Teaching Islam: a look inside
an Islamic preschool in Malaysia
LIHANNA BORHAN
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ABSTRACT Although required to use the National Preschool Curriculum for the
five- to six-year-old age group, preschools in Malaysia can add to this curriculum
to suit their individual purposes. Thus, preschools with religious emphasis are
common in Malaysia. Parents send their children to the religiously affiliated
preschools in the hope of inculcating particular religious values in their young
children. However, parents, and outsiders, may not actually be privy to what and
exactly how the children are learning with regard to the religious curriculum. By
providing thick descriptions of the activities in an Islamic preschool, this article is
largely aimed at those who would like to understand the schooling experience of
children going to such schools.
Introduction
The majority of early childhood education centres in Malaysia are run by either
the private sector or non-governmental organizations. Although required to
use the National Preschool Curriculum for the five- to six-year-old age group,
these schools can also add to this curriculum to suit their individual purposes
and philosophy. Thus, preschools with religious emphasis are common in
Malaysia. Parents send their children to the religiously affiliated preschools in
the hope of inculcating the respective religious values in their young children.
However, parents, and outsiders, may not actually be privy to what and exactly
how the children are learning with regard to the religious curriculum. This
article will look at how the Islamic values and teachings are being taught to
children in an Islamic preschool.
Defining the Islamic Preschool
What makes a preschool ‘Islamic’? The spiritual domain outlined in the
National Preschool Curriculum is specifically divided into two: Islamic TEACHING ISLAM IN MALAYSIA
379
education and moral education (Curriculum Development Centre, 1999), as
Islam is the official faith of Malaysia. However, having Islamic education as part
of the curriculum does not automatically qualify a preschool as Islamic. The
secular education system mandates that in all levels of education Islam is taught
to Muslim students only during the Islamic studies period. By default, the
Muslim students will be taught the Islamic education part of the curriculum
while the non-Muslims will be taught the moral education part. Therefore, any
preschool can easily have the Islamic education component. However, to the
Malaysian public, this does not necessarily make these schools ‘Islamic’, as this
secular approach does not embrace the philosophy that Islam is a way of life
and not merely a religion. An Islamic preschool is therefore based on the
philosophy of Islam being a way of life and learning Islam is not confined to a
specific class period. In addition to the national curriculum, the Islamic
preschool also offers subjects that are overtly Islamic in nature, such as learning
to recite the Koran. A preschool that is Islamic generally clearly states so, either
in its brochures or its name. An Islamic preschool usually adds the term ‘Islam’
itself as a modifier or uses an Arabic element in its name (e.g. Ar-Raudah Child
Development Centre).
A Typical Day in an Islamic Preschool: the daily activities
A typical day will be described to give the reader a view of what happens in
such schools. The children’s typical schedule will be given, followed by a
detailed description of their activities. The emphasis will be on activities that
are overtly Islamic, such as learning to read the Koran and learning how to
pray. Activities that are common in other preschools, such as assembly,
instruction time, playtime, and snack time, will be analyzed for the ways in
which the teachers use these activities to convey the Islamic teachings to the
children.
The data come from a series of observations in an Islamic preschool in
Kuala Lumpur. The observations began three months after the school sessions
began for the year and continued intermittently for the next six months. After
the first few visits the sessions were videotaped. The data presented here are a
composite of the sessions.
The preschool was situated in a two-storeyed detached house. The
children were grouped into three classes: the four-year-olds, the five-year-olds,
and the six-year-olds. Each class was assigned two teachers and the class sizes
ranged from 7 to 16 children. The program was a half-day program that ran
from 8.15 a.m. to 12 noon. All the children and the teachers were Muslims and
they were also Malays, the major ethnic group in Malaysia. One of the teachers
was of Malay–Australian heritage, one child was of Malay–Bosnian heritage,
and one was of Malay–Arab heritage.
A typical day meant a regular school day where there was no preparation
for a special event, such as training for the school sports day. Typically, the
students began arriving shortly before 8.00 a.m. This was usually because it Lihanna Borhan
380
coincided with the time the parents themselves went to work and they dropped
their children off at the school en route. The school day itself began at 8.15 a.m.
A regular schedule is shown in Table I.
Time Activity
Arrival – 8.15 a.m. Free play
8.15 a.m. – 8.30 a.m. Assembly
8.30 a.m. – 9.00 a.m. Class I
9.00 a.m. – 9.30 a.m. Snack time
9.30 a.m. – 10.00 a.m. Class II
10.00 a.m. – 10.30 a.m. Class III
10.30 a.m. – 11.00 a.m. Class IV
11.00 a.m. – 11.30 a.m. Class V
11.30 a.m. – 12 p.m. Prayers
12 p.m. – Departure Free play
Table I. Schedule for a regular school day in the school.
The class slots were subject areas like science, language, arts, or Islamic studies.
This was a comparable schedule to preschools in the area in that the other
schools usually started their day with an assembly or something similar
followed by specific time slots for specific subject areas and time for a snack and
a rest. The difference in the Islamic preschool was in some of its content and
subject areas, which will be detailed later. In the sections that follow
descriptions of the activities are provided, followed by a brief analysis of the
Islamic teachings and values that are being taught and how the school attempts
to teach them.
Arrival
The teacher in charge stood at the school gate to greet the children and the
parents as the children arrived. The teacher greeted the child with the
salaam.[1] The child, in turn, answered the teacher with the prescribed answer
and also shook the teacher’s right hand with his or her own right hand and
kissed the teacher’s hand by bringing it to his or her nose. The child then put
away his or her things in the school building and joined the other children
playing.
The children generally played in a play area that was situated to the right
of the schoolhouse. There was a playground equipped with a slide, two swings,
and a trampoline. There was another playground on the lawn in front of the
building. The children also played in the main gathering area inside the
schoolhouse. TEACHING ISLAM IN MALAYSIA
381
The salaam is both the greeting and farewell ritual in Islam. It involves an
exchange of prescribed phrases. In Islam, the person who arrives or leaves is
the one who is supposed to first offer the salaam and it is then incumbent upon
the other person to answer it. In Malaysia, this has evolved somewhat to reflect
the hierarchical nature of the society and the salaam is usually offered to a
person of higher status. In the case of this school, neither of these rules was
strictly enforced. The teachers, who got to the school first and who were of a
higher social status, offered the salaam to the arriving students. However, if the
students themselves offered the salaam first, this was treated as a normal
occurrence and the teachers responded appropriately. By the time the
observations started, the students seemed to have this ritual down pat, as there
seemed to be no occasion when the student failed to participate in this
exchange. In this regard the school had managed to instill in the students an
Islamic sociocultural practice in this otherwise daily routine.
The hand-kissing ritual is an element of the Malay culture and perhaps an
adaptation of the Arab and Indian cultures. The rule of Malay hierarchy was
observed in that it was the children who kissed the teacher’s hand. In Islam,
direct skin contact between post-pubescent males and females who are not
direct blood relatives is prohibited. Thus, we see that the hand-kissing ritual,
which could have been in direct contradiction to Islamic teaching among older
school children, was acceptable in this case as these children were considered to
be under the age rule. This ritual was encouraged, as it served to underscore
the values of respecting one’s elders – particularly one’s teachers – which are
present in both Islam and Malay traditions.
Assembly
The students were called in at 8.15 a.m. for their daily assembly. The students
who were playing outside put away their shoes in the shoe rack provided and
entered the schoolhouse in their bare feet, as did the teachers. The head
teacher led the assembly. She sat on a chair at the front facing the students
while the other teachers sat on the periphery of the group of students. The
students and the other teachers sat on the floor. The teacher started off by
calming down the children, asking them to take deep breaths, and to give a big
smile. What followed next was a ritual of greetings. The head teacher first
greeted the children with the salaam, to which the children responded
appropriately. Then she asked how they were doing in English, to which the
children answered: ‘Very well, alhamdulillah.’ She next used the Arabic greeting
for good morning, and again the students answered appropriately in Arabic.
This was followed by an exchange of greetings in Malay. There followed a brief
session where the children volunteered what they had eaten f
Teaching Islam: a look inside
an Islamic preschool in Malaysia
LIHANNA BORHAN
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ABSTRACT Although required to use the National Preschool Curriculum for the
five- to six-year-old age group, preschools in Malaysia can add to this curriculum
to suit their individual purposes. Thus, preschools with religious emphasis are
common in Malaysia. Parents send their children to the religiously affiliated
preschools in the hope of inculcating particular religious values in their young
children. However, parents, and outsiders, may not actually be privy to what and
exactly how the children are learning with regard to the religious curriculum. By
providing thick descriptions of the activities in an Islamic preschool, this article is
largely aimed at those who would like to understand the schooling experience of
children going to such schools.
Introduction
The majority of early childhood education centres in Malaysia are run by either
the private sector or non-governmental organizations. Although required to
use the National Preschool Curriculum for the five- to six-year-old age group,
these schools can also add to this curriculum to suit their individual purposes
and philosophy. Thus, preschools with religious emphasis are common in
Malaysia. Parents send their children to the religiously affiliated preschools in
the hope of inculcating the respective religious values in their young children.
However, parents, and outsiders, may not actually be privy to what and exactly
how the children are learning with regard to the religious curriculum. This
article will look at how the Islamic values and teachings are being taught to
children in an Islamic preschool.
Defining the Islamic Preschool
What makes a preschool ‘Islamic’? The spiritual domain outlined in the
National Preschool Curriculum is specifically divided into two: Islamic TEACHING ISLAM IN MALAYSIA
379
education and moral education (Curriculum Development Centre, 1999), as
Islam is the official faith of Malaysia. However, having Islamic education as part
of the curriculum does not automatically qualify a preschool as Islamic. The
secular education system mandates that in all levels of education Islam is taught
to Muslim students only during the Islamic studies period. By default, the
Muslim students will be taught the Islamic education part of the curriculum
while the non-Muslims will be taught the moral education part. Therefore, any
preschool can easily have the Islamic education component. However, to the
Malaysian public, this does not necessarily make these schools ‘Islamic’, as this
secular approach does not embrace the philosophy that Islam is a way of life
and not merely a religion. An Islamic preschool is therefore based on the
philosophy of Islam being a way of life and learning Islam is not confined to a
specific class period. In addition to the national curriculum, the Islamic
preschool also offers subjects that are overtly Islamic in nature, such as learning
to recite the Koran. A preschool that is Islamic generally clearly states so, either
in its brochures or its name. An Islamic preschool usually adds the term ‘Islam’
itself as a modifier or uses an Arabic element in its name (e.g. Ar-Raudah Child
Development Centre).
A Typical Day in an Islamic Preschool: the daily activities
A typical day will be described to give the reader a view of what happens in
such schools. The children’s typical schedule will be given, followed by a
detailed description of their activities. The emphasis will be on activities that
are overtly Islamic, such as learning to read the Koran and learning how to
pray. Activities that are common in other preschools, such as assembly,
instruction time, playtime, and snack time, will be analyzed for the ways in
which the teachers use these activities to convey the Islamic teachings to the
children.
The data come from a series of observations in an Islamic preschool in
Kuala Lumpur. The observations began three months after the school sessions
began for the year and continued intermittently for the next six months. After
the first few visits the sessions were videotaped. The data presented here are a
composite of the sessions.
The preschool was situated in a two-storeyed detached house. The
children were grouped into three classes: the four-year-olds, the five-year-olds,
and the six-year-olds. Each class was assigned two teachers and the class sizes
ranged from 7 to 16 children. The program was a half-day program that ran
from 8.15 a.m. to 12 noon. All the children and the teachers were Muslims and
they were also Malays, the major ethnic group in Malaysia. One of the teachers
was of Malay–Australian heritage, one child was of Malay–Bosnian heritage,
and one was of Malay–Arab heritage.
A typical day meant a regular school day where there was no preparation
for a special event, such as training for the school sports day. Typically, the
students began arriving shortly before 8.00 a.m. This was usually because it Lihanna Borhan
380
coincided with the time the parents themselves went to work and they dropped
their children off at the school en route. The school day itself began at 8.15 a.m.
A regular schedule is shown in Table I.
Time Activity
Arrival – 8.15 a.m. Free play
8.15 a.m. – 8.30 a.m. Assembly
8.30 a.m. – 9.00 a.m. Class I
9.00 a.m. – 9.30 a.m. Snack time
9.30 a.m. – 10.00 a.m. Class II
10.00 a.m. – 10.30 a.m. Class III
10.30 a.m. – 11.00 a.m. Class IV
11.00 a.m. – 11.30 a.m. Class V
11.30 a.m. – 12 p.m. Prayers
12 p.m. – Departure Free play
Table I. Schedule for a regular school day in the school.
The class slots were subject areas like science, language, arts, or Islamic studies.
This was a comparable schedule to preschools in the area in that the other
schools usually started their day with an assembly or something similar
followed by specific time slots for specific subject areas and time for a snack and
a rest. The difference in the Islamic preschool was in some of its content and
subject areas, which will be detailed later. In the sections that follow
descriptions of the activities are provided, followed by a brief analysis of the
Islamic teachings and values that are being taught and how the school attempts
to teach them.
Arrival
The teacher in charge stood at the school gate to greet the children and the
parents as the children arrived. The teacher greeted the child with the
salaam.[1] The child, in turn, answered the teacher with the prescribed answer
and also shook the teacher’s right hand with his or her own right hand and
kissed the teacher’s hand by bringing it to his or her nose. The child then put
away his or her things in the school building and joined the other children
playing.
The children generally played in a play area that was situated to the right
of the schoolhouse. There was a playground equipped with a slide, two swings,
and a trampoline. There was another playground on the lawn in front of the
building. The children also played in the main gathering area inside the
schoolhouse. TEACHING ISLAM IN MALAYSIA
381
The salaam is both the greeting and farewell ritual in Islam. It involves an
exchange of prescribed phrases. In Islam, the person who arrives or leaves is
the one who is supposed to first offer the salaam and it is then incumbent upon
the other person to answer it. In Malaysia, this has evolved somewhat to reflect
the hierarchical nature of the society and the salaam is usually offered to a
person of higher status. In the case of this school, neither of these rules was
strictly enforced. The teachers, who got to the school first and who were of a
higher social status, offered the salaam to the arriving students. However, if the
students themselves offered the salaam first, this was treated as a normal
occurrence and the teachers responded appropriately. By the time the
observations started, the students seemed to have this ritual down pat, as there
seemed to be no occasion when the student failed to participate in this
exchange. In this regard the school had managed to instill in the students an
Islamic sociocultural practice in this otherwise daily routine.
The hand-kissing ritual is an element of the Malay culture and perhaps an
adaptation of the Arab and Indian cultures. The rule of Malay hierarchy was
observed in that it was the children who kissed the teacher’s hand. In Islam,
direct skin contact between post-pubescent males and females who are not
direct blood relatives is prohibited. Thus, we see that the hand-kissing ritual,
which could have been in direct contradiction to Islamic teaching among older
school children, was acceptable in this case as these children were considered to
be under the age rule. This ritual was encouraged, as it served to underscore
the values of respecting one’s elders – particularly one’s teachers – which are
present in both Islam and Malay traditions.
Assembly
The students were called in at 8.15 a.m. for their daily assembly. The students
who were playing outside put away their shoes in the shoe rack provided and
entered the schoolhouse in their bare feet, as did the teachers. The head
teacher led the assembly. She sat on a chair at the front facing the students
while the other teachers sat on the periphery of the group of students. The
students and the other teachers sat on the floor. The teacher started off by
calming down the children, asking them to take deep breaths, and to give a big
smile. What followed next was a ritual of greetings. The head teacher first
greeted the children with the salaam, to which the children responded
appropriately. Then she asked how they were doing in English, to which the
children answered: ‘Very well, alhamdulillah.’ She next used the Arabic greeting
for good morning, and again the students answered appropriately in Arabic.
This was followed by an exchange of greetings in Malay. There followed a brief
session where the children volunteered what they had eaten f
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