Sultan Qaboos University

College of Education

English Language

My Educational Philosophy

SAIFISM

Done by : Saif Said Al Dhahli

My Educational Philosophy ( Saifism )

Before I study this course, Foundation of American Education, I have thought about some stuff

that I do not like, like about educational system. But, I have never thought about writing a

philosophy to share my thoughts with others. The problem was I do not know when or how to

start this philosophy. This semester when I decided to take this course and it was one of the

best classes I have studied so far, so I start thinking about writing this philosophy seriously. The

story started about seven years ago when I was shocked by my inspired teacher. He was my

Arabic teacher who loved me so much. One day, he changed completely and started dealing

with differently. I asked him if I do something wrong immediately. He said because you belong

to that tribe and do not ask me again. Then I was told that somebody who belonged to my tribe

had an accident and my teacher’s parents were killed in that accident. When I knew the truth I

hated him too much. So, I think this story taught me that education should follow some roles

and principles. To recognize these roles and principles let me explain my philosophy.

Teaching as a profession

In my philosophy, teachers are mentioned as leaders who can accomplish the goal that we are

created for. But, there are some teachers who do not have any desire to be leaders. Because,

they become teachers to gain money as any other job. Those teachers are the lapse of all

educational systems around the world. I believe that being a teacher is something different

from being a lower, doctor, or manager. Because, those people who become doctors, managers

and lowers are all taught by teachers. Unfortunately, some teachers today are bad example for

their students. I still remember my math teacher who kept advising us not to smoke and he did.

Can you imagine the effect of those fake teachers? So, in this philosophy, being a professional is

a fundamental condition.

The goal/purpose of education

Education is the easiest way to realize and know Allah. By realizing Allah, the students are going

to worship exactly how he asks. Allah creates us and other creatures for a planned reason. We

as human we have to think about these creatures and stop thinking about God. Moreover,

teachers should prepare students for after-life without forgetting about this life. So, they have

to prepare them in a balanced way. ( Islamic Philosophy )

And to raise the awareness of immediate, current, social problems that they will face in the

future. Then, teachers should develop their students’ thinking skills to solve these problems

and this step is called critical literacy. The fundamental goal is creating a new global society

without problems. And this flawless society, definitely, can only be created by educate students

with a great deal of concentration on the critical thinking skills. ( Reconstructivism Philosophy )

Curriculum

When we start talking about the curriculums, we should know what students need according to

the purpose of education that we mentioned above. There should be an appropriate curriculum

that can lead students to both, be aware of global social problems and know and worship Allah.

So, there the curriculum should be religious and intellectual surely. Because, religious is the way

to Allah and the intellectuality is the learners’ language. When we talk about religious, it means

that our curriculum is based on Holy Quran and Sunna definitely. But, we cannot forget about

other field of knowledge and its importance. That is why when we choose religious philosophy

we choose Islam as religious, because Islamic education deals with all field of knowledge. I think

these curriculums ought to lead to Allah and the reality of humanity. ( Islamic Philosophy )

Also, we need some curriculums that work with social problems and how can students solve

them perfectly. What is necessary is these curriculums are not the same for all students, so

there should be different levels for different ages and abilities. Our curriculum should Include

social and personal problems of the students and their experience and taking social action on

real problems. This type of curriculums is put to vanish the main tragic social problems like

violence, hunger, international terrorism, inflation, and inequality. Being aware of these main

problems can reconstruct the society to be a global with less problems. Moreover, we should

have democratic ideals about the role of school as a fundamental institution in modern society

by constructing new ideas, concepts, and meanings. I am sure it and the curriculum that

challenge unequal power relationship in the society are very important to build this global

society. Examine the connections between language, power and knowledge would be very

useful. Transforming relationships, reasoning, and acting responsibly too and this is what called

today critical literacy. The last curriculum that works with the field of society is the analysis of

languages histories, and cultures. ( Reconstructivism Philosophy )

Teaching Methods

There are some teaching methods that I believe strongly they are should be used to achieve our

educational philosophy purposes. One of them, human mind is limited and directed by Allah.

So, whatever is the level of knowledge we reach, we still know nothing as Allah said in the Holly

Quran. Also, we believe in self-study by reasoning, seek knowledge, and conduct the

rationalization of things. Practical application of knowledge and divine intuition is important

too. And divine intuition could be found in using inductive methods to learn about the physical

world and they are helped by divine revelation of the truth. We believe that learners should try

and Allah will help them to succeed. Since we decide to have a religious philosophy, we must

have Islamic ethics in the curriculum. These ethics we can find them in morals, teaching and

managing the classroom. For example, we as Muslims do not have any discrimination because

we are asked in our religion to be equal and rightful. ( Islamic Philosophy )

Experience-based and facts also have a great deal of concentration in our methods. Because,

we ask students to learn and ask educated experts to get the facts. ( Progressivism Philosophy )

We believe also problem-solving and problem detection is one of the main methods that must

be included in our curriculum. Because, one of our principles is every problem in this huge

universe has a solution, but it needs to be detected. Of course, there is another curriculum

which can be used to reconstruct the society and this curriculum is community needs and

reality. Computer simulation, role-playing, cooperative learning, internship, work-study

experience, and students’ autobiographies are activities that can be used to apply these

curriculums. ( Reconstructivism Philosophy )

Classroom Management

Classroom management is very important to have a perfect application for our philosophy. That

is why we put a great effort to manage it carefully. So, learning environment is characterized

with love and the teacher is looked as a guardian. As prophet Mohammed said ‘ you are all

guardians and every guardian is responsible of his or her citizen.’ So, teachers should be chosen

carefully because, not everybody can be a guardian. Also we believe that teachers are

mentioned as models for their students. So, they should control their behaviors and apply the

advice that they will give for their students. Otherwise, they will not listen to them and they will

think that their teachers are fake and bossy. ( Islamic Philosophy )

Creating a climate of inquiry would be so practical to apply this philosophy, but how? Teachers

should encourage students to question social assumptions and think about them seriously. We

believe that every new discovery was discovered by assuming and questioning about everything

around at that time. Examine social issues in mixed classroom organization and we do not mean

by mixing male and female, but it consists social class, race, etc. This classroom management is

very useful to be able to cover different social problems from different social classes or layers. (

Reconstructivism Philosophy )

Role of the Teacher

There are some characters that should be found on the teachers to be appropriate and fit with

our philosophy. Teachers must be well educated, transformational leaders, and shapers of the

new society that we are looking for. Also, they have to have some abilities like, examine his

thinking continuously, open to diversity, change agent, and being tolerant of ambiguity. If you

notice, we put strong conditions for being a teacher in our philosophy. Because, the role of

teachers is not teaching only, but there are teachers and guardians simultaneously. (

Reconstructivism Philosophy )

We consider teachers as inheritors of prophets' knowledge. They are fundamental participants

in our philosophy. And there no wonder, we were taught in Islam that teachers were about to

be messengers. However, we think also that there is a relationship between students and

teachers where teachers’ morals affect students’ behaviors. So, teachers should realize that

they must be sure that every element of their lives reflects that they have good morals. And

this will be as a motivation for the students to dream being as their teachers. They as Muslim

teachers think that they should deal with their students as brothers. ( Islamic Philosophy )

Evaluation

We believe that when teachers evaluate their students they should focus in the ability to think

critically, expose underlying assumptions and practices. Also, authentic assessment should have

a place in our evaluation. For example, formative evaluation, conferences and cooperation

between student and teacher, other students, administration, and community. ( Islamic

Philosophy )

Also, we believe that there are three elements when teachers come to evaluate should focus

on. One of them, behavior and it is evaluated by observation. Moreover, attitude which is

evaluated by self-report and thinking which is evaluated by tests. What important is teachers

should evaluate students fairly. ( Islamic Philosophy )