Teaching Strengths
Prof Mohamad Abdalla
Professor
School of Education
College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.
Professor Mohamad Abdalla AM is an internationally recognised scholar of Islamic Studies whose work advances the integration of Islamic intellectual traditions within contemporary higher education, policy, and public life. Over more than three decades, he has played a decisive role in institutionalising Islamic Studies across Australian universities, strengthening research capacity, academic governance, and global engagement. In 2020, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to education, particularly in the field of Islamic Studies.
Professor Abdalla has founded and led major national platforms for research and teaching. In 2006, he established the Griffith University Islamic Research Unit, which became a nationally significant centre for Higher Degree by Research training and scholarly engagement, attracting candidates who later assumed major leadership roles, including Anwar Ibrahim and Abdul Khalid Ibrahim. In 2008, he co-founded the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies, a strategic collaboration between the University of Melbourne, Griffith University, and Western Sydney University, contributing to the development of sustainable undergraduate and postgraduate programs across the sector. In 2016, he was invited by university leadership to establish the Centre for Islamic Thought and Education (CITE), where he continues to serve as Founding Director, leading research, professional learning, and international partnerships with schools, governments, and community organisations.
His research authority spans Islamic worldview and epistemology, tarbiyah, educator formation, leadership, Arabic language education, and civilisational exchange between Islamic and Western traditions. He has supervised more than 30 doctoral candidates and continues to cultivate emerging scholars working across education, theology, and society. His scholarship is widely recognised for combining classical sources with contemporary educational challenges, contributing to debates on renewal and the public role of Islam.
Professor Abdalla’s publications have helped shape international conversations on Islamic schooling and curriculum transformation. His authored and edited books include Wellbeing in Islamic Schools: Nurturing the Mind, Body and Soul; Curriculum Renewal for Islamic Education: Critical Perspectives on Teaching Islam in Primary and Secondary Schools; Leadership in Islam: Thoughts, Processes and Solutions in Australian Organizations; Islamic Schooling in the West: Pathways to Renewal; Islam and the Australian News Media; and the monograph Islamic Science: The Myth of the Decline Theory. Forthcoming volumes include Arabic Language Education in Muslim Minority Contexts; Islamic Schools of Distinction: Learning and Teaching Rooted in the Islamic Worldview; and The Heart of Islamic Education: Reclaiming Tarbiyah as Theory and Praxis.
Alongside his academic leadership, Professor Abdalla has been a prominent contributor to interfaith dialogue and national conversations on social cohesion, regularly collaborating with public institutions, media, and community bodies to support informed civic engagement.
His contributions have been recognised through numerous honours for scholarship, leadership, and community service.
Research
Professor Mohamad Abdalla AM’s research is situated at the intersection of Islamic intellectual traditions and contemporary Muslim realities, with a particular focus on education, law, ethics and civic life in plural societies. His work combines classical textual scholarship with empirical and policy-relevant research, positioning Islamic Studies as both an academically rigorous and publicly engaged discipline.
A central strand of his scholarship examines the history and philosophy of Islamic thought. His doctoral research critically challenged dominant “decline” narratives in the history of Islamic science, offering a re-reading of Ibn Khaldūn and later historiography that reframed the intellectual trajectory of Muslim civilisation. This work laid the foundation for his ongoing interest in epistemology, civilisational renewal (tajdīd), and the relationship between Islamic intellectual heritage and modernity.
A second major research stream focuses on Islamic education and pedagogy. Professor Abdalla has been at the forefront of developing evidence-based frameworks for Islamic schooling in Western contexts. His research explores key conceptual categories such as tarbiyah, taʿlīm, tadrīs and taʾdīb; curriculum renewal; teacher formation; learner engagement; Arabic language education; and whole-school transformation. Through funded partnerships with Islamic schools and systems, he has led large-scale renewal projects that integrate philosophical clarity, institutional reform and measurable educational outcomes.
He has also conducted influential research on Islamic law and ethics in minority contexts, including the application of Sharīʿah in secular societies, family law, domestic violence, radicalisation, and interfaith dialogue. His interdisciplinary work engages law, sociology, criminology and public policy, contributing to national debates on social cohesion, countering violent extremism, and the role of faith in public life.
Methodologically, Professor Abdalla employs a mixed approach that includes textual analysis of Qurʾānic and classical sources, qualitative and quantitative social research, curriculum design research, and community-engaged scholarship. His research is frequently collaborative and internationally networked, involving partnerships with scholars, governments, schools and community organisations.
His research leadership has attracted significant competitive funding, including major Commonwealth and university strategic grants, as well as multi-year school-based research contracts. He has supervised a large cohort of higher degree research students whose work spans Islamic pedagogy, leadership, law, minority identity, radicalisation, and interfaith relations, contributing to the consolidation of Islamic Studies as a recognised academic field in Australia.
Overall, Professor Abdalla’s research advances a coherent intellectual project: to articulate a principled, textually grounded and contextually responsive Islamic thought capable of contributing constructively to contemporary global and Australian societies.
Grants and Funding
Professor Mohamad Abdalla AM has secured and led major competitive grants and strategic funding initiatives that have significantly shaped the development of Islamic Studies and Islamic education in Australia. His funding record reflects both large-scale institutional leadership and targeted research engagement with schools, governments and community organisations.
In 2016, he was awarded a $3 million Vice-Chancellor’s Strategic Fund to establish the Centre for Islamic Thought and Education (CITE) at the University of South Australia. This strategic investment enabled the creation of a national research and teaching hub dedicated to Islamic thought, pedagogy and community engagement, including the development of accredited academic programs and higher degree research capacity.
Earlier, he played a foundational leadership role in securing $8 million in Commonwealth Government funding (2007–2010) for the establishment of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies (NCEIS), a multi-university consortium between Griffith University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Western Sydney. This funding positioned Islamic Studies as a nationally coordinated and federally supported academic field in Australia.
Professor Abdalla has also secured substantial school- and community-based research funding. Notably, he led a $700,000 whole-school renewal research project (2022–2025) with Malek Fahd Islamic School, focusing on systemic curriculum reform and educational transformation. Additional funded projects include research and review initiatives with Islamic schools, applied community programs supported by state government departments, and funded symposia and research projects addressing media representation, radicalisation, and social cohesion.
Between 2004 and 2010, he attracted significant scholarship and philanthropic funding to build research capacity in Islamic Studies, including multiple fully funded PhD scholarships supported by community organisations and international benefactors. These investments enabled the training of a new generation of scholars in Islamic Studies and related disciplines within Australian universities.
Across his career, Professor Abdalla has secured funding from federal and state governments, universities, international foundations, embassies, and community organisations. His grants portfolio demonstrates a distinctive combination of strategic institutional funding, competitive research grants, scholarship endowments, and community-engaged research contracts. Collectively, these funds have strengthened academic infrastructure, supported postgraduate training, advanced evidence-based Islamic education reform, and contributed to national conversations on religion, law and social cohesion.
Teaching
Professor Mohamad Abdalla AM has made a foundational contribution to the development of Islamic Studies and Islamic education in Australian higher education through innovative curriculum design, program leadership, and sustained excellence in teaching. His pedagogical work is distinguished by its integration of classical Islamic scholarship, critical inquiry, and contemporary social relevance.
He has designed and convened a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including Understanding Islam, Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, Islamic Law in a Changing World, Great Empires of Islamic Civilisation, Introduction to Sharīʿah, Islam in the Contemporary World, and advanced seminars in Islamic Studies. His courses are known for their intellectual rigour, historical depth, and engagement with contemporary ethical and civic debates.
As Founding Director of the Centre for Islamic Thought and Education (CITE), Professor Abdalla led the establishment of a Major in Islamic Studies, a Graduate Certificate in Islamic Education, and an Islamic Pedagogy Minor within Master of Teaching programs. These initiatives were designed not only to provide academic knowledge of Islam, but to form reflective educators and leaders capable of working confidently in plural, democratic societies.
At Griffith University, he played a central role in designing and developing complete curricula for the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies (NCEIS), contributing to nationally coordinated undergraduate and postgraduate offerings across multiple universities. His curriculum development included the creation of core units such as Great Texts of Islam, Islamic Scriptures, Philosophy and Law, and Islam and the Making of Europe, helping to institutionalise Islamic Studies as a recognised academic discipline in Australia.
Professor Abdalla is also an accomplished research supervisor. He has supervised numerous PhD, Masters and Honours students to completion across fields including Islamic pedagogy, Islamic law, radicalisation studies, minority identity, leadership, and interfaith relations. Many of his graduates have received academic distinction and progressed to senior academic, governmental and professional leadership roles.
His teaching philosophy is grounded in the concept of holistic formation, combining intellectual development, ethical reflection, and civic responsibility. He emphasises critical engagement with primary texts, dialogical learning, and the cultivation of intellectual confidence. Through classroom teaching, program design, and doctoral supervision, Professor Abdalla has helped shape a generation of scholars, educators and community leaders within Australia and internationally.
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Principal Supervisor | Challenging Epistemological Coloniality through a Taymiyyan Framework and an Ecology of Knowledges for an Islamic Pedagogy of Liberation | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Mr Moustafa Chehade |
| 2024 | Principal Supervisor | Character Education in the Islamic Tradition and Its Implementation in Australian Primary and Secondary Islamic Schools | - | Doctorate | Part Time | Mr Ali Arabaci |
| 2022 | Principal Supervisor | Developing a framework for teaching based on the principles of Kalam Theology | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Ms Amela Mahmic |
| 2018 | Principal Supervisor | Examining the emergence of Islamic Pedagogy in Australian Islamic Schools with implications for renewal. | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Mr Dylan Chown |
| 2018 | Co-Supervisor | Muslim millenials in Islamic school leadership: factors impacting experiences and expectations | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Ms Evla Han |
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