Curricular Acknowledgment: Perspectives of Muslim Minority Students

• In Event: (Non)Learning Racial Literacy in and Outside of the History Classroom

Abstract

Over the last three decades, scholarship on student experiences of curriculum has increased (Barton & McCully, 2010; Epstein, 1998, 2001; Mosborg, 2002), yet more research is needed in order to shed light, not only on the experiences of students with curriculum, but also on the contributions of students in co-constructing curriculum as a live-process. Beyond the scope of curricular outcomes is the central role of curricular acknowledgement of student-subjects as essential to positive student identity development (Busey & Russell III, 2016), particularly in early adolescents.
Students who embody histories and cultures outside of the dominant then “enter a social studies classroom with many experiences and insights that will inform their understanding of global systems because they already have a tacit understanding of how people in power use their culture to justify inequity and injustice” (Merryfield & Subedia, 2006, p.286). While many students are disturbed by disjunctures between their undervalued epistemologies and those that are dominant, there are those who may not except acknowledgement in the curriculum.
Laila, a high school student belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community explained the absence around the recognition of her interpretation of Islam in the curriculum,
They (the teacher) taught stuff that I didn’t know really about. They only teach about two sects...and that’s all they teach from that view...There’s so many sects that they can’t teach all of them. That’s why they only teach the main ones, the majority (Merchant, 2016, p. 192).
The question of acknowledgement and representation is ripe for a student like Laila who finds herself as the subject of curriculum (Islam) but does not recognize what she learns about herself as an adherent of Islam.
Laila’s case challenges the educator to wonder: “To what extent does a culturally-sensitive curriculum need to reflect the groups represented in the school? Is it sufficient to present curriculum as a means of learning about diversity in general?” (Chan, 2007, p. 189). The limitations of curricular real estate, particularly in social studies, are well understood by students and educators alike. However, in the quest to respond to the broad question “Whose knowledge is of most worth?” (Apple, 2000, p.44), standpoint theory offers a bold response. Standpoint theory argues for a prominent platform for those at the margins with the conviction that, as a result of their distance from the mythical norm, the “experiences of the marginalized or oppressed provide clearer, more objective understandings of the world” (Au, 2012, p.64). Therefore, I utilize standpoint theory as a basis to present the voices of Muslim-girls who find their identities and experiences obscured by dominant narratives of the curriculum.
Drawing from interview and questionnaire data of a 2014/ 2015 phenomenological case study (Merriam, 2009), this paper analyzes the self-reported curricular experiences of six girls (13-18) from minority communities of interpretation (MCoIs) within Islam. Ultimately, the student experiences highlight the need for a curriculum on Islam that prioritizes particularity within the human phenomena of Islam, rather than a unifying understanding of beliefs and practices of all Muslims.

Author

• Natasha Hakimali Merchant, University of Washington Bothell