Original title: Islamic Teacher Education Model for European Primary Schools: The Case of the Islamic University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam (IUASR)
Cemal YILMAZ · September 2026
Training new teachers requires bringing together hands-on skills, thinking about one's own practice, building a professional identity, and real classroom experience. It can be hard to fit all these pieces together, especially when a school also has a specific religious mission and must follow strict government rules. Researchers studied an accredited bachelor's degree at the Islamic University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam, the first Islamic primary teacher education programme accredited in the Netherlands. They reviewed documents to see how the school planned its courses, training, mentoring, and testing. They found that the programme successfully combines faith-based values with national education standards. To explain how this works, the researchers created a model called INTEM. This model links five parts: educational philosophy, professional competence, reflective learning, identity formation, and workplace training. Together, these parts guide and support trainees so they can meet official national requirements while staying true to their school's core mission.
Imagine cooking a family meal where everyone has different dietary needs. You start with a basic recipe everyone can eat, but you also adjust for allergies, preferences, and traditions. Now suppose the kitchen is inspected by health officials who check that the meal meets all safety rules, while your family still expects it to taste like home. In this paper, the teacher training programme is like that meal: it combines a clear educational purpose (the family traditions) with professional skills and national requirements (the health rules), all taught through reflection and practice in real schools.
This matters because faith-based schools in Europe must meet national standards while staying true to their values. The programme shows it is possible to integrate religious principles without sacrificing professional quality. For Muslim communities and other mission-driven educators, it offers a concrete model of how to design teacher education that satisfies both religious identity and government regulation.
The abstract does not compare INTEM against other teacher education models or measure its effectiveness in producing better teachers. It is a single case study, so the model's transferability to other national contexts or non-Islamic programmes is not tested. The study relied on document analysis and qualitative methods; quantitative outcomes such as student performance or retention are not reported.
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Islamic Teacher Education Model for European Primary Schools: The Case of the Islamic University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam (IUASR) — Cemal YILMAZ — EdArXiv — doi:10.35542/osf.io/qwzsf_v1
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.