Representations of Islam and Arab Societies in Western Secondary Textbooks

Abstract

Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the textbooks in Arab and Islamic nation-states have been carefully critiqued for any content that Westerners view as promoting hate or violence against non-Muslims. Very little has been said, however, about the portrayals of Islamic and Arab society in Western textbooks. This report investigates the perspectives and ideologies concerning representations of Islam and Arab societies in textbooks worldwide, and specifically in Western countries' national education systems. Seventy-two textbooks from 15 Western countries and Israel were examined to investigate the included and excluded content related to Islam and Arab societies. This research found that those countries with either an immediate stake in the Middle East (e.g., Israel) or an immediate past stake in the region (e.g., the United Kingdom) were the most likely to include coverage of Islam and Arab societies in secondary textbooks. The major findings of this research, however, are that content related to contemporary Islam and Arab societies in Western secondary-level textbooks is overwhelmingly related to terrorism and terrorists, the Arab/Israeli conflict, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The majority of content related to contemporary Islam and Arab societies represents Muslims and their communities as: 1) socially, politically, and economically repressed; 2) religiously and ideologically oppressed; and 3) both typically and frequently violent.

No Muslim is just a Muslim: implications for education

“…One outcome of this 'revival' of Muslim identity is the growing attention to Islam and Muslims in education in the West. Education systems in most western countries now teach about Islam, though the mode of incorporation of 'Islam' varies (Jonker and Thobani, 2009;Aslan, 2013;Wiseman, 2014). In some cases, such as Germany and Austria, Islam is taught in public schools to Muslims, as a confessional teaching; in others, the United Kingdom, for example, Islam is part of religious education, but has a unique place among school subjects as its syllabus is developed locally; in France, there is no specific school subject that deals with religion so Islam (as any other religion) is not taught with any distinct teaching content but matters related to Islam and Muslims can be drawn upon in various subjects such as history and art (Berglund, 2015).…”

“I would rather be informed than misinformed”: critical conversations supporting transnational religious identity across time and space

“…The work shared here adds to ongoing scholarly conversation by examining how Muslim youth position themselves or are "being positioned in relation to questions of identity, nation, and belonging" (El-Haj and Bonet, 2011, p. 37), especially through their online interactions. We believe this is especially important for students who experience discrimination and negative depictions of their Muslim religious beliefs and practices, especially given that curricular materials used to teach Islam may be rooted in stereotypes (Wiseman, 2014) or perpetuate extremist views of Islam (Beydoun, 2018).…”

Descriptive Analysis of the Graphic Representations of Science Textbooks

“…The research territories may include the treatment of socio-scientific and controversial issues, analysis of representational information, portrayal and convey of knowledge (Orgill, 2013), nature of science (e.g., Abd-El-Khalick et al, 2017), gender issues (e.g., Yasin et al, 2012), comprehensibility of text (e.g., Kloser, 2016), language pattern (e.g., Muspratt and Freebody, 2013), demonstration of indigenous knowledge (Rillero, 2013), and cultural and religious sensibility (e.g., Wiseman, 2014). Various forms of analytical tools have been developed: questionnaires, rubrics, grids, criteria, rating scheme, protocols, and coding of the indicators.…”