Dr Sahin's work has strong international focus and aims to establish Islamic Education Studies as an interdisciplinary field of scholarly inquiry, empirical research and professional development. His main areas of research interests include:

• Traditions of education in Islam and their theological, philosophical, spiritual and pedagogic foundations;
• Islamic Empirical and Practical Theology;
• Educational Hermeneutics in Muslim core sources;
• Education and Identity formation among British Muslim youth;
• Teacher Training and Faith-based schooling within British Muslim communities;
• Muslim Seminaries and the training of faith leaders in contemporary Europe;
• Modern Islamic pedagogies and intercultural and interreligious education;
• Developing educational standards for Muslim supplementary schooling;
• Teaching of Islam within inclusive RE and the wider mainstream curriculum;
• Educational Reform within contemporary minority/majority Muslim contexts

Dr Sahin is a member of Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU) at Warwick. He is involved in collaborative projects across the department focused on critical/comparative pedagogy, interdisciplinary study of education in cross cultural settings, and empirical research projects integrating psychology of religion and education studies.

Dr. Sahin comes from an Islamic Studies, Theology, Educational Studies and Social Sciences background. He has conducted research on religious identity formation among British Muslim youth and worked on educational strategies to address the impact of religious extremism within Muslim minority and majority contexts. Dr. Sahin has developed the first recognised Masters' level degree programme on Islamic education within the UK higher education system. He has taught at the universities of Birmingham, Aberdeen, and the Gulf University for Science and Technology (Kuwait). Before taking up his appointment at Warwick, Dr. Sahin worked as a Head of Research and Senior Lecturer at the Markfield Institute of Higher education. He served as a visiting professor (2009/10 Academic Year) at the Institut d'Etudes de l'Islam et des Sociétés du Monde Musulman at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Dr Sahin is a member of International Seminar on Religious Education and Values (ISREV) and has recently been appointed as a Visiting Professor the UIN State Islamic University, Jakarta Indonesia.

Publications

Dr Sahin has produced numerous scholarly publications on Islam and Education. His most recently published book is entitled: New Directions in Islamic Education: Pedagogy and Identity Formation (Kube Academic, Leicester, Rev Imprint 2014).

Dr Sahin is working on two book projects at the moment:

• Critical Issues in Islamic Education (Routledge)
• Islamic Education: international perspectives (Brill)

He is currently editing a special issue for the open access journal, Religions, entitled "Islamic Education in Contemporary World: Traditions, Rearticulations & Transformation".

For the details of his scholarly contributions please view his CV here.

A generous donation by the Randeree Charitable Trust has enabled the establishment of the Readership in Islamic Education at Warwick University. The initiative is inspired by a shared transformative educational vision and signifies a model collaboration between community and university in contributing effectively to civic engagement, social cohesion and educational inclusion within contemporary British society. Through its distinct taught programme and research activities, the post aims to contribute to educational capacity building within the Muslim communities in the UK, Europe and wider world. This will create opportunities for intercultural and interfaith dialogue and public understanding of Islam.

The initiative aims to generate new knowledge and insights on Islam's heritage of critical/reflective education and, through a creative dialogue with contemporary educational and pedagogic studies, facilitate opportunities of encounter, exchange and engagement among diverse groups of Muslim educators and the wider communities of educational researchers and practitioners. The aim is to disseminate values of transformative education to inspire positive change within Muslim communities and wider society. This vision of educational empowerment is intended to contribute significantly to the development of long term educational policy in addressing contemporary challenges such as the impact of extremism on Muslim communities and wider society.