“We’re Trying to Raise Muslim Kids, Right?” Muslim Educators’ Narratives of Human Development

Abstract

For many young Muslim learners in Western societies, informal sites of Islamic education are important sources of learning and development beyond public school hours. Yet little empirical research has explored processes of human development in such sites, and existing theories of human development have largely failed to encompass onto-epistemic diversity, thus rendering invisible developmental trajectories beyond secular ones. This paper employs sensitizing concepts from both sociocultural theory and Muslim traditions, drawing from data collected through active interviewing and participant observation in a seven-month long sociocultural study in a Canadian mosque school, to make visible Muslim educators’ perspectives on human development. Subsequent narrative analysis conducted on the data highlight unique troubles, tools, timelines, and spiritual transferences in a divine life methodology of development, in contribution to the learning sciences and the ongoing, multicentric construction of Canadian culture.