Gender in education from the viewpoint of Islamic sociology

This research paper investigated the factors and consequences of including gender in official educational system with an Islamic sociological approach. In the model assumed in this paper Islamic sociology, without claiming to have the unique feature of the experimental methods and statistical techniques distinguished from current sociological approaches mainly in terms of ontological and epistemological foundations as well as theoretical aspects including explanatory, interpretive, and normative aspects. Through the main discussions of this paper comparison of Islamic approaches with competing ones was provided. The major topics of discussion, presented in this paper, were opportunity for scientific progress; educational content and the structure of educational institutes; review of sociological views in particular feminist approaches and finally Islamic views. This study showed that Islamic approach with attributing equal value to acquiring knowledge by both men and women and assuming some natural differences between them along with their many common features has not disregarded the impact of natural differences of men and women in its causal explanation of gender differences in education in one hand, and has prescribed some of these differences due to their positive social functions in the other hand.