Tarbiyahforshakhsiyah(educating for identity): seeking out culturally coherent pedagogy for Muslim children in Britain

Drawing upon Islamic epistemology to confront the challenges of a postcolonial world, some European Muslims are rejecting existing educational provision, seeking to formulate culturally-coherent pedagogy. This paper contributes to the debate on Islamic schools in Britain through the findings of a qualitative study of a British Muslim community education project initiated by home-schooling mothers who believe in ‘Holistic Islamic Education’. The study demonstrates parallels between the experiences and motivations of these mothers and indigenous education movements in that they seek to provide a ‘Qur’an-centred’ worldview, reviving classical Islamic education and synthesizing it with modern pedagogy as a defence against the dominant secular culture. Their pedagogy involves the nurturing of shakhsiyah (personality/identity) through tarbiyah (holistic upbringing) as a means to navigate the complexity of multiple identities and the challenges of modernity faced by Muslims in Britain.