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Religious Education Teachers Living within the Hermeneutic Circle: Interpreting the Curricular Inquiry of Canadian Secondary Ismaili Religious Education Teachers by Tasnim Dharamsi M.Ed. (Education), Simon Fraser University, 1998 B.Ed., University of British Columbia, 1989 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Curriculum Theory & Implementation Program Faculty of Education Tasnim Dharamsi 2014 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2014 Approval Name: Tasnim Dharamsi Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (Curriculum and Instruction) Title of Thesis: Living within the Hermeneutic Circle: Interpreting the Curricular Inquiry of Canadian Secondary Ismaili Religious Education Teachers Examining Committee: Chair: Dr. Celeste Snowber Associate Professor Dr. Stephen Smith Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Dr. Ann Chinnery Supervisor Associate Professor Dr. Shiraz Thobani Supervisor Head, Department of Curriculum Studies Institute of Ismaili Studies Dr. Heesoon Bai Internal/External Examiner Professor Dr. Azim Nanji External Examiner Special Advisor to the Provost Aga Khan University Date Defended/Approved: November 19, 2014 ii Partial Copyright Licence iii Ethics Statement iv Abstract Educational endeavours within traditional faith communities, and more specifically, religious education programs for youth, present opportunities to inquire into the ways these historically-grounded traditions can be understood as dynamic, diverse, and enriching of present-day life. In this research study, I examine the curricular inquiry of seven Ismaili Muslim secondary religious education teachers for the purpose of drawing attention to the perceptual, interpretive and practical life-worlds of their teaching practices. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological framework, the study articulates how teachers interpret and enact a global curriculum initiative, namely the Institute of Ismaili Studies Secondary Curriculum, within the context of teaching religious education classes for Ismaili youth in Canada. Particular attention is given to the teachers’ understandings of the curriculum text, their rendition of the curriculum text in light of the lived experience of classroom teaching and, more broadly, how these understandings and interpretations of the curriculum shape and are shaped by faith community sensibilities. In addition to drawing upon a range of thinkers associated with hermeneutics and Islamic and Ismaili studies, Dwayne Huebner’s curricular scholarship provides the theoretical framework through which curriculum inquiry and the relation between immanence and transcendence is explored to enable interpretive curricular spaces in classrooms and teacher learning communities. The claim I make in this study is that curriculum inquiry is an interpretive quest for both teachers and students which requires relational, temporal and hermeneutic ways of knowing. The interpretive quest involves cultivating relations with text, with disciplines, and with individuals. Relational knowledge brings about the presence of the transcendent in the immanence of daily life, thereby facilitating a unity of being for the individual. The interpretive quest also calls for an understanding of the temporal aspects of existence as they reveal themselves in traditions and disciplines. Through practicing epistemological humility in pursuing a plurality of knowledge sources, new expressions of the tradition and its enduring values can be created that resonate with modern times. Hermeneutic ways of knowing are required to access the transcendent possibilities in our encounters with others to enable a ‘going beyond’ who we currently are. This release of potential allows individuals to envision possibilities for self-transformation and community realization. Central to the interpretive quest is the attunement to beauty brought about by a critical and creative engagement with tradition. This creative engagement opens up an infinitude of possibilities for teachers and students to make and recreate their manifold lifeworlds in the service of humankind. These study findings suggest an educational applicability broader than religious education. Curriculum inquiry, conceptualized as an interpretive quest, provides transformative possibilities for curriculum, classrooms and community in a multiplicity of educational settings. v Keywords: curriculum inquiry; religious education; hermeneutic phenomenology; living tradition; Shia Ismaili Muslim; teacher education vi Dedication To my three gentlemen, Alkarim, Ahmed and Azad, you reveal life’s beauty and infinitude to me each day vii Acknowledgements This study has been guided and inspired through the many individuals with whom I have the privilege of working and living alongside. My supervisory committee has been a true gift and each member has significantly elevated my ways of thinking and being. I would like to acknowledge my senior supervisor, Dr. Stephen Smith, who has guided the integration of tradition, curriculum, hermeneutics and community seamlessly and with great care. Stephen, your approach to education and to life is manifest in unity of being. Thank you for honoring my work. Dr. Ann Chinnery has been instrumental in supporting the venture into uncovering insights of the moral quest in teacher education. Ann, thank you for your luminosity and the epistemological humility you have nurtured. Dr. Shiraz Thobani has deepened and complicated curricular concepts in ways that have been intellectually robust and evoked sophistication of thought. Shiraz, thank you for the gentle manner in which you have opened up the horizon of living tradition and in which you have brought new meaning to community realization. Stephen, Ann, and Shiraz, I am honored to have you as my mentors and as exemplars of educational leaders who embody integrity. You have enabled a professional and personal flourishing through the grace each of you has brought to this study. I would also like to thank Dr. Heesoon Bai and Dr. Peter Grimmett for encouraging me to author my story within the ‘original story’ of the tradition. My research partners, the seven teachers who gave so generously and passionately to this process, have been inspirational as co-journeyers. Fayyaz Ali, Fatima Kaba, Shirin Karim, Adil Mamodaly, Farah Manji, Rizwan Muhammedi, and Hafiz Printer1, you have taken this work through many ‘valleys’ and our journey has been replete with dedication, pedagogical thoughtfulness and vitality. Your love for children, for community, for tradition, and for this discipline illuminates new ways of knowing and calls forth an intellectual spirit that is at once humbling and promising. I have learnt 1 Listed with permission, alphabetically by last name viii much from our interpretive quest in making and recreating our curricular worlds and look forward to the possibilities that await us. Thank you for your critical and creative engagement, for your trust and your honesty, for your belief in the significance of this project, for the beauty you have brought to this work, and for your willingness to co- journey with me in the hermeneutic circle. This study has been profoundly integrated with my service to the institutions of the Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Board for Canada and the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. I have had the good fortune of being supported and being enlightened by my interactions with individuals who bring dispositions of optimism, rigor, creativity and vision to our work. In this light, I would like to acknowledge: the Primary Teacher Educators (PTEs) who began and continue this quest of curriculum inquiry with me envisioning what community could be and the place of children in this renewal; the Secondary (STEP) Teachers who are continually searching for ‘moreness’ and a ‘going beyond’ what can be, and whose innovations are carving hopeful and enabling pathways for religious education and for our youth; my academic colleagues at ITREB Canada, the global ITREBs, and the IIS, whose depth of knowledge and sensitivity of practice is only paralleled by their commitment to community well being; and the various leaders at ITREB and the IIS, past and present, who have placed their trust in me to steward the religious education initiative in Canada. In particular, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Munir Vellani who has walked alongside me every step of this journey ensuring the horizon was always in sight. Munir, thank you for the generosity of heart and mind you continually offer and the ‘light’ you bring to our conversations. I would also like to thank Karim Jiwani, Nurdin Dhanani and Dr. Farouk Mitha for being my dialogue partners on the interpretive history of the tradition. And to Zahida Samji, thank you for being present for all the significant moments of my journey. To all my leaders and dear colleagues above, thank you for revealing the transcendent in the immanence of the everyday and opening up possibilities for us to venture forth together in unified service. My family continues to be the most incredible and uplifting blessing in my life. My father, Dawood, and mother, Gulbanu, have enabled me to pursue my dreams of community service and continually remind me of the ethical framework within which this pursuit is placed. Your strength, your belief in me and your unconditional love have ix made this endeavour possible. You truly are the wind beneath my wings. My other parents, Akber and Amina, you have stood beside Alkarim and myself through what has been arduous, putting forth your silent but immense
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