oa Re-examination of islamic educational policies and practices from a critical pedagogical perspective

Critical pedagogy has become a central issue of educational discussion because of its fundamental commitment to the development of different culture of education that seeks to transform the authoritarian classroom structures and promotes social justice and human freedom. Even though most of the suggestions contributed by critical pedagogue do have close relationship with some of the Islamic values, Muslim scholars apart from few, haven’t given enough attention to the possible importance of critical pedagogy in an Islamic educational context. Considering this reality, this study has attempted to find a possible philosophical justification for an Islamized critical pedagogy believing that re-examination of contemporary Islamic educational practice and policies from a critical pedagogical perspective is imperative. It is assumed that the analysis of Islamic educational practice from a critical pedagogical perspective will alter Islamic educational practice of today in a more positive sense. Therefore, this study has aimed at 1) identifying the main problems of Islamic educational practice 2) identifying in what ways the Islamic educational practices can be improved with the help of critical pedagogical perspective, 3) highlighting the significance of an Islamic critical pedagogical approach in resolving the educational challenges of the Muslim community. The overall study aspires to draw a number of general conclusions which may be useful to the Islamic educational policy. The research questions raised for this study are addressed from a philosophical perspective. The research employed is an in-depth semi structured interview with two experts in the field of Islamic critical pedagogy. They were chosen due to their in-depth knowledge and understanding of the contemporary Islamic education practice and philosophical ideas of critical pedagogy as well. The interview guideline included 10 open-ended questions which were developed based on the four major issues that address the objectives of the study. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis and critical approach was used to scrutinize the latent assumptions of the theme in focus, i.e., critical pedagogical perspective on Islamic educational practice.