framework
In order to investigate whether halaqah can meet these aims, Islamic conceptualisations of selfhood and personal autonomy (shakhsiyah) and of dialogic pedagogy are established. These are explored in relation to Islamic (al-Attas, 1980) and ‘Western’ (Hermans & Hermans-Konopka, 2010; Wegerif, 2011) theories of self and dialogue which inform the empirical research questions for a study on the use of halaqah in two independent British Muslim faith-schools. Halaqah aims to provide a dialogic safe space for young Muslims to cumulatively explore challenging issues. It is claimed that such cumulative dialogue facilitates the development of shakhsiyah Islamiyah, a holistic autonomous selfhood incorporating hybrid identities.
Methods and Sources
The empirical study collected rich qualitative data generated through dialogic halaqah held with two groups: eight schoolchildren and seven young people. Using established analytic schemes; data from these sessions were subjected to both thematic (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and dialogue analyses (Hennessy et al., 2016).
The use of halaqah as a data collection method emerged out of my role as a practitioner-researcher working at the interface between theory, practice and community activism. It may seem peculiar to use the subject of the study, i.e. halaqah, as the data collection method. However, this approach aligns with a ‘culturally-relevant’ approach to research that seeks to reclaim intellectual space that centres non-western worldviews (AUTHOR, 2014). Denzin, Lincoln and Smith (2008), Reagan (2005), and Connell (2007) all place Islamic educational theory within an indigenous critical research discourse.
Findings
Participants value being responsible and autonomous, and having critical thinking and choice, they explore how they navigate authority (both religious and secular) and peer pressure and conclude that it is important to choose to be Muslim. They claim that oral dialogue in halaqah generates learning through self-other interaction, providing opportunities to weigh up differing points of view, thereby developing their shakhsiyah Islamiyah, i.e. critical, reflective autonomous Muslim selfhood. They claim that in contrast to more text-based approaches, dialogic halaqah is much more dynamic, holistic, contextual and transformative.
Significance
Research on Islamic education for ‘Western’ contexts is still in its infancy. This study offers insights into how holistic dialogic halaqah can renew educational responsibility in Islamic educational practices.

Author

• Farah Ahmed, University of Cambridge