Supporting educators to introduce dialogic Halaqah into their classrooms: conceptual change through online professional development

This paper reports a pilot course for an online professional development model for Muslim educators seeking to renew their practice using Islamic educational thought. The emerging model involves building an international professional learning community across contexts, phases and subjects, to generate professional dialogic learning that explores foundational Islamic educational concepts and renews attendant practices in contemporary educational settings. The model is presented and then evaluated through researching an online course reviving the traditional pedagogy of halaqah and enhancing its dialogic dimensions. Changes in educators’ understandings of key concepts, that is, education from an Islamic worldview, dialogic halaqah and shakhsiyah Islamiyah are reported. Findings show that the structured support in thinking through classroom practice in relation to these key concepts, and the international professional dialogue across contexts generated by the course, deepened educator understandings and, in many instances, galvanised renewed purpose and stronger dialogic practices. • Professional development model drawing on Islamic educational thought is proposed • Model designed to generate deep conceptual change and educator agency through a PLC • Model evaluated through researching online PD on dialogic halaqah (learning circle) • Reports educators' conceptual changes on dialogic halaqah and Islamic personhood • Proposed PD model can support decolonial educational renewal in Muslim contexts