ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a research-based approach to educational reform implemented in the project designed to reform the curriculum of madrasahs in Bosnia and Herzegovina initiated in 2017 and still ongoing. Analyses are based on the empirical data obtained during the implementation of the research-based reform, which combined quantitative with a qualitative approach, thus enabling interpretations of the ongoing processes and participants’ reflections. This approach to educational reform aimed to ground change measures in clear empirical indicators and to further the more active role of teachers. It combined research, training, counselling and design of innovative curriculum resources for madrasahs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The research procedures were integrated from the onset, examining multiple relevant aspects of madrasah education, including views from various actors—school-based and those coming from different parts of the society. Describing the process and outcomes of the recent madrasah curriculum reform, this chapter intends to affirm the importance of fostering teachers’ professional role and encouraging them to be change-makers, from one side, and the innovative potential of the research-based reform, from the other. Creating participatory and collaborative culture leading to generating well-founded inner innovations is especially important in the context of traditional schools such as madrasahs. However, former reforms of madrasahs in Bosnia and Herzegovina were designed by educational authorities and university teachers, which resulted in a complex content-based curriculum of high academic demands and poor adjustment to students’ needs and future professional roles. Teachers were expected to implement the measures with minimal prior involvement in the design and preparation. Therefore, the newly implemented curriculum reform approach brings an example of administering educational change based on recent trends in teacher professionalisation and preserving the values distinctive for the madrasah school system.
