ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the theoretical and pedagogical framework of Critical Religious Education and Variation Theory for Islamic Religious Education. Critical Religious Education offers an ideal theoretical approach to Islamic Religious Education because of taking the ultimate, ontological truth claims of religions seriously as opposed to liberal/constructivist religious education as well as helping students to develop religious literacy through which they can gain a deeper understanding of their faith in an attentive and critical manner. The author suggests that Variation Theory can provide religious education teachers with opportunities to create necessary conditions for effective learning through identifying what students already know about a religious phenomenon and expanding their knowledge through engagement with diverse, and often, contested accounts of this phenomenon represented by diverse religious and secular worldviews. The first section reviews the Critical Religious Education approach with regard to its theoretical background and main principles. In the next sections, the Variation Theory and phenomenographic research are introduced as the pedagogical approaches of this study. The last section presents a brief overview of the learning study model, through which the theories of Critical Religious Education and Variation Theory are put into practice in the actual classroom context.
