Worldview education: a possibility for autonomy-facilitating education in Islamic schools

Much of the current debate surrounding the integration of Muslims into Western countries is fueled by the belief that Islamic values are incompatible with those of the liberal democratic West. One area that could prove especially challenging for integration is education, as the foundational values of Islamic education would also, on this view, clash with the foundational values of liberal education. Could Islamic education ever be conducive to liberal values? If there is indeed a clash of civilizations at work here, then this seems unlikely. However, if the clash is overstated, then are there conditions under which at least some liberal democratic values could be promoted in Islamic schools? In this dissertation, I will partially address this question by focusing on one of the central liberal democratic values: autonomy. Specifically, my aim is to offer a modification to Harry Brighouse’s proposal for autonomy-facilitating education in order to suggest a curriculum that could be used to facilitate autonomy in a way that is compatible with some forms of Islamic education. I describe how this curriculum, called Worldview Education, can contribute to an autonomy-facilitating education in Islamic schools by engaging students with a variety of worldviews, as Brighouse proposes, while removing the element of critique that Islamic schools could find troubling.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Policy Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Thibert, Jeffrey R.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Feinberg, Walter
• McKim, Robert
• Burbules, Nicholas C.
• Higgins, Christopher R.
• Khalil, Mohammad H.

• autonomy
• Islamic education
• liberal education
• worldview education
• religious education
• Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2012 Jeffrey Ryan Thibert

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/31217

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/31217