Critical Race Praxis in Language Education: An Autoethnographic Study of International Muslim Scholars in the U.S.

• In Event: Advancing Critical Education of Muslim Students and Scholars: Social Justice Research in Community

Abstract

1. Objectives or Purposes
This study examines how international Muslim scholars navigate, resist, and reimagine systemic exclusion in U.S. higher education. It explores the intersections of race, religion, language, gender, and immigration status, offering counter-narratives that challenge dominant structures and affirm the lived realities of Muslim academics.
2. Perspective(s) or Theoretical Framework
This study is grounded in Critical Race Theory (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002), Muslim Critical Race Theory (Ali, 2022), and Critical Race Praxis (Yamamoto, 1997). CRT emphasizes the centrality of experiential knowledge and the endemic nature of racism in institutional spaces. MusCrit expands this by centering the racialization of religion and the erasure of Muslim epistemologies within secular and racialized institutions. Together, these frameworks foreground counter-storytelling as a tool of resistance and call for structural transformation grounded in justice and equity.
3. Methods, Techniques, or Modes of Inquiry
We employ critical autoethnography (Yazan, 2019; Boylorn & Orbe, 2016) as both method and epistemology. Through iterative cycles of dialogic reflection, we construct narrative accounts of our lived experiences as Muslim faculty members. Storytelling is not only reflective but also serves as a scholarly act of resistance that disrupts sanitized academic norms and reclaims narrative authority.
4. Data Sources, Evidence, Objects, or Materials
Data were drawn from personal journals, reflective memos, voice recordings, institutional correspondence, and field notes gathered over several years of academic work. We selected these materials based on emotional resonance and their ability to illustrate broader patterns of structural exclusion. Analysis followed thematic coding informed by MusCrit and CRT, identifying recurring issues such as linguistic marginalization, gendered surveillance, and institutional precarity.
5. Results and/or Substantiated Conclusions or Warrants for Arguments/Point of View
Findings highlight patterns of linguistic racism (Jang, 2017; Hu & Chen, 2021), gendered Islamophobia (Seggie & Sanford, 2010; Anderson, 2020), cultural isolation (Collins, 2008), and barriers to professional integration (Kim et al., 2012; Dey, 2022). Author 1, a visibly Muslim woman, consistently encountered skepticism despite professional excellence, reflecting the burden of hypervisibility and cultural taxation. Author 2, a multilingual Kurdish male scholar, experienced accent-based discrimination, visa-related job insecurity, and systemic gatekeeping. These narratives demonstrate how Muslim scholars are often caught between the demands of assimilation and the erasure of their identities. Rather than assimilate, both authors chose to reshape the academy through pedagogy, research, and storytelling that centers faith, equity, and justice.
6. Scientific or Scholarly Significance of the Study or Work
This study makes a significant contribution to decolonial and justice-oriented scholarship by foregrounding the epistemic agency of Muslim scholars. It introduces MusCrit as a vital framework for analyzing how racialized religion shapes academic access, belonging, and leadership. The work advocates for structural changes that recognize and support the complex identities of international Muslim academics. By framing lived experience as data and counter-storytelling as a form of theory, this study expands the understanding of what constitutes legitimate knowledge in educational research. It contributes to the reparative project of “righting the wrongs” (Sriprakash, 2023) in higher education.

Authors

• Fatima Seyma Kizil, Syracuse University

• Ibrahim Kizil, Syracuse University