Pedagogical Possibilities of Muslim Science Epistemologies and Storywork Curriculum

• In Event: Emerging Possibilities and Critical Educational Initiatives

Abstract

This paper explores how we have used non-Western, specifically Indigenous Muslim storywork to develop an extracurricular science curriculum to engage elementary school children in multiple ways of knowing, and diverse orientations toward knowledge. First, we provide context for the curriculum development and teaching. Next, we explain and demonstrate the application of social theories and critiques of modernity and coloniality to the design of curriculum and pedagogical strategies that forward culturally responsive and revitalizing relationships with, and understanding and production of knowledge and our world. Finally we provide an example of textual analysis of the story of Hayy ibn Yaqzan, as a theory of knowledge within Muslim cultures and a curricular and pedagogical tool.

Authors

• Ebtissam Oraby, The George Washington University

• Samuel Burmester, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Arshad Imtiaz Ali, The George Washington University