A Family Retreat this summer

The Family Retreat and Islamic Learning Community
Summer 2008

This is to announce a program of events and activities entitled ‘The Family Retreat and Islamic Learning Community’ which is designed primarily for parents and children.

Applications from teachers and other education professionals will also be welcome.

The retreat will take place in the beautiful and isolated centre at Alqueria de Rosales, high in the Sierra Segura mountains of Andalusia, 2 hours drive from the city of Granada and also within easy reach of Almeria, Alicante and Murcia airports.
(See http://www.al-madrasa.com/eng)

· Venue: Alqueria de Rosales, Granada Province, Spain
· Dates: Saturday 16th August – Saturday 23rd August
· Cost*: Adults – 500 euros, children under 13 - 250 euros, including full board and lodging. Large, comfortable tent accommodation is available at a reduced cost.
*prices are flexible: a more detailed cost can be given when we know your accommodation preferences.

Program

· The program will be based on our successful ‘Retreat’ format which was the subject of a television series last year (see http://www.theretreat-online.com/)

· In addition to the sessions of Salah, Dhikr, Qur’an recitation and practical activities and walks normally offered on our retreat program, the theme of the week will be ‘education’. Participants will take part in workshops and activities with a focus on education designed to generate new thinking from shared knowledge and experience. The aim will be to lay the foundations for a new vision in Islamic education for both children and adults. Our hope is that this process will result in a new kind of school or learning community.

· There will be a variety of activities for children of all ages, including Islamic art and craft work, sports and games, including horse riding and swimming, and outings.

· Specialists in Islamic education may also be invited to share their experience and ideas with us.

· The design of the program will be in your hands and according to your interests and needs. For this reason, we would like to hear from you now in order to begin that conversation, even if you are not yet sure that you are able to attend you still have a role to play.

Retreat organisers: Abdullah Trevathan and Ibrahim Lawson

Abdullah and Ibrahim have both been in education for over 25 years. Abdullah is currently Senior Lecturer in Religious Education at Roehampton University; Ibrahim is Head Teacher at Al Risalah Secondary School in London, UK.

Contact us at pueblalc@googlemail.com or enquiries@theretreat-online.com

Visit our blog http://pueblalearningcommunity.blogspot.com/ to join in the conversation.

And please forward this invitation to anyone you think may be interested.

John Dewey on inquiry

I find 'pragmatism' an interesting approach to philosophy (slogan - "no proposition is immune to revision") and I think that inquiry is the basic form of education. His view of education was that it was 'the reconstruction of experience' and this seems to be an fruitful topic for discussion. The excerpt below contains some challenging ideas given the 'check or obstacle to successful human action' currently experienced by Muslims desiring change:

"John Dewey was a leading proponent of the American school of thought known as "pragmatism," a view that rejected the dualistic epistemology and metaphysics of modern philosophy in favor of a naturalistic approach that viewed knowledge as arising from an active adaptation of the human organism to its environment. On this view, inquiry should not be understood as consisting of a mind passively observing the world and drawing from this ideas that if true correspond to reality, but rather as a process which initiates with a check or obstacle to successful human action, proceeds to active manipulation of the environment to test hypotheses, and issues in a re-adaptation of organism to environment that allows once again for human action to proceed. With this view as his starting point, Dewey developed a broad body of work encompassing virtually all of the main areas of philosophical concern in his day. He also wrote extensively on social issues in such popular publications as the New Republic, thereby gaining a reputation as a leading social commentator of his time."

see http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/dewey.htm