During the last 35 years Islamic or Muslim schools have sprung up in Europe, North America and Australia. Reasons for the establishment of these schools generally pertain to Islamic faith and quality of education. In the main the desire of parents is for their children to both maintain their faith and be positive participants in and contributors to society. In the struggle for legitimacy in regards to both the Muslim and wider communities there is a tendency for schools to concentrate on academic results and the formalities of Islamic faith rather than a holistic quality education for all. The schools are struggling to achieve the goals for which they were established. Researchers in the field argue that there is a need for these schools to examine pedagogical issues rather than just the addition of Islamic subjects and curriculum Islamisation. This paper presents the findings of PhD research into the Hadith literature and suggests that a fertile synthesis of the pedagogical principles of the Islamic tradition, particularly prophetic principles, and the pedagogical principles of contemporary educational thought, is the first major step required for these goals to be achieved. Such a synthesis is consistent with the manifestation of Prophetic principles throughout the history of the Muslim world and would give an explicit Islamic pedagogical framework for teachers, many of whom have also come from vastly differing education systems. Such a framework applied across all subjects allows students the opportunity to confidently experience an integrated approach to knowledge consistent with their Islam.
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