‘Teacher talk’: the problems, perspectives and possibilities of developing a comprehensive sexual health education curriculum for Australian Muslim students

Abstract

This paper reports on a study that examines how a group of teachers at a Victorian Islamic College deliberated on how to develop an appropriate sexual health education curriculum for their Muslim students. Teachers found themselves challenged by the current restrictive curriculum structures, policies and practices at their school. They also found themselves struggling with embedded student cultural understandings and traditions of sexual health that contradict Islamic teachings as stated in the Qur'an and Hadith. In contemplating the possibilities of a sexual health curriculum from an Islamic perspective, teachers desired to confront longstanding political issues and hegemonic structures at their school to enable the search for a solution to a curriculum problem and construct the conditions necessary for its sustainability.

Notes

^1. The Qur'an is the central religious text of Islam. Learnt and memorised by many Muslims in its original language, Arabic, the Qur'an is considered the highest level of knowledge, ‘providing an essential foundation for all other knowledge’ (Halstead 1995, 30). Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the literal word of God (Allah) and God's final revelation to mankind.

^2. 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.

^3. Elliot Eisner (2002, 107) defines the null curriculum as ‘the options students are not afforded, the perspectives they may never know about, much less be able to use, the concepts and skills that are not part of their intellectual repertoire’.

^4. There are a number of well-known Hadith that are considered part of the common domain of Muslim thought, just as proverbs are in English. When quoting Hadith, Muslims always end it with a blessing for Prophet Muhammad saying ‘Peace be upon him’. In Arabic, it is written This Arabic script will be used when Hadith is quoted or other reference is made to Prophet throughout this paper.