Rethinking Madrasah Education in a Globalised World

Mukhlis Abu Bakar, Mukhlis Abu Bakar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351730525
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Multicultural Education

Why is there a need to rethink madrasah education? What is the positioning of Muslims in contemporary society, and how are they prepared? What is the role of the ulama in the reform process? This book explores these questions from the perspective of madrasah education and analyses curricular and pedagogic innovations in Islamic faith-based education in response to the changing place of Islam in a globalised world. It argues for the need for madrasahs to reconceptualise education for Muslim children. Specifically, it explores the problems and challenges that come with new knowledge, biotechnological advancement and societal transformation facing Muslims, and to identify the processes towards reformation that impinge on the philosophies (both Western and Islamic), religious traditions and spirituality, learning principles, curriculum, and pedagogy. This book offers glimpses into the reform process at work through contemporary examples in selected countries.

Part I

Social, political and cultural contexts

1 Challenges to madrasah education in contemporary Muslim societies

Noor Aisha Abdul Rahman

Introduction

Generally, educationalists maintain that irrespective of historical conditions and cultural systems, education provides a given society with a general direction and unifying outlook. Its universal aims include the acquisition of necessary knowledge for living within the social and cultural system; an understanding of human and non-human forms of life as well as other phenomenon in the universe; the cultivation of the spiritual, moral, psychological and intellectual development of the personality; the strengthening of civic consciousness and social solidarity; and the attainment of the good life (Alatas, 1998: 78). These aims of education that are the basis of decent life and social organisation lend concrete approaches and practice in specific socio-historical contexts. With unprecedented technological advancement and rapid social change that has impacted on basic social institutions in the contemporary world, the kind of education needed and how it can be realised preoccupy the minds of educationalists, practitioners and policy makers alike. Yet, such dynamic discourse at revaluation and reform in education remains wanting in the domain of religious education provided by Muslim religious schools, commonly referred to as madrasahs. This chapter focuses on the predominant mode of teaching and learning religion that prevails in madrasah education in the contemporary period. The extent to which it facilitates and contributes to developing critical awareness and relevance of religious teachings, tradition and values to deal with the challenges and problems of Muslims in adapting to the complex plural societies in which they inhabit today is the major objective of the chapter.

Given the vast disparity and diversity of madrasah education all over the world, this chapter confines itself mainly to those in Southeast Asia and India. Data is largely drawn from studies on selected madrasahs in these areas, most of which are largely though not exclusively confined to the more traditional sector of the educational system. This means that not all are integrated into the national educational system and/or are receiving state funding. Nor have all incorporated modern knowledge into the curriculum. These variations by themselves do not impede an understanding of the predominant mode of teaching and learning of religious knowledge in these institutions. It can also be said that generally, similar problems and challenges exist beyond the limited sample of madrasahs in this study although they are not the focus of this chapter.

For the purpose of this study, the term madrasah is used broadly to include the variety of Muslim religious schools including the maktab, pondok and pesantren. Since their inception, these schools have provided the community with a foundation in religious knowledge for the purpose of living a moral life and for spiritual bonding. Generally, the religious curriculum focuses on the study of commentaries of the Qur’an and Hadith, fiqh (jurisprudence), principles of religion (usul addin), theology (kalam), mysticism (tasawwuf), ethics (akhlaq), Arabic grammar (nahw) and rhetoric (balaghah). Since the early 20th century, some of these schools have incorporated the study of modern knowledge with the aim of broadening students’ religious outlook. Today, many have institutionalised the dual curriculum with varied emphasis on religious and modern knowledge with the aim of cultivating not only religious specialists who teach and perform religious services but also Muslim professionals with appropriate knowledge and skills to compete in the job market. The need to secure employment, the extent of support and funding received from the government and the community and the phenomenon of religious revivalism are some of the major factors that have conditioned the formalisation of the madrasahs’ dual aims.

A critical examination of the approach and practices of madrasah education does not negate their contributions that are or have been of value. Madrasahs, particularly those in Asia, generally have not stood still amidst social change which began with colonialism. Reform of religious education then was undertaken as part of the wider effort towards improving the general socio-economic condition of the community. The aim was to create a new generation of young Muslims able to use religion to contribute towards alleviating the social, economic and political plight of the Muslims. The establishment of the modern Muslim college at Aligarh by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the Al-Iqbal Al-Islamiyah founded by Syed Sheikh Al-Hadi and the creation of religious schools led by Muhammadiyah leaders in Indonesia that differed from the traditional pesantren were some of the numerous concerted early attempts at modernising Islamic education. That the institution has provided millions of Muslims with basic religious foundation both historically (including the colonial period when education for the masses was largely neglected) as well as in contemporary times cannot be overlooked (Farish, 2008). Furthermore, in areas where access to basic education today remain wanting, madrasahs continue to serve as the only path to literacy and offer some respite from social problems such as child labour, sex trafficking and other abuses (Evans, 2006). Those integrated into the national educational system tend to ensure better outcomes in terms of opportunities for employment, particularly in the religious bureaucracy and religious schools (Lindsey, 2012: 231–234).

Changing educational approaches and practice

In his reflections on the impact of rapid social change on education in Western Europe in the early 20th century, the sociologist Mannheim maintained that schools were no longer self-sufficient and compartmentalised from changing conditions and needs of society. The increasing complexity of the social structure and competing valuations on almost every aspect of life that impacted basic social institutions had induced serious challenges of adaptation and ushered in a host of social problems. It also conditioned the shift in the conventional role of schools as the main agents for moulding human behaviour based on ready-made knowledge. The tasks of what to teach, for whom and how became increasingly integrated with the wider network of social agencies, a process not isolated from the rise and developments in the social sciences in shedding light on human behavior and its conditioning factors. The breakdown of barriers and fostering of collaboration between schools and diverse social agencies, the emphasis on integrated curriculum and life-long learning informed by multidisciplinary approaches were but some manifestations of change in which schools came to be seen as embodying the “educational technique of life” rather than a provider of ready information. As Mannheim explicates,

in a changing society like ours, only an education for change can help. The latter consists of an undogmatic training of the mind, which enables the persons not to be driven by the current of changing events but to rise above them … there must be an informed mind which can discriminate between those genuine elements in the tradition that are still alive and made for emotional stability, and those human attitudes and institutions on the other side which decay because they have lost their function and meaning in a changed society.

(Mannheim, 1945: 59)

This changing approach to education has become more complex today with unprecedented developments in digital technology and communications that have altered more radically not only the ways in which knowledge and information are produced and disseminated, but the very nature and meaning of their content itself. This bears serious ramifications on teaching and learning as educators warn that much of what is taught will be irrelevant within a shorter time span. Information flow and intersections through borderless networks in which the individual participates through virtual media pose yet another challenge to teaching and learning. Schools today no longer have a monopoly on education as media is gradually producing content and developing applications to serve the information needs of both students and teachers. New enterprises are developing mass-based online learning with far easier access. The introduction of open source and other digital learning systems that allow for participation of thousands of online communities to receive training in sophisticated systems design and other knowledge illustrate the point (Thomas and Brown, 2011; Brown, 2013). School curricula, in response, have been designed to capitalise on information resources and applications which depart from past conventions in which teachers assume explicit knowledge. These developments exacerbate the importance of fostering relevant critical skills and competencies in handling, accessing, making sense of and applying information and knowledge from various information sources.

Vibrant debates amongst literacy scholars against educational “technicism” for its overriding emphasis on applying ‘scientific state of the art’ techniques based on centralised standard curriculum and assessments is another manifestation of competing ideas on the need for revaluation of dominant educational pedagogy today. While historians such as Huizinga (1936) had long warned of the dangers of the lack of critical discernment amidst the proliferation of information, the new pedagogy seeks to facilitate critical thinking through the specific medium of texts and discourse. They strongly urge for the development of competencies that enlarge the mind as a value in itself. What is at stake, they contend, is not the techniques of teaching but the kinds of literacy needed for developing awareness in learners in evaluating information.¹ The problem is deemed all the more pertinent today given the vulnerable condition of the world and our connectedness. As Luke writing in the context of post-9/11 explicates:

what is at stake in literacy education is what we teach people to “do” with texts, intellectually and culturally, socially and politically. Nations, communities, cultures and institutions have always deliberately shaped these practices. We are not exempt nor is our teaching simply a neutral, technical or scientific matter. Our work involves helping kids decide which texts are worth reading and writing, how, where and to what ends and purposes. This is an ethical and social responsibility.

(Luke, 2003: 20)

The critical literacy movement provides robust critique against the ‘delivery’ approach to education premised on the basis that teaching and learning of texts and language involve imparting information. It contends that written, visual, spoken, multimedia and performance ‘texts’ are not independent or neutral but project power relations. Developing competencies in analysing attitudes, values and beliefs that lie beneath the surface of media is deemed imperative. According to this school of thought, without educating young people to understand the meaning of texts and how they change in varying contexts, how they are appropriated, by whom and for what ends, they will be unable to constructively critique anything they have learned, account for its cultural location, creatively extend or apply it. Bereft of these critical skills, the young will only grow into unquestioning adults incapable of discernment and innovation. Such ideas on literacy are informing curriculum strategies and content towards developing student-centric learning and life-long learners. Media literacy is emerging as one of the core competencies in this new curriculum and educational strategy.

The growing contemporary discourse on “deeper learning” is yet another manifestation of developments in pedagogy in the contemporary educational landscape. The fact that knowledge taught may not only be irrelevant but has to be unlearned by the short time students complete formal education places a premium on the development of analytical skills with emphasis on identifying and conceptualising problems and ways of solving them rather than on imparting information. The new pedagogy is thus less concerned with providing students with right answers but in developing the capacity for asking relevant questions, learning to be curious, engaging and critical. Creating authentic tasks that connect classroom learning to the real world, providing timely evaluation of assessments, facilitating peer learning and allowing students to continuously revise tasks assigned are some of the major approaches in this “learning based approach” as opposed to the “teaching based” one (Darling-Hammond, 2014). Changes in the condition of education, which extend to teacher training and resource development, institutionalisation of benchmarks for educators that include recruitment, mentoring, professional competency issues and related matters, are part of these changes.²

The imperative for revaluation and reform in teaching and learning today is compounded by the fact that technological communications have facilitated the growth of what Jenkins refers to as participatory culture of learning in which learners not only consume knowledge and information online but simultaneously use media to produce them. One need not only think of Wikipedia as an example of this dynamic form of learning and knowledge creation. According to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, more than half of all teens have created media content and roughly one-third who use the Internet have shared content they produced. In the same vein, Brown maintains that information technology has become a participatory medium giving rise to an environment that is constantly being changed and reshaped by the participation itself: “the more we interact with these informational spaces, the more the environment changes and the very act of finding information reshapes not only the context that gives that information meaning but also the meaning itself” (Thomas and Brown, 2011: 42) This new participatory culture of learning is developing rapidly given its low barriers to participation. It also functions as a hidden curriculum that offers an attractive platform for sharing and creating resources. The need to understand content and how it is appropriated and for whom have thus become crucial, relevant competencies that will enable learners to utilise media ethically and responsibly (Jenkins, 2014).

Madrasah education: background

While rethinking the aims and practice of modern education is developing vibrantly, at issue is whether and the extent to which Muslim religious schools, commonly referred to as madrasahs, are connected to and impacted by these developments. Despite some differences in their specific objectives and curriculum from mainstream education, madrasahs are not isolated from the processes of change which have impacted educational perspectives and practice in this interconnected and shrinking global world. The proliferation of massive competing and diverse perspectives and knowledge on religious teachings via traditional and new media pose similar challenges to students. What is taught in these schools and how therefore also impact on the critical competencies of the learners. Like their counterparts in mainstream schools, madrasah students cannot afford to be isolated from new modes of literacy that will enable them to rationally and critica...