WORLDVIEW, MEANINGFUL LEARNING AND PLURALISTIC EDUCATION: THE ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE 1

In this paper I attempt to bridge some of the needs and realities of American multicultural educational paradigms in the 1990s and the often ignored educational goals, principles, and assumptions in a liberal democratic society that aspires to pluralism. I will argue that (a) multicultural paradigms are as essential to improving "mainstream " education as they are to furthering the education of different cultural groups and (b) plurality should be concerned with meaningful learning in both a particular and a multiple perspective and worldview. Using the Islamic2 worldview on life and education, I will present, as a case in point, the Muslims of North America (the United States. and Canada) to explicate the relation of meaning-making to the learner's perspective. I conclude that utilizing the learner's frame of reference in developing both particularity and plurality might be one of the solutions toward achieving pluralism as intended in the liberal democratic education. Few strategic considerations are proposed to address the need of youths, parents, teachers, and experts. Schools, and educational institutions in general, have the power to modify the social order; and they are expected to do so to perpetuate liberal democratic values. Educational institutions, however, seem to have failed to reflect the multitude of worldviews and belief systems i