By living our values...

By living our values, not only do we change society individually, but as teachers we also prove to our students that we believe in what we are teaching. In regards to how we do that from an Islamic perspective, as has been shown here, the vehicle for Islamic pedagogy (whether one is teaching morals or positivistic sciences) has been the caring apprenticeship relationship between teacher and student which presupposes the former as a role-model figure.

Islamic character, or moral education, is the focus of Islamic pedagogy upon which the student-teacher relationship is built. Moral character and the caring relationships that stem from it are pivotal in teaching any type of knowledge. Teachers are who they are inside and outside of school, because experiences change people and they do not shed these experiences, for good or bad, when they come to school. Only from these understandings can any specific teaching methods be productive.

Through case-based learning-cases being defined as stories, analogies, or any other ‘clips’ of material-students are scaffolded through the construction of live application opportunities (for example through group debate/dialogue) in the classroom. But as has been highlighted, for holistic education, the teacher as a role model is pivotal. If we don’t live by what we say, then who will care?

Through such an interactive pedagogy, any form of content knowledge being taught, theological or otherwise, can be a transformative experience. Such a pedagogy is in dire need in the Muslim world given the passive rote memorization methods left over from colonization. For the Muslim world, looking far back enough in the past, past oppressive colonial systems of education, can reveal dynamic teaching methods that change people.

In conclusion, we have highlighted the importance of empirical and theological knowledge in Islam and their potential for motivating educators and students to work towards social justice. In order for teachers in Muslim countries (like Egypt) to scaffold their students to such concepts as they teach them a curriculum, they should teach through a culturally relevant pedagogy.

The one outlined above hopes to not only use existing analytical frameworks to improve the quality of education, but to also employ Islamic frames of reference to motivate an active approach to education.