How effective is ISRE (Muslim scripture) in making better Muslims and better citizens?
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Mehmet Ozalp
Co-Supervisor: Professor Hisham Abu-Rayya
Co-Supervisor: Professor Mohamad Abdalla
The welfare and education of Muslim youth raised in Australia should be a concern to parents, educators, and society at large. Muslim youth have been unjustifiably affected by the destructive realities of Islamophobia. To make matters more complex, Muslim youth have developed issues with identity and belonging, and some are involved in drugs, crime, and more recently violent extremism.
Since quality religious education plays a crucial role in addressing some of these issues,my research aims to investigate the effectiveness of Special Religious Education (commonly known as scripture) as an intervention to develop character, identity and active citizenship of Muslim students in public schools. This could reveal a mass scale, cost-effective and more appropriate measure for preventing violent extremism, countering effects of Islamophobia, and in turn addressing the wellbeing concerns of Australian Muslim youth.
I completed 2 previous degrees with Charles Sturt. Bachelor of Secondary Education and Master of Islamic Studies. I found the concern for social justice and the common good present in the choice of readings we were asked to study. Assessments were relevant and useful for application in the real world. The staff are professional and compassionate. I also had personal experience of staff at schools I worked at making positive comments about Charles Sturt.
Charles Sturt: Centre of Islamic Sciences and Civilisation – Research Team Member (currently on leave)
Islamic Community and Academics Network - member
Brisbane Dec 2019: Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Annual Conference.