Saving Democracy by Saving the Muslim Girl: Norms of Convivencia as Technologies of Exclusion

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Re-Examining Place-Based Interdependencies Toward Equitable Education

Abstract

In 2010, Najwa Malha, a young Spanish woman, was suspended from school in Madrid (Spain) for wearing her hijab. As prescribed by her school’s norms of convivencia, students could not wear head-coverings at school. When Najwa’s parents took the issue to court in Madrid, both the courts ruled against veiling in schools in the name of convivencia. I explore how school norms of convivencia have changed from a normative order, which separated out the responsible citizen’s normal and abnormal attributes, to a moralistic and juridical one, which looked to the legal system to solve all types of educational conflict. It argues that norms of convivencia functions to exclude in the name of inclusion, by creating a boundary between us-them.

Author

• Belén Hernando-Lloréns, San Diego State University