Participatory action research: creating spaces for beginning conversations in sexual health education for young Australian Muslims

Abstract

This paper looks at the role participatory action research played in beginning curriculum conversations in sexual health for young Australian Muslims. Sexual health education has been the cause of much dissension among the local, national and international Muslim community. There is also a general lack of consensus in many Australian Islamic schools on how to teach this curriculum and by whom. In an attempt to introduce sexual health education to their Muslim students, teachers at one Victorian Islamic school participated in a study by the author that explored ways to develop an action learning model for strategic innovation in this contentious curriculum area. This paper reports on some of the findings of this study, and in particular how action research provided the means to acquire the clarity, understanding and action required when working in this curriculum area. As these teachers engaged in the action research cycles, they also engaged in reversing the cycles of hegemonic control operating at their school.

Keywords:

• participatory action research
• sexual health education
• Australian Muslims
• curriculum reform
• Islamic education
• ideology

Notes

1. The term ‘sex education’ has no Islamic grounding. As sex, sexuality and sexual health govern many Islamic daily practices, the term ‘sexual health education’ is preferred for it encompasses a more holistic view of sex and sexuality and thus better reflects the purpose of this education in Islam.

2. The Qur'an is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the literal word of God (Allah) and God's final revelation to mankind.

3. Hadith (singular) or Ahadith (plural) are the authenticated sayings or actions of the final Prophet of Islam, Muhammad. In current western use, hadith has become the plural term.