We were asked last semester to write our educational philosophy individually. It might help you to write yours ! all the best mates

1. Sultan Qaboos University
College of Education
English Language
My Educational Philosophy
SAIFISM
Done by : Saif Said Al Dhahli

2. My Educational Philosophy ( Saifism )
Before I study this course, Foundation of American Education, I have thought about some stuff
that I do not like, like about educational system. But, I have never thought about writing a
philosophy to share my thoughts with others. The problem was I do not know when or how to
start this philosophy. This semester when I decided to take this course and it was one of the
best classes I have studied so far, so I start thinking about writing this philosophy seriously. The
story started about seven years ago when I was shocked by my inspired teacher. He was my
Arabic teacher who loved me so much. One day, he changed completely and started dealing
with differently. I asked him if I do something wrong immediately. He said because you belong
to that tribe and do not ask me again. Then I was told that somebody who belonged to my tribe
had an accident and my teacher’s parents were killed in that accident. When I knew the truth I
hated him too much. So, I think this story taught me that education should follow some roles
and principles. To recognize these roles and principles let me explain my philosophy.
Teaching as a profession
In my philosophy, teachers are mentioned as leaders who can accomplish the goal that we are
created for. But, there are some teachers who do not have any desire to be leaders. Because,
they become teachers to gain money as any other job. Those teachers are the lapse of all
educational systems around the world. I believe that being a teacher is something different
from being a lower, doctor, or manager. Because, those people who become doctors, managers
and lowers are all taught by teachers. Unfortunately, some teachers today are bad example for
their students. I still remember my math teacher who kept advising us not to smoke and he did.
Can you imagine the effect of those fake teachers? So, in this philosophy, being a professional is
a fundamental condition.
The goal/purpose of education
Education is the easiest way to realize and know Allah. By realizing Allah, the students are going
to worship exactly how he asks. Allah creates us and other creatures for a planned reason. We
as human we have to think about these creatures and stop thinking about God. Moreover,
teachers should prepare students for after-life without forgetting about this life. So, they have
to prepare them in a balanced way. ( Islamic Philosophy )
And to raise the awareness of immediate, current, social problems that they will face in the
future. Then, teachers should develop their students’ thinking skills to solve these problems

3. and this step is called critical literacy. The fundamental goal is creating a new global society
without problems. And this flawless society, definitely, can only be created by educate students
with a great deal of concentration on the critical thinking skills. ( Reconstructivism Philosophy )
Curriculum
When we start talking about the curriculums, we should know what students need according to
the purpose of education that we mentioned above. There should be an appropriate curriculum
that can lead students to both, be aware of global social problems and know and worship Allah.
So, there the curriculum should be religious and intellectual surely. Because, religious is the way
to Allah and the intellectuality is the learners’ language. When we talk about religious, it means
that our curriculum is based on Holy Quran and Sunna definitely. But, we cannot forget about
other field of knowledge and its importance. That is why when we choose religious philosophy
we choose Islam as religious, because Islamic education deals with all field of knowledge. I think
these curriculums ought to lead to Allah and the reality of humanity. ( Islamic Philosophy )
Also, we need some curriculums that work with social problems and how can students solve
them perfectly. What is necessary is these curriculums are not the same for all students, so
there should be different levels for different ages and abilities. Our curriculum should Include
social and personal problems of the students and their experience and taking social action on
real problems. This type of curriculums is put to vanish the main tragic social problems like
violence, hunger, international terrorism, inflation, and inequality. Being aware of these main
problems can reconstruct the society to be a global with less problems. Moreover, we should
have democratic ideals about the role of school as a fundamental institution in modern society
by constructing new ideas, concepts, and meanings. I am sure it and the curriculum that
challenge unequal power relationship in the society are very important to build this global
society. Examine the connections between language, power and knowledge would be very
useful. Transforming relationships, reasoning, and acting responsibly too and this is what called
today critical literacy. The last curriculum that works with the field of society is the analysis of
languages histories, and cultures. ( Reconstructivism Philosophy )
Teaching Methods
There are some teaching methods that I believe strongly they are should be used to achieve our
educational philosophy purposes. One of them, human mind is limited and directed by Allah.
So, whatever is the level of knowledge we reach, we still know nothing as Allah said in the Holly
Quran. Also, we believe in self-study by reasoning, seek knowledge, and conduct the

4. rationalization of things. Practical application of knowledge and divine intuition is important
too. And divine intuition could be found in using inductive methods to learn about the physical
world and they are helped by divine revelation of the truth. We believe that learners should try
and Allah will help them to succeed. Since we decide to have a religious philosophy, we must
have Islamic ethics in the curriculum. These ethics we can find them in morals, teaching and
managing the classroom. For example, we as Muslims do not have any discrimination because
we are asked in our religion to be equal and rightful. ( Islamic Philosophy )
Experience-based and facts also have a great deal of concentration in our methods. Because,
we ask students to learn and ask educated experts to get the facts. ( Progressivism Philosophy )
We believe also problem-solving and problem detection is one of the main methods that must
be included in our curriculum. Because, one of our principles is every problem in this huge
universe has a solution, but it needs to be detected. Of course, there is another curriculum
which can be used to reconstruct the society and this curriculum is community needs and
reality. Computer simulation, role-playing, cooperative learning, internship, work-study
experience, and students’ autobiographies are activities that can be used to apply these
curriculums. ( Reconstructivism Philosophy )
Classroom Management
Classroom management is very important to have a perfect application for our philosophy. That
is why we put a great effort to manage it carefully. So, learning environment is characterized
with love and the teacher is looked as a guardian. As prophet Mohammed said ‘ you are all
guardians and every guardian is responsible of his or her citizen.’ So, teachers should be chosen
carefully because, not everybody can be a guardian. Also we believe that teachers are
mentioned as models for their students. So, they should control their behaviors and apply the
advice that they will give for their students. Otherwise, they will not listen to them and they will
think that their teachers are fake and bossy. ( Islamic Philosophy )
Creating a climate of inquiry would be so practical to apply this philosophy, but how? Teachers
should encourage students to question social assumptions and think about them seriously. We
believe that every new discovery was discovered by assuming and questioning about everything
around at that time. Examine social issues in mixed classroom organization and we do not mean
by mixing male and female, but it consists social class, race, etc. This classroom management is
very useful to be able to cover different social problems from different social classes or layers. (
Reconstructivism Philosophy )

5. Role of the Teacher
There are some characters that should be found on the teachers to be appropriate and fit with
our philosophy. Teachers must be well educated, transformational leaders, and shapers of the
new society that we are looking for. Also, they have to have some abilities like, examine his
thinking continuously, open to diversity, change agent, and being tolerant of ambiguity. If you
notice, we put strong conditions for being a teacher in our philosophy. Because, the role of
teachers is not teaching only, but there are teachers and guardians simultaneously. (
Reconstructivism Philosophy )
We consider teachers as inheritors of prophets' knowledge. They are fundamental participants
in our philosophy. And there no wonder, we were taught in Islam that teachers were about to
be messengers. However, we think also that there is a relationship between students and
teachers where teachers’ morals affect students’ behaviors. So, teachers should realize that
they must be sure that every element of their lives reflects that they have good morals. And
this will be as a motivation for the students to dream being as their teachers. They as Muslim
teachers think that they should deal with their students as brothers. ( Islamic Philosophy )
Evaluation
We believe that when teachers evaluate their students they should focus in the ability to think
critically, expose underlying assumptions and practices. Also, authentic assessment should have
a place in our evaluation. For example, formative evaluation, conferences and cooperation
between student and teacher, other students, administration, and community. ( Islamic
Philosophy )
Also, we believe that there are three elements when teachers come to evaluate should focus
on. One of them, behavior and it is evaluated by observation. Moreover, attitude which is
evaluated by self-report and thinking which is evaluated by tests. What important is teachers
should evaluate students fairly. ( Islamic Philosophy )