Date of Award

2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Philosophy in Education (MPhil Ed.)

First Advisor

Dr Sajid Ali

Department

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Abstract

Pakistan’s education system is highly stratified, often forcing parents to choose between madrasas focused on religious studies and secular institutions. Private Islamic schools claim to offer a third way, integrating religious knowledge with modern secular curricula. However, limited empirical research exists on how these institutions design and enact their Islamiyat curriculum, particularly in response to the contemporary needs of students. This study addresses this critical gap by examining the alignment between stakeholder expectations and the formalized Islamic education ecosystem within a single school. 
The central research question guiding this inquiry was: How well, if at all, does the Islamiyat Curriculum in Islamic Schools address the expectations of parents and students? Utilizing a Mixed-Methods Case Study design, the research employed quantitative surveys with parents (n=15) and students (n=15) to establish prioritized expectations (SQ1). This initial data guided the qualitative phase, which included document analysis of the state-prescribed Sindh Board textbook and the school's proprietary Tarbiyah Ka Safar series (SQ2), in-depth interviews with adults, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with students, and classroom observations (SQ3). 
The findings reveal a complex picture of partial alignment between expectation and enactment. Stakeholders share a high expectation for the in-depth study of the Sīrah (Prophet's life), Qur’an memorization, and character building (akhlaq). However, the state-prescribed curriculum showed limitations, omitting or weakly addressing areas deemed relevant by stakeholders, such as Fiqh for adolescents and Islamic financial literacy. While the school's internal Tarbiyah curriculum successfully addressed expectations for character building and engagement with contemporary issues (e.g., social media, AI), its enactment was constrained by structural pressures.
Specifically, classroom instruction in Islamiyat often reverted to lecture-dominated and test-driven methods, hindering opportunities for critical questioning, which students highly desired. This reductionist practice, driven by exam performance pressure, compromised the holistic ideal of the teacher as a murabbi (spiritual guide). The study concludes that the tensions observed are symptomatic of a broader dilemma in Islamic schooling, where the philosophical aims of holistic tarbiyah struggle against reductionist pedagogical practice. The study provides an empirical grounding for curriculum renewal (tajdīd), emphasizing the necessity of integrating moral aims across the curriculum and ensuring the participatory inclusion of marginalized student voices.

First Page

1

Last Page

138

Download

Share

COinS