Farah Ahmed is Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She convenes the ‘Cultural, religious and philosophical traditions in educational dialogue’ strand of the Cambridge Educational Dialogue Research group. Her current project is: Rethinking Islamic education for British Muslim children: a philosophical investigation of personhood and dialogue in Islamic educational theory and an empirical study trialling dialogic halaqah to develop shakhsiyah Islamiyah. The empirical study has led to the founding of the online Islamic Educator Learning Community, an international teacher professional development and research exchange platform. Farah has published widely on holistic Islamic educational approaches.

In 2002, Farah co-founded Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation (ISF) which runs two full-time independent Islamic faith-schools. ISF grew out of homeschooling projects and for over twenty years, Farah has led the development of the Shakhsiyah Education Model, a holistic integrated approach to education that draws on classical Islamic educational thought and contemporary research. Farah served as head teacher for twelve years and is now Director of Education and Research and the lead developer of Shakhsiyah Halaqah and Holistic Thematic Curricula. She is the author of Principles of Shakhsiyah Education and Dialogic Halaqah: A guide for the Muslim educator.

Farah is Governing Body Fellow at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, Founding Fellow of the UK Chartered College of Teaching, and serves on various advisory boards.