Experiences of Middle-Class Muslim Mothers in American Schools: Practices and Challenges While Keeping the Faith

• In Event: Interrogating Decoloniality, Diversity, and Experience in Curriculum

Abstract

The current political atmosphere in the USA created the need for the negotiation and reconstruction of the Muslim-American identities. By seeing school-age Muslim students as an agent in the construction of Muslim-American identity, this study aimed to understand how Muslim mothers guide their children’s educational and extracurricular activities to form their multiple identities. For this purpose, eight middle class, Middle-Eastern Muslim mothers were recruited in a mid-size city in northeastern America. Based on qualitative data analysis, the findings revealed three themes: the multiple functions of education in Islamic upbringing, the religious transmission to scaffold Muslim identity, and indicators of microaggressions toward Muslims. This study addresses the growing necessity to explore Muslim students’ experiences in the American education system.

Author

• Ayse Cobanoglu, Yale University