Puebla Learning Community: Leading Practice seminar series

In 2003, I was working at the National College as a research assistant and consultant on Islamic schools. My report, ‘Leading Islamic Schools’, is published online by them. I also co-hosted a ‘leading practice seminar’ on issues surrounding Muslim pupils in state schools during the invasion of Iraq.

Below is an adaptation of the latest leaflet from the NCSL on the ‘leading practice seminar’ series. It is very similar to what Abdullah Trevathan and I are planning for the Puebla Learning Community and we intend to put on a series of residential seminars during 2008-9. Information will also be available at http://theretreat-online.com/ inshallah.

The only difference is that we see leadership in Islamic schools as a collaboration between all of the stakeholders – pupils, teachers, parents and governors. If the following seems interesting, please visit our blog.


Puebla Learning Community: Leading Practice Seminar Series

A series of innovative and creative seminars to address Islamic school issues; 1st residential seminar 16th-23rd August 2008.

Our leading practice seminar series is designed to tackle issues at the forefront of Islamic school practice and policy. The seminars draw on the latest thinking about leadership in Islamic schools and are designed to respond to the needs of school stakeholders in innovative and interactive ways.

The seminars play a key part in our research and policy work by:

· Identifying current and significant themes for enquiry and exploring them with key individuals and groups

· Respecting the knowledge and practice of school stakeholders

· Providing a dynamic forum for dialogue

· Bringing together theory and practice to create new understanding that has relevance in schools and for policy development

· Developing processes to ensure that new understandings are widely available for application

We have a commitment to build from the best of what is known to create new understanding. Seminar programs are structured to give respect to the three fields of knowledge and ensure that we:

· Learn from and with practitioners – their significant practice, their perspectives on current experience or problems, their accumulated understanding and insights from prior experience and their enthusiasm

· Use national and international theory and research to frame, support, structure, illuminate or challenge the knowledge and thinking that school stakeholders bring

· Employ processes that enrich the dialogue between practitioners and researchers and provide opportunities or collaborative work to create new insights and understanding

(with acknowledgements to the NCSL)