Overview

Islam is a subject about which whole libraries have been written, yet many teachers perceive it as one of the most difficult topics in the curriculum. It has been required in state standards for well over a decade, along with content on all the world religions. It is a daunting task for teachers to prepare material that fits into the limited time available, that meets constitutional guidelines for teaching about religion, is correlated to standards, and is appropriate for various grade and ability levels.

This professional development workshop, sponsored by the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, will address the needs of teachers on all of these levels, giving them confidence that they are on solid legal and pedagogical ground, providing content knowledge and helping them integrate the content into their curriculum and standards. Every topic in the workshop is paired with teaching material that is readily available, and is correlated to national and state academic standards. The teaching resources meet accepted guidelines for constitutionally appropriate instruction about religion. The lessons are designed to help learners engage with excellent scholarship in the field, so that in addition to content knowledge, they develop the critical thinking and geography skills required in every state and district program.

Program details

• Free workshop for public and private school teachers, with focus on secondary grades
• Teachers will be awarded 5-hours PD training certificates upon attending all sessions
• Teaching material and resources will be handed out
• Lunch and refreshments included   

9:00 - 9:30	Late registration and refreshments
9:30 - 9:45	Introduction
9:45 - 11:00	Session 1 : - Building a Comfort Zone: Teaching about Religions in the Public (or Private) School Classroom - Basic Beliefs and Practices of Islam
11:00 - 11:15	Break
11:15 - 12:00	Session 2 : Geographic issues: Maps and the Name Game
12:00 - 12:30	Lunch
12:30 - 1:30	Session 3 : Contemporary Hot-Button Issues
1:30 - 1:45	Break
1:45 - 2:15	Session 4 : Contemporary Hot-Button Issues  (cont)
2:15 - 2:30	Wrap-up

Session details can be found here

 Registration

• Because of limited seating, registration for this workshop is required.
• Please fill out the online registration form.
• Please indicate any dietary restrictions for lunch.

About the Speaker

Susan Douglass has an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and a B.A. in History from the University of Rochester, and is currently enrolled in the doctoral program in history at George Mason University. During 2006, she served as Senior Researcher for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations initiative, and was an Affiliated Scholar with the Council on Islamic Education for over a decade, reviewing over a dozen commercial textbooks in development, reviewing state curricula and standards, and developing instructional resources.

Major publications include World Eras: Rise and Spread of Islam, 622-1500 (Thompson/Gale, 2002), teaching resources for the Council on Islamic Education and the National Center for History in the Schools, a children’s book Ramadan (Carolrhoda Books, 2002), and many articles and book chapters. She is contributor to online teaching resources such as the IslamProject.org, the Smithsonian Freer Gallery teaching guide Arts of Islam, and the San Diego State University curriculum project World History for Us All. She conducted the study Teaching About Religion in National and State Social Studies Standards (Freedom Forum First Amendment Center and Council on Islamic Education, 2000) and has a study of world history and geography standards in publication. She conducted teacher workshops nationwide for over a decade before developing the workshop program at the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding.

Sponsors

This workshop is organized by the Muslim American Society (MAS) Austin Chapter, and is sponsored by:

• Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University (http://cmcu.georgetown.edu/) [main sponsor]
• Renaissance Education Foundation (http://www.reftx.org/) and Renaissance Academy (http://www.racademy.org/)

Sessions Description

Building a Comfort Zone: Teaching about Religions in the Public (or Private) School Classroom 

The purpose of the session is to place teachers on confident, solid ground in the area of teaching about religion. By learning about the constitutional background on religion in public schools, and discovering that it is not only allowed, but required in most states, this workshop will give teachers the tools to counter the uncertainty of other teachers, parents, and even administrators. The First Amendment Center guidelines for teaching about religion are enumerated and their implications for classroom practice are introduced. Extensive documentation is provided on the workshop CD.

• Constitutional issues and background of teaching about religion in the US
• Is teaching about religion tolerated, encouraged, or required by states?
• Principles and Guidelines 
• A standards-based framework for teaching about the world religions
   

Basic Beliefs and Practices of Islam

This session provides the most basic information on the standard requirements for learning about a world religion, in terms of Islam’s beliefs and practices, terminology, and meaning in an individual, spiritual, worldly and social context. What it means to be a Muslim, and how Islam relates to other monotheistic faiths.

• The meaning of the Islamic creed and articles of belief
  
• The five pillars have many dimensions
  
• Islam as a moral and ethical system
  
• Islam as an Abrahamic faith tradition
   

Geographic issues: Maps and the Name Game

Engaging in study of what is often erroneously called “the Muslim World” begins with defining the region geographically. No other world region is as elastic in scope and as varied in the names given to it. Starting from the essential elements of the National Geography Standards on which nearly all state standards are based, participants explore their application to this world region. Using a variety of maps and data, teachers learn how to avoid simplistic and misleading notions to ensure greater understanding and skill development. This module is not only for geography teachers. The module shows how to incorporate geography as a dynamic component of the world history course.

• Defining the region in maps and terminology
  
• Comparative geography of Muslim regions over time
  
• Surprising statistics
  
• Activities for the geography and history classroom
   

Contemporary Hot-Button Issues

Overview: Among the hot topics in teaching about Islam, issues of contemporary Islam are the ones most often asked about by students. Terms such as jihad, shari’ah, madrassa, hejab, and fatwa have become household words, and abstractions such as extremist, terrorist, fundamentalist, militant, and Islamist ricochet through contemporary discourse. Teachers need to be equipped not only to provide answers to their students’ questions. The module discusses approaches to these difficult topics, access to primary and secondary sources, and activities to help students engage critically with these issues.

• What is Shari’ah? 
• Islam and women
• Islam and terrorism 
• Islam and human rights
  
• and other topics