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Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr. 13th February 2010
1.0 OVERVIEW
This paper sets out the main concepts and steps of epistemological and curriculum reform at Universities to conform to the Islamic World view. He ideas presented have been tried out in practice over the past 3 years with good effect.
2.0 THE PROBLEM: CONTRADICTION / DUALITY IN EDUCATION
2.1 Manifestations of the crisis
The knowledge / educational crisis manifesting as duality of traditional Islamic vs imported western education systems and world views is a major contributor to the ummatic malaise manifesting in the religious, social, political, economic, technological, and military dimensions. Failure of Muslim intellectuals to integrate or harmonize the 2 contradictory systems of education in which they were brought up leaves them in intellectual confusion with no clear-cut world-view for analyzing and solving ummatic problems.
2.2 Resolving the crisis
The knowledge crisis can be resolved by reforming education systems and curricula of all disciplines to reflect Islamic epistemology based on the paradigms of tauhid and objectivity, istiqamat. Such a reform will resolve intellectual confusion and contradiction and will at the same act as a motivator for research, ijtihad, and acquisition of knowledge, talab al ílm, in the knowledge that these are part of íbadat.
3.0 CURRICULUM REFORM: TRANSITIONAL and IMMEDIATE APPROACH
3.1 The process of curriculum reform requires a lot of intellectual and logistic effort that will take time. Universities desiring to start immediately can adopt a transitional approach while they get the permanent structures in place.
3.2 The transitional approach consists of asking students to take 2 majors: Islamic sciences and human sciences; a major in Islamic sciences and a minor in human sciences; or a major in human sciences and a minor in Islamic sciences. It should be understood that this is a transitional step and is not a full solution to the problem of duality / dichotomy in the education system.
4.0 CURRICULUM REFORM: PRACTICAL STEPS / TASKS OF A PERMANENT APPROACH
4.1 Epistemology Reform Units (ERU)
Each university will be advised to set up an Epistemology Reform Unit (ERU) either at a university-wide level or at a faculty level. ERU will undertake 2 activities (a) coordinating the process of producing an Islamic Epistemological Introduction, al muqaddimat al islamiyyat, for each discipline (c) reform of specific taught courses.
4.2 Islamic Epistemological Introduction to disciplines
Producing an Islamic epistemological introduction to each discipline goes through various phases.
(a) The first step is a good grounding in Islamic methodological sciences ( usul al fiqh, ulum al Qur’an, ulum al hadith) acquired through a short course offered by the Faculty of Islamic Studies for all lecturers with emphasis on the methodological aspects of those disciplines and not the substantive content.
(b) The second step is clarification of basic epistemological issues that are relevant to all disciplines of knowledge: sources of knowledge and interrelations among them, classification of knowledge, limitations of human knowledge, an Islamic critique of the empirical methodology: its strengths and weaknesses, a tauhidi universal, objective and unbiased methodology).
(c) The third step is discipline-specific and involves reading the Qur’an and sunnat with understanding of the changing time-space dimensions as well as a critique of basic paradigms, basic assumptions, and basic concepts of the discipline using criteria of Islamic methodology and Islamic epistemology.
The outputs from the 3 stages above is an Islamic Introduction to the discipline, al muqaddimat al islamiyyat li al ílm which sets out basic Islamic principles and paradigms that determine and regulate the methodology, content, and teaching of disciplines. This parallels Ibn Khaldun’s Introduction to History, al muqaddimat that presented generalizing and methodological concepts on historical events.
4.3 Reform of course outlines and course descriptions
The next step is reform of specific course outlines, descriptions, and contents. It starts by reviewing existing courses, text-books, and teaching materials to identify deviations from the tauhidi episteme and the Islamic methodology so that they can be replaced by Islamic alternatives. In some cases the content is empirical with no bias but is presented in a cultural and philosophical context that is discordant with the Islamic tauhidi world-view. It may be necessary to made additions from the Qurán, sunnat,and fiqh to make the material more relevant to Muslim society. Material from Islamic sources should be added to existing reading lists. The aim is not to throw away what is available but to teach it alongside the Islamic view so that the student gets a complete unbiased view of reality.
4.4 Producing text books for each reformed course
Availability of teaching material and text books reflecting the Islamic paradigm is a pre-condition for the success of the curriculum reform process. It is a long process that starts with class room teachers preparing manuscripts reflecting what they teach. These are then field-tested for 2-3 years and are eventually published as a textbook.
We must aim at a textbook for each course. A committee of discipline experts who actually teach will convene to discuss the general outline of the book and specifications. They will also draw up a suggested list of references that include both Islamic and western writings. The next task is to divide the book into chapters. Chapterization should closely follow the sequence of the course outline. Short chapters are better in such a way that each chapter covers one class session. Members of the working group should meet on a regular basis to compare notes and to make sure that they are following a uniform scheme of textbook preparation.
4.4 Applied knowledge
Developing applied knowledge in science and technology from basic knowledge will be the last stage of the reform process. This is because in the end it is science and technology that actually lead to changes in society.
5.0 IMPEMENTATION ASPECTS
5.1 Regions and coordinators
For efficiency a part-time coordinator is appointed for each region. If the region is very big and has a lot of universities more than one coordinator may be appointed.
5.2 Guiding philosophy of the program
The guiding philosophy is to have the universities concerned own and run the project. The Institute plays the role of initiation and then providing material (website, CDs, and books) as well as human resources (tickets, hotel) whether local or international. The project has no plan of setting up an office in each region or running an administration. The project will pay an expenses allowance to the coordinators, their travel expenses (pre-approved air ticket and hotel)', and honoraria and travel expenses |of resource persons (pre-aproved air ticket and hotel).
5.3 Functions of the regional coordinator
In view of the guiding philosophy in 4.2 above, the role of the coordinator therefore becomes simple and straightforward: (a) identifying privately-owned Muslim-based educational institutions (universities and colleges) in the region (b) contacting educational institutions preferably by phone or personal visits (pre-approved tickets and hotel) to introduce the project, to inform them about the project's website and e-newsletter and advise them to set up ERU and start running the program (b) Set up a roster of resource persons selected from university lecturers in the region who are then approved and trained in epistemology by the Institute headquarters (c) Arranging mutually agreeable dates with the institution and the resource person for general seminars, specialist seminars, and course writing workshops. Resource persons can be from the region or outside the region.
6.0 INTRODUCING THE PROJECT TO UNIVERSITIES
6.1 Introductory seminars, nadawaat iblaaghiyyat
The epistemology and curriculum reform project is introduced and is disseminated through universities initially through intellectual seminars that are of 2 types. General 1-day seminars will introduce the duality problem, analyze its causes and manifestations, describe Islamic epistemology, review previous attempts at epistemological and curricular reform, and motivate participants to be part of the project.
6.2 Specialized seminars, nadawaat mutakhasissat
Fully written papers will be presented at specialized 1-day seminars by 1-2 speakers from a roster of discipline or sub-discipline specialists trained in epistemological and curricular reform. The papers analyze basic epistemological and methodological issues in their respective disciplines and how course curricular reforms can be carried out in conformity with the Islamic world-view. After thorough discussions the papers can be revised for online publication alongside the discussions. Seminar participants will be directed to www.i-epistemology.net, other online resources, and to subscribe to the i-epistemology electronic newsletter. A measure of success of this phase will be the number of seminars held and the total number of online publications.
6.3 Certificates for seminar participants
The Fairfax Institute, the IIIT teaching arm will award 2 types of certificates. A certificate of attendance will be awarded to those who attend a day-long seminar. A certificate of achievement will be awarded to those who attend and in addition submit an assignment. The assignment will be a 1500-word personal reflection on lessons learned from the seminar and how they plan to use it in their future academic work. Participants desiring a certificate of achievement will have to register online at www.i-epistemology.net and shall send the assignment within 1 month of the completion of the seminar. The certificate of achievement will also include award of academic credit recognized by the State of Virginia , USA
One community education credit (CEU) will be awarded for 10 contact hours. One contact hour means that participants in the seminar spent 50-60 minutes of actual work either listening to presentations or participating is discussions or making presentations. Fractions of a credit will be awarded according to the time spent for example 5 contact hours will be 0.5 CEU and 7 contact hours will be 0.7 CEUs.