An analytical study of the development of the Islamic education curriculum in Jordan

Abstract

This thesis expansively discusses the development of Islamic education and its curriculum in Jordan from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives, hitherto an under-researched area. However, it places special emphasis on most recent attitudes, approaches and policies surrounding the Islamic education curriculum in Jordanian schools. This is done by reviewing the most relevant literature available on the subject as well as by analysing the data collected during an extensive field work.


It is stressed that although the study employs qualitative approach to contextualise the research, it largely relies on quantitative methods consisting of field work and interviews. Subsequently the final results demonstrate many positives in the process of the development in the curriculum of Islamic education. In addition, it suggests that much has been done in this regard since the beginning of the formal establishment of the education system in Jordan in early eighties. However, it admits that there is much to be done in terms of elevating the standard of the Islamic education curriculum. It suggests that there is a need for a constant drive to improve the content of the curriculum to bring Islamic education at par with the secular education. Finally, it recommends that the future development of the content of the Islamic education curriculum should indeed take place in view of the modern Jordanian context, but this process of development must not compromise the spiritual element that lay at the core of Islamic education.