This article examines the place of ijtihad in the British Religious Education curriculum. It argues that the concept should be taught to high school students earlier than A-Level. Knowledge of ijtihad enables students to understand diversity of thought and legal interpretation in Islam, and why different conclusions can be reached from the same or…

In the article, 'Agreed Syllabi and Un-Agreed Values: Religious Education and Missed Opportunities for Fostering Social Cohesion', Panjwani (2005) presented a case study of Muslim representation in the selected agreed syllabi and RE textbooks in England and Wales. The present article aims to provide a rear-mirror view, reviewing the representation…

Articles 28 and 30 of the Indian Constitution (1950) guarantee the right of religious minorities to establish their educational institutions and impart religious education. Analysing the curriculum, textbooks, and pedagogical practices of one such minority-run institution for girls makes it possible for us to see how contemporary Muslims in India…

Drawing on fiqh al-aqalliyyat (the Muslim jurisprudence of diasporic minorities), this article introduces a Muslim minorities curriculum and negotiates the notion of diasporicity as a process that signifies a community's readiness to respond to its own cultural, religious and literacy practices. More specifically, first, I propose a Muslim…

The design framework of the value education model integrates natural sciences (NS), social sciences (SS), Islamic religious education (IRE), and extracurricular activities. This model is an effort to lay the foundations of the correct educational philosophy in a curriculum that contains the values, morals, and ethics that students should possess…

Turkey has become a powerful example of rising ethno-religious nationalism since the ruling Justice and Development Party allied with the Nationalist Movement Party in 2016. Conceptualising the political ideology in power as Islamic nationalism, I expose ways in which this ideology is articulated in the education reform discourse of 'new Turkey'…

This article explores and compares the salient characteristics and educational influences of humanism in both Islam and Confucianism. It is argued that the humanist tradition in both belief systems upholds the development and transforming ability of human beings. A common aim of education is to nurture God/Way-conscious and virtuous individuals…

Since 2009, there is a discussion about how RE should be organised in state and 'private' (mainly Catholic) schools in Flanders. Especially the proposal to introduce non-denominational and integrative RE for all pupils in all schools stimulated the debate. More than ten years later, the RE system, which is based on (semi-)confessional and in state…

As a point of departure for understanding the complexities of Spanish national and individual identities, it is incumbent that a student begin by investigating Spanish iterations of the three Abrahamic religions. This presupposition of religion's centrality in the pursuit of better informed understandings of the Spanish nation, people, history and…

Pedagogy is understood as embedded in the relationship between teaching and learning. In a globalising world with cross-cultural educational reforms, how the teaching-learning relationship is understood, recognised and developed is important. Reforms to the Saudi Early Years curriculum are based on the American High/Scope Model and Developmentally…

This article explores the "othering" of an erroneous fixed Muslim identity with an emphasis on its impacts within adult and community education. It examines the geopolitical circumstances that contribute to this othering and argues for the creation of counter-hegemonic, intercultural learning spaces.

In 2013, the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (Pre-school to Post-Secondary Education) was launched. Section 3 focussed on ensuring that, in Islamic Education for Muslim students and Moral Education (ME) for non-Muslims, students will be strengthened through understanding values that promote unity and foster good relations among students.…

The recent critical turn toward post-secularism, particularly on behalf of theorists working from the perspective of Christian societies, has highlighted the difficulty of approaching the history of the Middle East through the binary of religion and secularism. This article argues that such terms are of little explanatory value in and of…

This article cites the problems of citizenship education in three different countries: Bosnia, England and Japan, partly because of the way in which these nations are defined, as well as the way in which knowledge within the official school curriculum is selectively developed. In most countries, the curriculum is derived from a narrowly based…

Critical Sexuality Studies is an emerging field of academic enquiry linked to an international network of advocacy agencies, activists, and political issues. This paper reports on the development of an advanced short course in sexuality theory and research, drawing on Critical Sexuality Studies and aiming directly at academics in developing…