Suhailah Hussien

This study attempts to reconstruct Western critical pedagogy from an Islamic perspective and to explore its contribution to the resolution of the crisis in the Muslim mind and Islamic education. It analyses the underlying philosophical assumptions behind critical theory, compares it with Islamic philosophy of education and with the Islamisation of Knowledge project, reconstructs the Western critical pedagogy and uses the arguments of Muslim scholars to justify the need for critical pedagogy in Muslim education. It is argued that an Islamised critical pedagogy can offer an adequate resolution to the crisis in the Muslim mind.

Western critical pedagogy is an important theoretical and practical resource for an understanding of the crisis in education in the Muslim World. Critical pedagogy may be considered as a young “paradigm” in thinking about education but “in the 1970s, it was hailed by many as the viable and vigorous alternative to other traditions in the social sciences.”1 Its ability to “synthesise all previous approaches with a clear critique of the societal conditions of education has made it the ultimate, if not the best, available paradigm for education.”2  The purpose of this study is to reconstruct critical pedagogy from an Islamic perspective and use it to realise the tawhidic way of life.

According to Burbules and Berk, “the idea of critical pedagogy begins with the neo-Marxian literature on critical theory where most of the early critical theorists were associated with the Frankfurt School.”3 While members of Frankfurt school (such as Adorno, Horkheimer and Marcuse) disagree on many points, one common feature they share is the “attempt to assess the newly emerging forms of capitalism along with the changing forms of domination that accompanied them.”4 This common purpose has developed “critical theory” from a mere school of thought into “a process of critique, which allows the claim of any theory to be confronted with the distinction between the world it examines and portrays, and the world as it actually exists.”5

Given the primacy of critical theory to critical pedagogy, this study begins by comparing the ideals of critical theory in education with Islamic education to identify the underlying philosophical assumptions they share. This is followed by a synthesis of critical pedagogy and Islamic education. It analyses the rise and development of critical pedagogy and compares it with the “Islamisation of knowledge” project and uses the arguments of Muslim scholars to justify the need for critical pedagogy in Islamic education.6 Finally, this study attempts to reconstruct critical pedagogy from an Islamic perspective, based on the redefined Islamic critical view of human nature, knowledge and education.

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