Halaqah as Decolonial-Decolonizing Praxis: Muslim Undergraduate STEM Education and the Promise of MusCrit

• In Event: Beyond Extraction: Islamic Community Practices as Liberatory Research

Abstract

Objectives
This paper proposes halaqah, a traditional Islamic pedagogical practice, as a decolonial methodology and decolonizing intervention for engaging Muslim undergraduates in critical dialogue about their identities in Western STEM. It examines how halaqah-based dialogue can disrupt ideological coloniality and rebuild spiritually-grounded, care-centered communities that nurture epistemic reclamation and empowerment in STEM.
Theoretical Framework
This study is shaped by Muslim Critical Race Theory (MusCrit), a framework that positions Muslim identities at the center of critique against racialization, epistemicide, and Islamophobia in Western schooling (Ali, 2018). MusCrit interrogates the decentering of Muslim epistemologies and identities in education, calling for an ethical, spiritual, and political reclamation of Islamic worldviews. Ahmed (2014) theorizes halaqah as an Islamic methodological counterpart to extractive data-gathering practices, outlining it as a relational, dialogical, and spiritually-situated practice for learning, healing, and co-construction of knowledge. Together, these frameworks foreground epistemic disobedience (Mignolo, 2009) to resist the ideological colonization permeating academia.
Methods, Techniques, or Modes of Inquiry
Team SiSTEM, a Participatory Action Research (PAR) team with Muslim undergraduate women in STEM fields, designed and conducted a halaqah 1) to gather data enriched by authentic communal practices, in lieu of focus groups; and 2) to co-facilitate [un]learning. Participants engaged in activities balancing communal and individual elements, such as group dialogue, spiritual grounding practices (du'a, ayah reflection), and discussing STEM-related social justice topics, such as historic and contemporary Islamic contributions to STEM and the history of European colonization in relation to the Islamic empire. The methodology integrated Islamic ethics with decolonial principles of mutuality, community-led inquiry, and trust.
Data Sources and Materials
Relevant data sources include the preliminary questionnaire, discussion transcripts, and reflection worksheets. Transcripts for both participant groups were analyzed deductively using critical faith-centered coding methods that emphasize identity navigation, affective experiences in STEM, and expressions of care, resistance, and agency.
Findings
Halaqah created a space for healing and resistance for Muslim women STEM scholars. Participants could interrogate colonial norms they had either internalized or observed in Western STEM spaces (e.g., objectivity, hyper-competition, secularism), and were empowered to reframe their pursuit of science as a spiritual, ethical, and collective responsibility. The relational nature of halaqah fostered trust and intellectual risk-taking, enabling participants to share counter-stories and develop spiritually-grounded STEM identities. Halaqah’s care-based structure effectively disrupted the Western academic separation of mind and soul, [re]positing learning as both an act of ibadah (worship) and resistance. Institutional support is needed to conduct a follow-up inductive thematic analysis, to explore unanticipated themes emerging from participant discussions.
Scientific/Scholarly Significance
This work contributes to decolonial educational research by operationalizing halaqah in praxis, as both a culturally grounded methodology and pedagogical intervention that repairs epistemic harm and collectively transforms communities. It offers Muslim students a reparative model of participating in research, catalyzing communal resistance to coloniality in higher education. By invoking the spiritual, ethical, and dialogical dimensions of knowledge, halaqah embodies what a decolonial future of education can look like: pluriversal, care-centered, and rooted in ancestral traditions that empower marginalized learners.

Author

• Vivian Zohery, University of Maryland