Characteristics of Research in the Doctoral and Masters' Theses on 'Education in Islam' Conducted in Jordan Universities in 1971-2004

This study is a preliminary phase of a research project to analyze research output on "Education in Islam" that may be located in different channels including Doctoral and Masters' theses. The current study is mainly concerned with the status quo of educational research, which is contained in Doctoral and Masters Theses on "Education in Islam", done in Jordanian universities over the past three decades. Towards this end a number of quantitative indicators were discussed inter alia: the distribution of theses across years, type and language of theses, the degree-granting university, the gender and nationality of researcher, the methodology and instruments of gathering data, thesis orientation, the target groups and field of theses, and the type of supervision. The population of the study comprises 238 theses on "Education in Islam". The results show a growing increase in numbers of theses, particularly Masters' theses over the years all of which were written in Arabic. The majority of theses were done at Yarmouk University and University of Jordan. Male and Jordanian authors outnumbered females and non-Jordanian Arabs and non Arabs. Descriptive methodology and questionnaire were the mostly used, and a fairly high percentage of theses were supervised by committees rather than by individual member of staff The study concluded with discussion and recommendations