Madrasa Education and the Social Sciences

This chapter seeks to explore the present-day role of madrasa education, otherwise known as traditional Islamic education. I come to this as a psychologist focusing primarily on issues concerning minority communities and thereby posit my reflections

within a social sciences context. My work predominantly navigates towards building bridges across communities and fostering greater understanding of the unknown within society. Similarly, in this chapter I seek to explore in a reflective manner, the role of madrasa education in light of many of the social issues facing minorities and, by extension, all communities. Herein, I will specifically focus on Muslim communities, the madrasa, modern academy, education and present-day social contexts. I argue that there is both demand and a need for developing new pathways within madrasa education systems, one that is accessible for all and which allows for pressing social circumstances to be addressed in a manner which sits within the identity of the communities in question, whilst also addressing their holistic needs. I draw upon experiences within my previous role teaching undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Islam and Pastoral Care, to demonstrate the need felt by prospective practitioners and younger students in training. I conclude with a series of recommendations to facilitate this bridge-building including; diversification of curriculum through embedding real-world context and application, development of professional ethical practice and core skills competency, active consideration of representation across all specialisms, research-informed practice and knowledge-generation, and opportunities for personal development and growth.