Purposes and Promises of American Higher Education for Arrivant Muslim Undergraduate Students

• In Event: Beyond U.S. Higher Education: Global Perspectives in Higher Education

Abstract

In this paper, I examine how Muslim American college students express the roles and purposes of schooling in their lives. This study utilizes data gathered from an ethnographic study exploring experiences of 24 Muslim undergraduates from four higher education institutions in Southern California over a nine-month period. Through this data, I ask, “How do Muslim college students conceptualize the purposes and functions of their education?” Findings include family migration narratives, themes of US exceptionalism, Muslim ethics constraining neoliberal rationality, and educational pursuits in relation to cultural authenticity and tradition, and neoliberal purposes of a university education.

Author

• Arshad Imtiaz Ali, The George Washington University
  Presenting Author