THE PERCEPTIONS OF ISLAMIC STUDIES TEACHERS ABOUT INCORPORATING CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE CURRICULUM

This qualitative study examined the perceptions of Saudi Arabian Islamic Studies teachers regarding their perceptions of diversity within the classroom. Eight different educators were interviewed with the purpose of discovering whether or not they value diversity, whether they had opportunities to use diversity in the classroom, and what kind of responsibility they felt related to diversity as educators of Islamic studies. Teachers were also asked questions that led to an understanding of whether or not they were resistant to including other cultures as a part of their discourse in Islamic Studies. Some of the conclusions from the study were that teachers of Islamic Studies in Saudi Arabia have limited experiences related to their personal education that they can draw on to teach diversity within their classrooms. None of the teachers had professional development as it related to diversity, so therefore the tools that they had in relationship to diversity were very limited. In addition, they had no input into the curriculum that would help them to plan how to approach the issue of diversity in the classroom. Recommendations included professional development that had diversity as a part of the opportunities for teachers of Islamic studies so that they could include diversity as a part of the framework through which they taught their curriculum