Formation of Muslim Female Faith & Educational Leadership within European Muslim Diaspora

Date: September 3-5, 2018

Venue: Arden House, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK

The first Warwick Islamic Education Summer School, held in September 2016 marked the formation of a learning community consisting of practitioners and researchers, from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, interested in exploring issues related to education, Islam and Muslims within the context of contemporary and historical Muslim societies.

Each annual meeting explores in-depth a specific theme related to the teaching and learning of Islam within diverse formal and informal educational settings.

The third Islamic Education Summer School will, within the above rationale specifically focus on issues related to the formation of Muslim female faith and educational leadership. The interactive presentations and the overall discussion will explore ways of engaging the traditions of embodied spirituality with critical pedagogy in effectively facilitating the formation of transformative Muslim female leadership models in the modern world.

The program is shaped by an interdisciplinary study approach consisting of educational/ pedagogic as well as historical, theological, psychological and wider Social Science disciplines and will draw on the following themes and subthemes:

• Perceptions of faith and leadership formation in the Muslim tradition;
• Reflective and contextual hermeneutics discerning values, teachings and principles regarding gender relations embedded within the Qur’an and the prophetic traditions.
• Female scholarship in classical Muslim sciences and the educational, scientific and literary legacy, and developing innovative educational programs to introduce this legacy to diverse modern learners;
• The strengths and weaknesses in traditional female faith and educational leadership training progarms (dar al uluum/ hawza/alimiyyah ) within diaspora Muslim communities in Europe;
• Muslim female students experiences in the mainstream schools on issues related to educational achievement, bullying, victimization and the impact of the Prevent policies on their religious self-perception, esteem and well-being
• Educational intervention to support victims of domestic abuse, forced marriages and religious extremism;
• Muslim female activism and entrepreneurship in politics, education and community development;
• Education against Islamophobia: changing public perception on Muslim women’s public visibility
• Educational reforms addressing gender inequity within contemporary Muslim societies: cases from diverse parts of the Muslim world, e.g. South East Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The University of Warwick is one of the first UK universities to recognize Islamic Education as an academic field of research and teaching. The Warwick Islamic Education Project, part of the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU) within the Centre for Education Studies, aims to establish a hub of excellence in research and teaching on Islamic education, to open up professional development pathways for practitioners, and to encourage research-based, reflective practice in Islamic educational settings.

Source: The University of Warwick