Changing the whole

I very often have the impression, and it is one that I find is shared by many colleagues, that we are constantly fighting what can seem like a losing battle. This is not to say that there are not some notable successes, but the overall trend seems to be one of increasing struggle.

This is a very vague statement. The world of education is complex and has many stakeholders at different levels and degrees of participation, so pick any area you think this comment may apply to.

However, I believe it is true to some extent that overall, we are struggling, as we must, to find our way and some problems and difficulties seem to be constant.

Could it be then that we are not addressing the right issues? Could it be that the problems and difficulties we are dealing with continually in the world of Islamic education are in fact not specific to that domain?- do not have their causes exclusively within the world of Islamic education and therefore do not have their solutions within that world?

Suppose that the problems we are constantly having to deal with have their causes in the wider society, the global context. If we are not addressing those issues at source, then we will find ourselves endlessly dealing with the consequences as they arise in specific, localised domains within that overall context.

If I am right, then we have to deal with the whole of society in order to effectively address the issues we find in our part of it; our schools and our communities.

How do we deal with the whole of society? Perhaps there are two basic approaches: top-down and bottom-up.

The top-down approach is to come up with a solution in the form of an end product, a plan of how society should be. We then take that plan out and find ways to impose it on society. This is analogous to an conqueror marching in with his army and imposing control.

The bottom-up approach is to enable small groups of people to ‘grow their own’ solutions. As these grow, they spread and link up, gradually transforming society by re-writing its DNA, cell by cell. Think of it as the ‘viral infection’ approach.