Virtue Ethics, Education, and Mental Health in Jordan

Istijarah is an innovative project that develops and integrates a culturally grounded curriculum and pedagogy into Jordanian public schools, drawing on indigenous virtue ethics to address and alleviate pressing mental and social health challenges among low-income and refugee youth. By embedding these values directly within the national curriculum, Istijarah empowers students to cultivate inner resilience while strengthening communal bonds. Building on extensive research, international collaboration, and participatory design, the program is now being piloted in twelve schools across Jordan through a comprehensive teacher-training program, generating early insights into its impact on student well-being and character development.

 

 

Project Description

 

The most severe health issues affect both the body and the soul. Such issues are especially difficult to navigate among low-income and refugee youth in the Arab region, where humanitarian and governmental organizations prioritize material needs over spiritual matters. As a result, these communities now face mental health crises, including depression and PTSD, as well as the exacerbation of anxiety and fear. Mental health crises, in turn, have led to increases in domestic abuse and violence; religious and sectarian divides; and the rise of crime.

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This project confronted mental health crises in the Arab region by convening around and developing an Istijarah-based character development approach. The concept of Istijarah, or the ethical response of accommodating those in need, offered the language and practice with which to inwardly cultivate virtues while outwardly building community. The character traits associated with the concept are humility, hospitality, kindness, and fraternity. While it predates Islam, Istijarah was theologically inflected in the Qur’an and now influences fields as varying as law, finance, and culture.

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The project convened an international conference, built around participatory rather than didactic practices—including hosting workshops and seminars—and created an advisory committee to guide its work. It also developed Istijarah and a related pedagogy for teacher training in predominantly low-income and refugee schools, and disseminated research findings in a plethora of academic, governmental, and public outlets. Istijarah is composed of a curriculum that includes material drawn from historical, contemporary, and narrative texts, as well as media from Islamic and Arab sources. The associated pedagogy includes seminar-style discussions, training exercises, and practices of inward reflection.

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Following that development phase, we are now undertaking our first large-scale pilot of a teacher-training program in Arabic, to be implemented in 12 public schools serving girls and boys of Jordanian, Palestinian, and Syrian origin. The pilot involves refining and testing pedagogical models, working on a curriculum that fits organically within the national framework, and documenting the process. The curriculum supplements the national syllabus with carefully crafted Arabic materials. The teacher-training workshops introduce innovative methods for teaching Istijarah, focusing on building an ethical relationship between self and other.

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Our team—composed of expert researchers and curriculum developers with experience in refugee education, literacy, and history—consults regularly with the advisory committee formed after the conference. We have identified partner schools and lead teachers in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, and have begun to train those teachers in the pilot modules.

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Implementation & Support:

• Two teachers per school are currently piloting the Istijarah lessons as part of their regular course.

• We convene termly reflection meetings where teachers share experiences, troubleshoot, and co-develop best practices.

• Ongoing support is provided via weekly office hours, email and phone consultations, and direct follow-up with school administrators and Ministry officials.

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Monitoring & Evaluation:

• Quantitative tracking of trained teachers, delivered lessons, and student reach.

• Qualitative interviews and participant-observation to capture teachers’ insights and students’ responses.

• Impact assessment focused on observable shifts in humility, hospitality, kindness, and fraternity among students, triangulated by classroom artifacts and statistical analysis.

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Project Outcomes​

 

Short-Term (Pilot Phase):

• A pioneering intervention demonstrating how social-health crises can be alleviated directly through virtue-based training.

• Baseline data on teacher uptake, lesson delivery, and immediate student engagement.

• Early indicators of increased confidence among students and educators in using local ethical language and Islamic virtue resources.

Medium-Term:

• Preparation for scaling: refining materials and protocols for Ministry of Education approval.

• Building a cadre of trained educators and documented best practices.

• Expansion into additional public and UN-agency schools across Jordan.

Long-Term:

• National adoption of the Istijarah curriculum through formal channels.

• Influence on international refugee-education programs (UNRWA, UNHCR).

• A paradigm shift in how virtue ethics frameworks are deployed to confront social-health crises—measured by replication studies, citations, and new funding streams.

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Istijarah’s pilot is now underway, and we look forward to sharing lessons learned, refining our approach, and working with partners to bring this transformative model to all corners of the region.