An integrated versus a history-centered arrangement of social studies content used by full-time Islamic schools in the United States.

Abstract

As a cultural minority, Muslim American students need to become reflective citizens of the United States who are able to balance their rights and responsibilities as members of both an international Muslim community and a national community of Americans. A central mission of schooling in the United States is to prepare students for participation as citizens in a pluralistic democracy, but can this be achieved while respecting students' cultural identity as Muslims? The purpose of this study was to look at the contribution of elementary social studies curricula to this preparation. The study examined two research hypotheses. The first hypothesis was that an integrated curriculum arrangement of social studies content would increase students' ability to produce writing which evidences a critical Islamic perspective. The second hypothesis was that a history-centered curriculum arrangement of social studies content would increase students' historical understanding. The differentiation between an integrated curriculum arrangement versus a history-centered curriculum arrangement was a reflection of two competing conceptions of social studies reflected in the professional literature. The hypotheses of this study were explored through instructional interventions in full-time Islamic Schools. The integrated curriculum intervention which used a focus question meant to contribute to students' participating in civic decision making as Muslim Americans. The history-centered intervention which used historical themes to build students' historical literacy. To make cross group comparisons, students wrote a persuasive essay to measure their critical Islamic perspective and completed a multiple choice measure on their historical understanding. No statistically significant differences were found between groups due to limitations of the study. The lack of statistical significance in the results of this study was most likely due to limitations in the design. However, this study does contribute a preliminary method for measuring students' critical Islamic perspective. This was viewed as an important outcome because it has implications for how the needs of cultural minorities might be addressed, even in a public school setting.