Objectives of History Course in Guidance and High School Curricula based on an Islamic Approach to Curriculum Philosoplcy

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Abstract

For many years, history has been an important component of secondary and high school curricula. Various philosophical assumptions affect the development of history syllabi and its teaching methodology. On the one hand, such assumptions concern the nature of human being; on the other hand, they concentrate on the nature of historical knowledge. This paper aims to formulate new objectives for history curriculum according to an Islamic standpoint. Firstly, epistemological foundations are examined in order to justify this viewpoint. Constructive realism is a philosophical approach to historical knowledge, according to which historical knowledge is a product of human thinking about the real, historical events. Also, it considers human beings as agents who can make subjective constructs in order to capture the real, historical events and to provide consistent explanations of them. If a historian achieves to provide such an explanation, it can be claimed that s/he has approximated reality.
       Then, objectives of history curriculum are reformulated in accordance with the Islamic objectives of education and within the framework of constructive realism. This study follows progressive analytic research methodology in which philosophical objectives and foundations are analyzed and elaborated. Two major objectives of history curriculum are identified consequently: to achieve historical knowledge and insight, and to develop the ability for influential social contribution. The realization of any of these two objectives respectively leads to more achievements: 1) acquaintance with historical reality, 2) cognition of different historical explanations, and 3) acquaintance with the Islamic perspective on the philosophy of history. Moreover, three procedural goals are necessary to realize the first objective: 1) examination of historical documents,
2) re-enactment of historical events, and 3) evaluation of historical explanations. The realized goals of the second objective are:
1) adoptation of a historical perspective, and 2) the ability of deducing limited generalizations from the past for the future.  

Keywords

References

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Journal of Curriculum Research
Volume 1, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
September 2011
Pages 111-138

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  • Receive Date: 11 September 2012
  • Accept Date: 11 September 2012

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