British Muslim Women Educators’ Innovations to Counter the Securitization and Demonization of Muslim Youth

• In Event: Drawing on Islamic Educational Theories and Practices to Dismantle Racial Injustice

Abstract

This paper presents findings from qualitative research on the work of English female Muslim researchers and/or educators who have initiated community activities designed to meet the educational and tarbiyah (religious nurture and identity formation) needs of the circa 9% of British schoolchildren who are of Muslim heritage. These community projects are forms of resistance against racial, cultural, gender and epistemic injustices. The research aims to address the dominant discourse on British Muslim education i.e., the UK government’s ‘countering extremism’ PREVENT agenda in schools, widely considered by Muslim communities to be aimed at Muslim young people (Heath-Kelly, 2013). It does so by presenting an alternative community and gender driven narrative that draws on the lived experiences and professional work of these women, to strategically engage injustices in the public discourse on Muslim integration in the UK.
Data was collected through generating an interdisciplinary dialogic space on faith-based education across the Arts, Languages, Humanities and Sciences. Twelve women gathered in a three-day in-person workshop. Each participant presented their own work and their recommendations for renewing and updating practices to address the securitisation and demonisation of Muslim youth and enable effective identity and character development. Each presentation initiated a forty-five minute participant dialogue. Thirteen and a half hours of recording were subjected to thematic analysis using Nvivo.
Findings demonstrate an acute awareness of the impact of state-sponsored discriminatory practices within schooling, as well as the complexities of generating purposeful, coherent and authentic agency for Muslim children and young people in UK educational settings, whether full-time state schools or supplementary community settings. Participants detailed the ways in which they deploy Islamic educational philosophies to develop pedagogies that allow for dialogic spaces to emerge thereby supplementing the transmission-based teaching common in Islamic supplementary schools. They emphasised the importance of integrating Arts, Language, Science and Humanities education into such spaces to support the development of cultural identities that understand Islam to be much more than a set of dos and don’ts. Young people need safe-spaces to explore political, racial and colonial injustices from within their own faith-worldview. Participants acknowledged that without space for young people to understand and reflect on intra-religious differences, they would not be able to positively engage with the ‘other’ or resist the pressure of demonisation or the victimisation of being ‘vulnerable’ to radicalisation. However, supplementary school teachers are unqualified and often lack the expertise to enact the forms of pedagogy and curricular content required. Communities need to urgently invest in research and teacher professional development in these supplementary educational spaces.
The significance of this research is that it explores women’s perspectives drawn from their Islamic faith, cultural backgrounds and intersectional lived experiences, and through this exploration offers insights and generates practical recommendations for Muslim communities to address the racialised injustices of Islamophobic state policies.

Author

• Farah Ahmed, University of Cambridge