UnboxEd Learning is both a venture and an invitation.
As a past participle, unboxed is an announcement of an event, a new beginning, a hope, a promise, a novel venture underway. Muslim curricula on offer have remained static, unmoved, boxed since their appearance in the post-colonial period. Whether in the Muslim world or among the diaspora communities, the standard practice has been to implement ready-made, off-the-shelf, boxed curricula that may only partially cater to the particular needs of a Muslim culture, community, or a given school. The launch of UnboxEd Learning is a an announcement of a new venture that unboxes Muslim education for customization and continuous growth according to the needs of your particular institution, student body, and community.
As a portmanteau of unbox and education, unbox is an imperative, an invitation, a solicitation for you to participate in this venture toward the advancement of Muslim education and allow us to guide you on your journey of growth, to unbox your curriculum by letting us customize it for you according to your needs.
The Name
Problem Statement
The Scope of the Crises
Whether you are in a majority-Muslim nation-state, a diaspora minority, or an indigenous minority community, many challenges faced by Muslim education today are connected to the Muslims’ colonial past. Colonialism disrupted the integrity and autonomy of the Muslim civilization, which includes the systems of education and their close connection to civilizational advancement. The decline in civilization, one the one hand, compelled Muslim nations to import foreign models of education and superimpose them upon to inherited models, creating hybrid-dualistic models insufficient to meet the complex challenges at hand. On the other hand, colonial disruption and the local politico-economic failures forced many Muslims to seek their fortunes in foreign lands, who then sought to replicate the similar dualistic models of education for the diaspora. It then becomes clear that one of the goals of education should be to restore the lost integrity of Muslim civilization. Any education disconnected from this civilizational purpose fails to fulfill its full promise.
The Response to the Crises
The complexity of the crises requires a response of requisite complexity. UnboxEd Learning imagines a fivefold response in a descending contextual scope, beginning with the broadest context and gradually working to the narrowest and the specific.
Universal: From Helpless Victims to Responsible Stewards
Education is the process by which a new generation is prepared to advance the human project. While the Muslim civilization in the past played a positive role in human advancement, it no longer does so in any meaningful way. We live today in the age of the Anthropocene, in which human activity is causing destructive changes to the very foundation of life on earth. The highest worldly purpose of Muslim education should be to prepare young Muslims to make a positive contribution to the human project and become responsible stewards of the earth and its inhabitants in the Anthropocene.
Civilizational: From Disintegration to Recovery
Whether you are in a majority-Muslim nation, a diaspora minority, or an indigenous minority community, the challenges of Muslim education today are connected to our colonial past. Colonialism disrupted the integrity and autonomy of the Muslim civilization. That disruption includes the disintegration of the systems of Muslim education and their connection to civilizational advancement. Given the vast scope of civilizational linkages, our civilizational decline has impacted nearly every aspect of Muslim lives, from intellectual pursuits to nation building, from artistic pursuits to family life, politics and foreign policy, and from spirituality to culture. The decline in civilizational progress is what compelled Muslim nations to import foreign educational models unconcerned with the Muslim civilization. It follows that Muslim education must set of itself the task of civlizational restoration. Any Muslim education that remains disconnected from its civilizational task fails to fulfill its worldly promise.
Cultural: From Diffident Estrangement to Confident Preservation
The complexity of the world today is such that people carry complex identities. We belong to different cultures, civilizations, nations, ethnicities, communities, and faiths. Cultural heritage anchors humans spiritually and psychologically by rooting them into stable values, morals, and practices. The loss or confusion about one’s cultural identity can result in broken personalities and communities. The pressures imposed upon young Muslims in minority settings cause many of them to be diffident about their cultural heritage. It is not uncommon for some to surrender their cultural heritage in a bid to find acceptance by their respective dominant culture. Muslim education, therefore, needs to instill in its students a healthy yet critical consciousness viz a viz the cultures of their immigrant elders, their local community, and the dominant non-Muslim society.
National: From Invisibility to Visible Participation
It is a prevalent feature of the modern world that we live in nation-states, citizenship in which is predicated upon national allegiance. The pressures exerted upon minorities to prove their loyalty and relevance to their own state and nationalist sentiments can alienate them from their national identities. The pressure compels minorities to withdraw themselves from open public participation in national life. This invisibility is conflated by the majority with dispensability. The proper response is to cultivate in students national consciousness and civic purpose toward open public participation in the life of their nation. The national context is the proper scope of practical engagement in responding to the crises at hand.
Spiritual: From Doubt to Fortification
The modern age takes inspiration from and pride in religious skepticism. Confusion or doubts about religion are all too prevalent in modernity. Young Muslims are sure to be confronted with difficult questions and doubts about their religion. The hackneyed approach is to respond with standard religious answers or with dismissal and derision of the questions asked. This defensive and apologetic approach proves ineffective in the long run. The more appropriate response is to instruct students in not only the conventional spiritual ways of being religious, but supplement these with rational understanding of religion with a view to securing their spiritual fortification.
The Way Forward
The Role of Education
In responding to the crises we face, the reform of Muslim education is one dimension of the way forward.
The Nature and Extent of Educational Reform
The colonial experience bequeathed to the Muslim world systems of education generally structured upon three mutually incompatible domains of knowledge and frameworks of analysis (hermeneutics):
One, Islamic studies curricula founded upon the Muslim civilization's religious intellectual heritage, which mainly includes Islamic theology, Qur'anic studies, hadith studies, seerah, and shariah sciences.
Two, the physical and technological sciences (STEM) founded upon a materialistic view of reality and the empirical and mathematical method of analysis.
Three, the humanities or the liberal arts founded upon a secular-liberal anthropology that, in principle, privileges the body-mind over the spirit (ruh), the individual over the collective, and worldly success (dunya) over the other-worldly salvation (aakhirah).
In this tripartite architecture, the three domains of knowledge amount to three incompatible systems of education which neither truly 'talk' to one another, nor do the insights gained in one domain truly inform other domains.
The Proposed Reform: Holistic Interdisciplinary Integration
The way forward lies in developing a curriculum that integrates the three domains of knowledge within a single framework of interpretation, and, at the same time, also addresses all aspects of human nature. The curriculum being developed by Unboxed Learning rests on an interpretive framework that takes the Qur'anic concept of signs (aayaat) at its defining insight as a philosophical, epistemological, and hermeneutical category. The outcome of this interpretive framework is the enabling of the three knowledge domains to talk to one another, each learning and incorporating insights from the other domains. The curriculum is also intentional about addressing all aspects of human nature, namely, the moral spirit, the emotional heart, the reasoning mind, and the physical body.
For more details on the framework of integration, review our Curriculum Framework.
Dr. Noor Ali
Dr. Noor Ali is an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies, Graduate School of Education where she teaches undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students. Dr. Ali serves as the Concentration Lead for Transformative School Leadership in the Ed.D. Program at Northeastern University.
Dr. Ali has developed a micro theoretical framework, Muslim Critical Race Theory (MusCrit) where she posits a framing for understanding the lived experiences of Muslim Americans. Her book is titled Counter-narratives of Muslim American Women: Making Space for MusCrit. She has published extensively on topics of MusCrit, racialization of religion, demystifying Critical Race Theory, leadership, social justice, and experiential learning.
A veteran teacher in K-8 education, Dr. Ali also served as the Principal of Al-Hamra Academy where she has led several initiatives including teaching towards equity, experiential learning, inter-faith dialogue, citizen science, and STEM education.
Dr. Ali also serves as a Commissioner for New England Association for Schools and Colleges (NEASC), Commission of Independent Schools.
Dr. Ali is a co-founder of UnboxED Learning educational consultancy dedicated to the utilization of expert knowledge in the curriculum development, professional development, and institutional administration.
Ed.D. Northeastern University
Ms.Ed., MA
Dr. Rehman teaches in the area of religious studies and philosophy at multiple campuses in the greater Boston area, including Springfield College and Boston Islamic Seminary.
He holds an MA in Islamic Thought from the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, the graduate campus of International Islamic University, Malaysia. He holds a second MA in Theology and Philosophy from Drew University, New Jersey, USA. He earned his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Boston University.
The areas of his expertise include Philosophy of Religion, semiotics, and South Asian Muslim political theology. The range of his pedagogical experience include world religions, religion and wellbeing, moral philosophy, Islamic studies, Islamic theology, religion and modernity, interfaith studies, and Qur’anic thought.
Dr. Rehman is also a curriculum coordinator and part of the Islamic studies and humanities faculty at the Al-Hamra Hamra high school in Shrewsbury, MA.
Dr. Rehman is a co-founder of UnboxED Learning educational consultancy dedicated to the utilization of expert knowledge in the curriculum design, professional development, and institutional administration.
Dr. Adnan Rehman
Ph.D. Religious Studies, Boston University
M.A. Theology and Philosophy, Drew University
M.A. Islamic Studies, Intl. Islamic University Malaysia