CONTRIBUTION OF ISLAMIYYA TEACHERS IN PROMOTING MORALITY AMONG MUSLIM YOUTH (A CASE STUDY OF UNGOGO L.G.A. KANO STATE)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. 1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Morals are caught, not taught. They take shape not through precept, but rather through the uncountable ordinary and informal contacts we have with other people. No single event or deed "causes" us to become patient or impatient, or attentive or inattentive to others. We cannot say, "John became a patient person last Tuesday morning," although that may have been the first occasion when we recognized that virtue in him. Rather, these dispositions emerge unevenly, if they do so at all - through fits and starts, as we act in environments such as the home, the school, the community, (Chein, 1972). Moreover, the process can work both ways. Over time, a patient person can lose that virtue and become impatient. Regardless of which way the process goes, however, the point is that it cannot be forced. It cannot be preset according to a timetable or schedule. Character and personal disposition materialize over time. They take form through potentially any contacts an individual has with other people. This familiar viewpoint serves as my point of departure in the present article. My central premise will be that everyday classroom life is saturated with moral meaning. In particular, I will show how even the most routine aspects of teaching convey moral messages to students. I will suggest that those messages may have as important an impact on them as the formal curriculum itself (Chein, 1972). The latter includes moral education curricula centered upon values clarification, moral reasoning, democratic deliberation, and the like. These curricular endeavors can benefit students, and, by extension, the larger society. However, I will suggest that it is crucial to heed from a moral point of view what takes place in the routine affairs of the school and classroom. Those affairs can strongly influence students' character and personal disposition. It should be focused in particular on how teachers, through their everyday conduct and practice, can create environments in which students can "catch" positive ways of regarding and treating other people and their efforts.

In time, we should begin to see how their classroom work was infused with moral significance. We will illuminate that significance by discussing their everyday classroom teaching. We will discuss ways in which they begin a lesson; how they handle the need for turn-taking among students; what their typical style of working is like; and how these routines contribute to the learning environment that eventually emerges in the classroom. These activities are not usually thought of as having moral meaning. They are normally described as issues of classroom management, curricular focus, instructional method, and so forth. However, I will show that in actual practice, they embody ongoing moral lessons about how to treat other people, how to treat oneself, and how to regard the process of education.

1. 1. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

A look at the state of education gives one little or no reason for celebration. The behaviours and attitudes of students, teachers, and parents and even government towards education and the over-all education management have left much to be desired. The level of decay, neglect, delinquency, frivolity, and moral decadence, ignorance, vice, illiteracy, crass stupidity, violence, apathy, callousness, and gross mismanagement that have engulfed our youths are sources of worry. The entire situation is appalling, pathetic, shocking, complicated and intractable. This ugly trend makes one wonder aloud: who is to blame; teachers, students, parents/guardians, the curriculum, or the Nigerian government? What should be done to create a positive change? What are other factors that contribute to the bad state of our secondary education? Why is it that everybody complains about most students’ bad behaviour, poor performances, uncouth attitude, low mentality, and the corresponding poor parenting, incompetence of teachers and ineffectiveness of government, yet virtually nothing is done about all these?

1.3 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The major purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of Islamiyya teachers in promoting morality among Muslim Youth. Other general objectives of the study are

1. To develop an understanding of parents, teachers and students interpretation of morality and moral education among the Muslim Youths.
2. To examine the level of teaching Muslim youths Islamic manners and etiquette in relation to themselves and others.
3. To examine whether the Islamiyya teachers have emphasized about the Muslim youths being of good morals.
4. To examine the roles of Islamiyya teachers in promoting good morals among the Muslim youths.
5. To examine the effect of Islamiyya teachers not teaching the Muslim good moral values.
6. To recommend ways the Islamiyya teachers can improve on promoting morality among the Muslim Youths
   1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What are the ways to develop an understanding of parents, teachers and students interpretation of morality and moral education among the Muslim Youths?

2. What are the level of teaching Muslim youths Islamic manners and etiquette in relation to themselves and others?

3. What are the ways to know whether the Islamiyya teachers have emphasized about the Muslim youths being of good morals?

4. What are the roles of Islamiyya teachers in promoting good morals among the Muslim youths?

1. What are the effects of Islamiyya teachers not teaching the Muslim good moral values?
2. What are the ways the Islamiyya teachers can improve on promoting morality among the Muslim Youths?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

H0: There Islamiyya teachers do not significantly contribution in promoting morality among Muslim youth

 H1: Islamiyya teachers significantly contribution in promoting morality among Muslim youth.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is significant at two levels: theory and practice. At the level of theory, this is an addition to the extent literature on education and suggestion on how to solve Moral problems. At the level of practice, it is hoped that the suggestions made in this work will help education policy makers, curriculum planners, Islamiyya teachers and Muslim Youths to make necessary adjustments that will turn the future of Islamic Religion. Teachers, parents or guardians, students (Muslim Youths) alike will benefit from it as this concerns religious studies and its contribution in promoting morality among the youths. It will also determine the role of Islamic studies on the Moral upbringing of the Muslim youth.

1.7    SCOPE OF THE STUDY 

The study is based on the contribution of Islamiyya teachers in promoting morality among Muslim youth.

1.8 LIMITATION OF STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Islam: The act of surrendering to God by spreading the religion of the Muslims, a monotheistic faith regarded as revealed through Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah.

Teacher: Defining a teacher is easy but to elaborate what a teacher means could be daunting because a teacher is a complex person in one body with diverse roles that makes it more complicated. A teacher is someone who imparts knowledge. But setting aside that definition of a teacher, a teacher is a person of different responsibilities and jobs blended into one. One could not be a teacher without being able to handle a lot of responsibilities and a flexible personality to adapt to different situations. A teacher needs to have all the positive traits available; patient, kind, loving, caring, honest, real, down to earth, friendly, calm, alert, smart, etc., because she has a lot of responsibilities to take care of and must be able to adapt to different personalities and situations around her/his. As an educator a teacher imparts knowledge to people. She/he teaches them to read and write. She explains how problems are solved and explains the lesson to the students.

Morality: Morality is antecedent to ethics: it denotes those concrete activities of which ethics is the science. It may be defined as human conduct in so far as it is freely subordinated to the ideal of what is right and fitting. The relation of morality to religion has been a subject of keen debate during the past century. In much recent ethical philosophy it is strenuously maintained that right moral action is altogether independent of religion. Such is the teaching alike of the Evolutionary, Positivist, and Idealist schools. And an active propaganda is being carried on with a view to the general substitution of this independent morality for morality based on the beliefs of Theism. On the other hand, the Church has ever affirmed that the two are essentially connected, and that apart from religion the observance of the moral law is impossible. This, indeed, follows as a necessary consequence from the Church's teaching as to the nature of morality. It is admitted that the moral law is knowable to reason: for the due regulation of our free actions, in which morality consists, is simply their right ordering with a view to the perfecting of our rational nature.

Youth: Youth is the time of life when one is young, and often means the time between childhood and adulthood (maturity). It is also defined as "the appearance, freshness, vigor, and spirit, characteristic of one who is young".