Abstract
The author argues that teachers’ positive work in the education of Muslim students needs to be emphasized and their voices contextualized and critically engaged. He problematizes notions that have been circulating in the public sphere around the education of Muslims in western contexts (racism, Islamophobia, school curricula that ignore Muslim perspectives and contributions) by simultaneously acknowledging and refuting them. He contextualizes these issues by linking them to what education means in the context of intensified communication between diverse peoples, multiple perspectives and globalization. He ends by highlighting the data’s implications for research, policies and practices in education as well as for teachers’ training in Canada and other pluralistic societies.
Résumé
L’auteur fait valoir que le travail réalisé par les enseignants dans l’éducation des élèves musulmans doit être mis en valeur et que leurs discours doivent être contextualisés et utilisés de manière critique. Il remet en question certaines notions qui ont été soulevées dans la sphère publique au sujet de l’éducation des musulmans dans les sociétés occidentales (tels par exemple, le racisme, l’islamophobie ou un curriculum qui ignorerait les perspectives et les contributions musulmanes) en montrant à la fois comment elles peuvent être fondées mais présenter des limites. Il situe également ces enjeux en montrant leurs relations avec l’éducation dans un contexte d’intensification du dialogue entre les peuples, de promotion des perspectives multiples et de globalisation. Enfin, l’auteur illustre l’impact de ses données sur la recherche, les politiques et les pratiques en éducation ainsi que sur la formation des enseignants au Canada et dans d’autres sociétés pluralistes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abou El Fadl, Kh. (2005). The great theft: wrestling Islam from the extremists. San Francisco: Harper.
Abu El-Haj, T. R. (2002). Contesting the politics of culture, rewriting the boundaries of inclusion: Working for social justice with Muslim and Arab communities. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 33(3), 308–316.
Abu El-Hajj, Th. (2006). Race, politics, and Arab American youth. Educational Policy, 20(1), 13–34.
Abukhattala, I. (2004). The new bogeyman under the bed: image formation of Islam in the western school curriculum and media. In J. Kincheloe & S. Steinberg (Eds.), The miseducation of the West: how schools and the media distort our understanding of the Islamic world (pp. 153–170). Westport: Praeger.
Adams, M. (2007). The surprising triumph of Canadian pluralism. Toronto: Penguin.
Aga Khan IV. (2006). Remarks by His Highness on the occasion of the signing of the funding agreement for the global centre for pluralism. Ottawa, Canada. 25 October, 2006. Ottawa , 2006. Retrieved June 3, 2009 from www.akdn.org/speeches/2006oct25.html.
Alladin, I. (1996). Racism in Canadian schools. Canada: Harcourt Brace.
Amin, N., Dei, G., & Lordan, M. (2006). (Eds.). The poetics of anti-racism. Greenwood Publishing.
Apple, M. (2001). Educating the "right" way: Markets, standards, God, and inequality. New York: Routledge.
Azmi, S. (2001). Muslim educational institutions in Toronto, Canada. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Carfax.
Banks, J. (2006). Multicultural education and global citizenship. In J. Banks (Ed.), Cultural diversity and education. foundations, curriculum and teaching (pp. 22–38). Boston: Pearson.
Case, R. (1999). Global education: It’s largely a matter of perspective. In R. Case & P. Clark (Eds.), The Canadian anthology of social studies: issues and strategies for teachers (pp. 75–83). Vancouver: Pacific Education.
CBC News (2007). Canada’s Muslims, an international comparison. February 13.2007. Retrieved July 27, 2009 from http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/islam/muslim-survey.html.
Chan, E. (2006). Teacher experience of culture in the curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(2), 161–176.
CIE: Council on Islamic Education. (1995). Teaching about Islam and Muslims in the public school classrooms. (3rd. edition, 7th printing). California: Library of Congress cataloguing-in-Publications Data.
Collet, B. (2007). Islam, national identity and public secondary education: perspectives from Somali Diaspora in Toronto. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 10(2), 131–157.
Cristillo, L. A. (2008). Religiosity, education and civic belonging: Muslim youth in New York City public schools. A research report. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.
Daun., H. & Walford, G. (2004) (Eds.). Educational strategies among Muslims in the context of globalization. Leiden: Brill.
Douglass, S., & Shaikh, M. (2004). Defining Islamic education. Differentiation and application. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 7(1), 5–18.
Doumato, E., & Starrett, G. (2007). Teaching Islam. Textbooks and religion in the Middle East. Boulder: Riener Publishers.
Elton, S. (2006). The many meanings of Muslim. Toronto Starr, August 19, 2006.
Fatah, T. (2008). Chasing a mirage: the tragic illusion of Islamic state. Mississauga: Wiley.
Ghuman, P. (1994). Asian teachers in British schools: a qualitative study. European Journal of Teacher Education, 17(3), 171–186.
Green, J. (2009). Islam: Here and now. Surrounded by suspicion and ambivalence, Ottawa Muslims wonder, when will we belong? And on whose terms? The Ottawa Citizen. August 21, 2009. Retrieved October 8, 2009 from http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Islam+Here/1919637/story.html.
Haddad, Y. (2002). (Ed.). Muslims in the west: from sojourners to citizens. Oxford: Oxford University press.
Halstead, M. (1997). Muslims and sex education. Journal of Moral Education, 26(3), 317–331.
Hargreaves, A. (2003). Teaching in the knowledge society. Education in the Age of insecurity. New York: Teachers College Press.
Henry, A. (1996). Five black women teachers’ critique of child-centered pedagogy: Possibilities and limitations of opposing standpoints. Curriculum Inquiry, 26(4), 363–384.
Jackson, R. (2002) (Ed.). International perspectives on citizenship, education and religious diversity. London: Routledge.
Kassam, T. (2003). Teaching religion in the twenty-first century. In B. Wheeler (Ed.), Teaching Islam (pp. 191–215). New York: Oxford University Press.
Kassam, A. (2007). Locating identity and gender construction in a post 9/11 world; the case of Hijabi girl. Intercultural Education, 18(4), 355–359.
Kincheloe, J., & Steinberg, S. (1997). Changing multiculturalism. Buckingham, UK and Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Lynch, S. (2007, May 31). Police finds Gilbert teen innocent in bomb scare. East Valley Tribune.com. Retrieved July 11, 2009 from http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/90694.
McLaughlin, Terence H., O’Keefe S. J., Joseph, O’Keeffe, B. (2005) ( Eds.). The Contemporary Catholic School: Context, Identity and Diversity. London: Taylor and Fracis Group.
Mahjanovich, S. (2008). Globalization, education reforms and immigrant students in Canada. In J. Zajda, L. Davies, & S. Mahjanovich (Eds.), Comparative and global pedagogies equity, access and democracy in education (pp. 124–141). Netherlands: Springer.
Mahon, J. (2006). Under the invisibility cloak? Teacher understanding of cultural difference. Intercultural Education, 17(4), 391–405.
Memon, N. (2009). From protest to praxis: A history of Islamic schools in North America. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. University of Toronto.
Merry, M. (2005). Social exclusion of Muslim youth in Flemish and French speaking Belgian schools. Chicago: Comparative Education Review, 49(1), 1–22.
Milligan, J. (2005). Islamic identity, postcoloniality, and education policy. Schooling and ethno-religious conflict in the southern Philippines. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan.
Moghissi, H., Rahnema, S., & Goodman, M. (2009). Diaspora by design: Muslims in Canada and beyond. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Moore, J. (2006). Teaching about Islam in secondary schools: curricular and pedagogical considerations. Equity and Excellence in Education, 39, 279–286.
Morgan, D. (2007). Poll finds U.S. Muslims support for suicide attacks. Retrieved June 11, 2008 from http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2244293620070522.
Niyozov, S. (1995). Controversy as a strategy for teaching Social Studies in Pakistani classrooms. Unpublished M.Ed. Thesis. Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development.
Niyozov, S. (2001). Understanding teaching in post-Soviet, rural, mountainous Tajikistan. Case studies of teachers’ life and work. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Toronto.
Niyozov, S. (2007). Funding Islamic schools: Canadian and international perspectives. Paper presented at the Reserach Symposum of the department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning. Ontarion Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
Niyozov, S., & Memon, N. (2006). Exploring the educational aspirations of Muslims in Ontario’s schools: An education roundtable. Comparative, International Education Society’s Newsletter. 142. Retrieved June 13, 2008 from http://www.cies.us/newsletter/sept%2006/Niyozov.htm.
Niyozov, S., & Pluim, G. (2009). Teachers’ perspectives on the education of their Muslim students. A missing voice in Muslim education research. Curriculum Inquiry, 39(5), 6–37677. forthcoming.
Panjwani, F. (2005). Agreed syllabi and un-agreed values: religious education and missed opportunities for fostering social cohesion. British Journal of Sociology of Educational Studies, 53(3), 375–393.
Parker-Jenkins, M., Hartas, D., & Irving, B. (2005). In good faith. Schools, religion and public funding. Hampshire: Ashgate.
Pew Research Center. (2007). Muslim Americans: middle class and mostly mainstream. A survey report. Available at http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/muslim-americans.pdf.
Ramadan, T. (2004). Western Muslims and the future of Islam. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sarroub, L. (2005). All American Yemeni girls: being Muslim in a public school. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Seljuk, S., & Fine, M. (2008). Muslim American youth: understanding hyphenated identities through multiple methods. New York: New York University Press.
Sewal, G. (2003). Islam and the textbooks. A report of the American Textbook Council Middle East Quarterly Summer 2003. Retrieved January 2008, from http://www.meforum.org/article/559.
Siddique, H. (2006). Being Muslim. Toronto: Grunwood.
TDSB (Toronto District School Board). (2000). Guidelines and procedures for the accommodation of religious requirements, practices, and observances. Toronto: TDSB.
The Environics Survey (2007). In depth: Canada’s Muslims. An international comparison. Retrieved June 14, 2009 from http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/islam/muslim-survey.html.
Trichur, R. (2003). Islam and Toronto public schools: A case of contradictions in Canada’s multicultural policy. Unpublished master’s thesis, Carlton University, Ottawa.
Van Driel, B. (2004). (Ed.). Confronting Islamophobia in educational practice. Staffordshire, England/Sterling, USA: Trentham.
Wheeler, B. (2003). What can’t be left out: the essentials of teaching Islam as religion. In B. Wheeler (Ed.), Teaching Islam (pp. 3–21). New York: Oxford University Press.
Yusif, A. (2008). Muslims in Canada: A question of identity. Ottawa: Legas.
Zine, J. (2001). Muslim youth in Canadian schools: education and the politics of religious identity. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 32(4), 399–423.
Zine, J. (2008). Canadian Islamic schools. Unraveling the politics of faith, gender, knowledge, and identity. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Zogby, J. (2004). Muslims in the American public square: Shifting political winds and fallouts from 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Full report available online at http://www.projectmaps.com/AMP2004report.pdf.
I would like to thank Dr. Al-Naaz Kassam from Toronto District School Board for her support in preparing and editing this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Niyozov, S. Teachers and Teaching Islam and Muslims in Pluralistic Societies: Claims, Misunderstandings, and Responses. Int. Migration & Integration 11, 23–40 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-009-0123-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-009-0123-y