Teachers’ Perspectives on the Education of Muslim Students: A Missing Voice in Muslim Education Research

Abstract

This article builds on an extensive review of the comparative and international literature on teachers' perspectives on the education of Muslim students in public, Catholic, and Islamic schools. Bringing the teachers' voices and practices to the attention of researchers, policy makers, and general readers, the authors emphasize the centrality of teachers' roles in the education of Muslim students, highlight the constructive and positive work that teachers do, and point out the challenges they face and the support they need in fulfilling their moral and intellectual duties. We situate teachers' perspectives in the context of the upsurge of global interest in Islam and Islamic education and the increase in Muslims' challenges to multiculturalism and the existing education system dominated largely by Eurocentric, Hellenic-JudeoChristian heritage and modernist values. The article examines and challenges the research, media and publicly produced contradictory and overlapping statements about Western teachers' work with Muslim students. Predominantly pessimistic, these pronouncements implicate teachers in (1) racism and Islamophobia; (2) an unwillingness and inability to include Muslims' historical and contemporary contributions and perspectives into the existing school curricula; (3) a lowering of expectations about their Muslim students and channelling them into non-academic streams; (4) cultural and religious insensitivity; and (5) an overall lack of knowledge about Islam and Muslims. The article problematizes these observations by engaging with them conceptually and methodologically, and by bringing counter-points from research. The article concludes by proposing a balanced portrayal of teachers' work and the inclusion of teachers' perspectives to improve policy, research, and practice in educating Muslim students within a multicultural society.

Finnish Teachers’ Attitudes About Muslim Students and Muslim Student Integration

“…There are those who criticize Western teachers of Muslim students for being insensitive to Islam and Muslims and for lack of knowledge, which manifests in racist attitudes, Islamophobia, Eurocentrism, and low expectations of Muslim students (see, for example, Abukhattala 2004;McCreery, Jones, and Holmes 2007;Zine 2001). However, there are others who consider this research literature polemical, one-sided, and failing to represent the teachers by focusing mainly on the perspectives of students and their parents (Niyozov 2010;Niyozov and Pluim 2009). Agirdag, van Houtte, and van Avermaet (2012) have presented empirical evidence showing that teacher-pupil relationships have great importance for ethnic minority students' self-esteem, an outlook that could affect academic performance.…”

Teachers and Teaching Islam and Muslims in Pluralistic Societies: Claims, Misunderstandings, and Responses

“…Below, I will examine some of the misunderstandings about teachers of Muslim students, such as teachers' racist and Islamophobic sentiments, their Eurocentrism and exclusion of Muslim's intellectual and cultural contributions, their legitimacy to educate Muslim students as the culturally different, and their insensitivity to the need to accommodate Muslim students' religious practices and rituals. I both present teachers' voices from the aforementioned data sources, and position these claims against the teachers and the teachers' work in the current socio-political and educational context of North America, dominated by the narrative of security (Niyozov and Pluim 2009). I end by highlighting the implications of these findings for policy and practice of teaching and teacher development for the twenty-first century's pluralistic world.…”

Preadolescents’ gendered spiritual identities and self-regulation

“…Accordingly, as youth continue to share space in the classroom with increasingly culturally diverse backgrounds (Nesbitt 1998); as suggested by Niyozov and Pluim (2009), it is important for educators to promote and develop inclusive and balanced educational practices that promote understanding and acceptance of all cultural and spiritual histories incorporating the role gender plays in this interaction.…”

“…Few researchers have explored the role of language and culture in the development of gendered self-regulation and spirituality. Given the diverse cultural and faith histories of youth within the pluralistic Canadian population (Bosacki 2005;Niyozov and Pluim 2009;Sweet, 1997), and the stigma that may be associated with particular aspects of gender as mentioned earlier, or being labeled a spiritual person, we will examine how such labels may influence some young adolescents' social relationships and their ability to develop self-regulatory behavior.…”