Islamic schools and educators on staying committed to mission

By The Track Leaders’ Committee

March/April 2022

The West Coast ISNA Education Forum (WCIEF), hosted by ISNA in collaboration with the Council of Islamic Schools in North America (CISNA) and the Aldeen Foundation, held its second virtual forum in its 10th year on Jan. 15-16. 

The timely theme was “Resiliency, Hope and Faith: Staying Committed to Mission.” Our schools have found creative ways to meet their students’ needs in a remote learning environment. This school leaders-led initiative caused the WCIEF committee and its chairperson Necva Ozgur, who has chaired or co-chaired it from the beginning, to choose this theme.

The conference featured four tracks: Islamic Studies, Arabic/Quran, Curriculum and Instruction, and Leadership. Each track held several sessions led by experts in their given fields and attended by educators nationwide. More than 600 participants registered for the conference.

 Keynote speaker Jihad Turk (doctoral candidate, University of Southern California) reviewed the evolution of learning theories: behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism and experientialism. He spoke of the importance of the power of faith and hope and of storytelling. He also explained how we can use these elements to build resiliency and remain committed to our mission.

 This year’s forum included two very engaging and beneficial general sessions: (1) Faruk Rahmnovic (professor, philosophy department, Lewis University), who offered a systematic framework for applying critical thinking in the classroom, and (2) a panel on mental health. Suzy Ismail (founding director, Cornerstone) focused on the requirements for creating mentally and emotionally healthy classroom environments, which includes employing a holistic methodology that considers spiritual psycho socio-emotional wellness. Alaa Mohammad (The Family and Youth Institute) offered many strategies for educators’ self-care, something that has become a greater concern over the past two years.

Curriculum and Instruction Track

This track provided strategies, resources and tools for educators to implement in their classes. The presenters shared a wealth of expertise and experience and held the participants’ attention with thought-provoking and interactive discussions. In the first session, Susan Labadi (president, Genius School, Inc.) used her “Don’t Be the Crazy Chicken: Surviving Stress as an Educator” to address a variety of ways for educators to balance their professional and personal lives while stressing the value and importance of both. Labadi has a distinguished career in education as a classroom teacher, educator and school administrator. Her company conducts workshops to train educators, parents and other professionals in stress reduction, positive school culture, social emotional intelligence and mindfulness. All of these are key aspects for teachers and administrators to maintain excellence inside and outside the classroom. 

During her session “Content-Rich Curriculum, Ashley Berner (director of the John Hopkins Institute for Educational Policy) outlined the essential components of a content-rich curriculum as background knowledge and high-quality content. Both components are vital in enriching the curriculum and ensuring that students are making real-life connections and extensions with what they are learning. In addition, she discussed the importance of using primary and secondary sources that resonate with students and their backgrounds. She also talked about having a strong school culture that allows students to be engaged with their diverse academic classes. 

Susan Douglass (K-14 Education outreach director, Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies) used her session to address “Integrating Curriculum Across the Humanities, STEM and Islamic Studies.” In addition to offering practical examples of how to integrate the curriculum from her own teaching as well as the curriculum units she has authored and produced, she emphasized that integration takes place with careful and detailed planning and preparation. In fact, the most optimal time for it to occur is while revising and enhancing the annual curriculum. Teachers often hope to adjust their daily lesson plans, but this is no more than a band-aid approach to integration. One approach is to introduce cross-curricular projects and assignments within the classroom. Another one is to have teachers co-plan their lessons, which proves quite successful in curriculum integration. 

Overall, this track’s sessions provided hands-on strategies and resources that can be used in the participants’ classrooms. Moreover, the presenters sparked the urgency and necessity for school administrators and teachers to discuss the many tools that teachers need to provide the best curriculum instruction. This process should be viewed as an ongoing conversation throughout the academic school year and revisited in professional development workshops among the key stakeholders. 

Arabic/Quran Track

This session opened with a presentation by Basma AlSaleem (chair, International eTurn Council for Teaching Arabic to Speakers of Other Languages, Amman, Jordan) about language assessment. In her “TASOL Standardized Test in Six Steps,” she explained the six steps teachers should use to design their assessment process, among them the importance of defining goals, paying meticulous attention when choosing every word in their directions and instructions, as well as how most tests’ question should have a clear, expected answer. The most important final step is for the teacher to be able to analyze any test results and recognize the indicators of how well the students understand the learned material.

Ustadha Marwa Thabit (instructor of the Arabic language, Orange County) devoted her session to the language and technology tools and resources that can both facilitate learning and make practicing Arabic more enjoyable by enabling the students to retain and utilize their vocabulary in a fun context.

The Sunday morning presentation, “Celebrate to Educate,” featured Ustadaha Samar Dalati (instructor, University of Redlands; Sunday School instructor/curriculum developer, Islamic Center of Southern California), who explained how Arabic teachers can practice various Arabic language skills during Islamic or secular holidays to bring communities and families together and strengthen relationships. She emphasized how joyful times and effective methods can help increase students’ interest and engagement, which leads to vocabulary retention and language acquisition.

The last session, Dalia El-Deeb’s (director, Ahlul-Qur’an Academy and of the Bayaan Academy’s hifdh program) “Tafseer Standards: Towards a More Effective Teaching of the Holy Qur’an,” discussed the definition of tafseer, its importance and the standards needed to teach it to non-native speakers. She gave ample examples of how to select the correct vocabulary, how teaching Arabic can help Muslims understand the Quran and why Arabic should be taught in Islamic schools.

Islamic Studies Track

This track was a home run for many of the attendees. The first session, Fahd Tasleem’s (research fellow and instructor, Sapience Institute) presentation on why Islam should be taught as a worldview vs. a religion, was complemented by Sh. Suhaib Webb’s (founder, Ella Collins Institute of Islamic and Cultural Studies) analysis of how to help students develop an Islamic worldview. His engaging session shared many powerful ideas, one of which is nurturing the fitra. 

On the conference’s second day, Yasir Qadhi (dean, The Islamic Seminary of America; resident scholar, East Plano Islamic Center) expounded on how to nurture students’ fitra to help prevent un-Islamic beliefs. Alaa Mohammad concluded the track with her critical topic: how to make Islamic studies a positive experience. 

Leadership Track

The biggest takeaways from Douglas Reeves’ (founder, DouglasReeves.com and ChangeLeaders.com) session on teacher retention and burnout revolved around seven key areas. Primary discussion points were improved feedback, building collective efficacy, allowing teacher autonomy, fostering collaboration among teachers and boosting respect for the teaching profession. 

Anthony Mohammed (CEO, New Frontier 21) spoke of developing a school culture for transformational leadership. In short, he contends that if we want schools to improve, we must be willing to get uncomfortable because real change happens only if we are eager to be empowered and start a movement for change. We need the skill to make a technical change and the will to change the human side of things by making a cultural change. Successful change agents clearly articulate the why behind the change and engage with the people they are affecting on a human level so they will trust who they are following. Finally, the leader must be competent and have the functional capacity to know how to make change happen. 

Each leadership session concluded with a rich discussion of the topics presented. Overall, the leadership track was timely and relevant to current needs and in line with the conference’s theme. 

One of the attendees said, “I enjoyed the presentations and the time allowed for questions and answers… As a new teacher, I have faced many Covid-related challenges in the classroom. The workshops have reinvigorated, and reminded me why I decided to go into teaching. I was very focused on teaching the content and standards, which seemed to be the focus in California. These workshops reminded me that I can still do so while moving to a 21st century classroom and teaching in a way that resonates with students. The workshops provided me with many resources and ideas on how to present information to my students going forward.”

Safaa Zarzour (president, ISNA; and former president of CISNA) delivered the closing remarks.

Program Committee: Necva Ozgur (chair and educator/consultant), Sadeq Al-Hasan (board member, Consultants for Islamic Schools Excellence), Shahida AliKhan (retired principal), Sufia Azmat (executive director, Council of Islamic Schools in North America), Thouraya Boubetra (language counselor, Aldeen Foundation), Azra Naqvi (principal, Hadi School of Excellence), Fawad Yacoob (interim principal, Minaret Academy) and Maisa Youssef (principal, Orange Crescent School).