Assessing Islamic Religious Education Curriculum in Flemish Public Secondary Schools

Abstract

Islamic tradition promotes a holistic approach of personality development in which, we argue, three educational concepts take the centre stage: tarbiyah, ta’leem and ta’deeb. Looking through the lens of these concepts, we analyse two Islamic religious education (IRE) curricula: the 2001 and 2012 curricula for Flemish public secondary education provided by the Representative Body for IRE. We conduct a systematic thematic document analysis of the 2001 and 2012 curricula to map curricula elements that potentially contribute to Islamic personality development through IRE classes. Crucially, this article seeks to investigate whether the 2001 and 2012 curricula for Flemish public secondary education are in line with these central IRE concepts. We observe that the 2012 curriculum does contain relevant anchor points to work on tarbiyah, ta’leem and ta’deeb and to strengthen an Islamic personality in Muslim pupils. Hence, we argue that there is an urgent need for a new, adequate and sufficiently comprehensive IRE curriculum for Flemish public secondary education, developed by an expert committee—which should include Belgian-educated educational experts—in order to meet the expectations of all the stakeholders. Since in our view, this is the first step for a qualitative update of Flemish IRE. Further reflections on both curricula and recommendations for a new IRE curriculum are outlined in the discussion and conclusion sections.

Intra- and Interreligious Dialogue in Flemish (Belgian) Secondary Education as a Tool to Prevent Radicalisation

“…The internal diversity challenges the Islamic religious education as a whole, as pupils from different religious Schools of Thought and religious movements are now present in the IRE courses (Everington et al 2011). This new context raises didactical and pedagogical questions among the IRE teachers (Lafrarchi 2020). The religious diversity marks the starting point for a potentially fruitful, deep intra-and interreligious dialogue in schools as a whole.…”

Islamic religious education at the heart of the secular problem-space in Belgium

“…National themes were once again the control, quality, and education of IRE and its teachers, but also how to prepare them to detect, and deal with, 'radicalized pupils' (Belgische Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers, 2018: 78-79;Franken, 2017: 494;Lafrarchi, 2020;Vlaams Ministerie van Onderwijs, 2016). IRE was therefore more than ever considered as part of the problem of what was called 'radicalism', if left un-ruled, or maintaining elements of its solution -if governed.…”

“…IRE was therefore more than ever considered as part of the problem of what was called 'radicalism', if left un-ruled, or maintaining elements of its solution -if governed. On both sides of the language border, measures were taken in the light of newly formed 'de-radicalization policies', with a renewed focus on the long-standing question of the education of IRE teachers (Franken, 2018: 133;Lafrarchi, 2020). In line with Mavelli (2012) and Croft (2012), the potential of violent radicalization that was attributed to young Muslim citizens 'with a lack of resilience' (Vlaamse regering, 2015: 2, 17), legitimized exceptional, preventive measures that, rather than 'imposing the boundaries very clearly', seemed to demonstrate, moreover, the secular-religious ambiguity as described by Agrama (2012), in a way tightening instead of undermining the power of the state's rule of law in the process.…”

“…A few months after the Brussels attacks of March 2016, Crevits had used the 'political momentum' to sign a commitment statement with the EMB regarding the reform and professionalization of IRE and its teachers in order to meet the demands made in the Flemish Action Plan (Brinckman and Justaert, 2017;Vlaams Ministerie van Onderwijs, 2016). The ensuing installation of additional requirements for the education of IRE teachers at Flemish university colleges (Lafrarchi, 2020), together with the increased emphasis on the education of the IFCs and inspection thereof, and the additional right of the (school and Flemish) government to control whether the content of IRE 'does not contradict the constitutional rule of law, universal human rights and educational end criteria in general' (Vlaams Parlement, 2019), constitute the ensemble of non-religious/ philosophical criteria that can be controlled. This ambiguity over the increased government and control of that which is by Constitution still 'free' and by discourse still deemed 'uncontrollable', continued to animate the debate and policy over IRE in the coming years.…”

Preparation of Islamic Religious Education Teachers in Secular Countries: A Study in Austria

“…A new Flemish IRE curriculum imperatively needs to pay (more) attention to the development of affective, spiritual, physical and overall cultural skills, referring to the holistic approach of Islamic-religiouseducation in which the development of the mind, the heart and the soul are strongly intertwined. To achieve this overall education goal, it is necessary to develop a qualitative didactical-pedagogical framework that guides Flemish IRE teachers in tapping into the capacities, talents, interests and passions of the pupils, and in educating the pupils in cognitive and socio-communicative skills, such as inquiring, questioning, relating to others, dialoguing, being inspired, and pursuing religious and non-religious ideals (Lafrarchi, 2020).…”