Muslim Student Voices Inform Culturally Responsive School Leadership

• In Event: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion: Not Just Who I Am, but How I Lead

Abstract

Culturally responsive school leadership provides an effective leadership framework for leading schools comprised of marginalized communities. Despite the recognition of American Muslim students as a marginalized community, they continue to be underrepresented in critical education research. This study centers the voices of 52 Muslim students from a Mid-Atlantic region narrating their school experiences. Using critical race theory, the author makes visible the impacts of the racialization of American Muslim students in the narration of their school experiences. Results indicate that American Muslim students can identify the racialization of their school experiences. American Muslim youth describe social, curricula, and faith-based exclusionary practices reproduced in schools. Muslim students want to be seen and recognized by their faith identities.

Author

• Amaarah N. DeCuir, American University