News Release

Comparative Education Review special issue: Islam and education -- myths and truths

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Chicago Press Journals

In an important special issue of Comparative Education Review, leading scholars explore the world of education in Islam, from medieval to contemporary times. Using scientific methodologies and documented information from different areas of the Islamic world, the articles in the current issue offer a rare overview of the great diversity in forms of Islamic education, dispelling misinterpretations and documenting the ever-evolving relationship of Islamic education to the West.

"Education is one of the cornerstones of Islamicate civilization and its backbone, Islam," writes guest editor Wadad Kadi (University of Chicago). "Overall, the picture of education in Islam in this stage is very complex, with truth mixed with myths."

Articles in the August 2006 issue include a refutation of the idea that enrollment rates in Pakistani madrasas are on the rise, as well as a challenge to our understanding of the role of memorization in education when applied to the Qur'an. Also featured are several examinations of how Muslims responded to the rise of secular schools, with case studies in Eqypt, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Iraq.

Together, these articles illuminate the struggle among Islamic scholars and educators over whether to reform or resist as a way of preserving identity. However, Kadi explains that Islamic institutions have arisen out of the postcolonial landscape that conceive of themselves not as alternatives to secular, government-run schools, but as complementary to them.

"Such models indicate that some Muslim intellectuals and educators did not simply react to what the non-Muslims did," writes Kadi. "They have enough confidence in themselves to experiment in collaboration with non-Muslims, in the process enriching their circles of interest and engaging the rest of the world in a dialogue, which is useful to us all."

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ARTICLES:

Education in Islam--Myths and Truths
WADAD KADI

Islamic Reformation: A History of Madrasa Reform and Legal Change in Egypt
INDIRA FALK GESINK

"When Mu'awiya Entered the Curriculum"--Some Comments on the Iraqi Education System in the Interwar Period
ORIT BASHKIN

Be Masters in That You Teach and Continue to Learn: Medieval Muslim Thinkers on Educational Theory
SEBASTIAN GÜNTHER

Islamic Education and Civil Society: Reflections on the Pesantren Tradition in Contemporary Indonesia
FLORIAN POHL

Reclaiming an Ideal: The Islamization of Education in the Southern Philippines
JEFFREY AYALA MILLIGAN

"A Modern, Integral, and Open Understanding": Sunni Islam and Lebanese Identity in the Makassed Association
MANDY TERC

Religious School Enrollment in Pakistan: A Look at the Data
TAHIR ANDRABI, JISHNU DAS, ASIM IJAZ KHWAJA, AND TRISTAN ZAJONC

Memorization and Learning in Islamic Schools
HELEN N. BOYLE

Qur'anic Education and Social Change in Northern Morocco: Perspectives from Chefchaouen
SOBHI TAWIL

Comparative Education Review investigates education throughout the world and the social, economic, and political forces that shape it. Founded in 1957 to advance knowledge and teaching in comparative education studies, the Review has since established itself as the most reliable source for the analysis of the place of education in countries other than the United States.


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