They Never Saw the Whole of Us: Schooling, Identity, and Belonging Among South and Southwest Asian Shia Muslim Youth

• In Event: Peace Education Across the Lifespan: Identity, Agency, and Belonging in Learning Spaces

Proposal

Background and Purpose
South and Southwest Asian Shia Muslim students in U.S. high schools navigate institutions that too often fail to recognize or affirm their identities. Research consistently demonstrates that Muslim students encounter microaggressions, discrimination, and Islamophobia in schools and broader communities (Nadal et al., 2012; Schlein & Chan, 2010; Cureton & Aguinaldo, 2023). These conditions create fractured identity development and limit a sense of belonging (Ahmed et al., 2021; Hussain, 2021). A recent national survey underscores the magnitude of this issue: more than half of Muslim students in primary and secondary schools reported facing discrimination tied to their religious identity, with verbal assaults as the most common form (Abraham, 2025).
The consequences of these conditions are profound. For students, the costs include alienation, disengagement, and harmful effects on academic achievement as well as socio-emotional well-being. For schools, the costs manifest as a reinforcement of systemic inequities and the failure to cultivate inclusive and humanizing educational environments. Without intentional and culturally responsive practices that amplify Muslim students’ voices, schools risk functioning as spaces of exclusion rather than belonging.
The intellectual purpose of this proposed paper is to advance scholarship on identity, belonging, and Islamophobia by reviewing existing literature on Muslim students’ educational experiences and identifying critical gaps. The practical purpose is to provide educators and leaders with an evidence-based synthesis that critiques current scholarship and institutional responses, while proposing directions for building more affirming, culturally responsive, and justice-oriented environments for Muslim youth.
Methods
This proposal is grounded in a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2025. To capture both breadth and depth, the review incorporated studies from a range of methodological traditions, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research.
Articles were identified through searches in ERIC, JSTOR, PsycINFO, ProQuest Education, and Google Scholar using combinations of key terms: Muslim students, Islamophobia in schools, identity development, belonging, discrimination, culturally responsive practices, SWANA youth.
Inclusion criteria required that studies focus on Muslim youth in K–12 educational contexts (with particular attention to high school), be published in peer-reviewed journals, and include empirical research centered on identity, belonging, school climate, or systemic discrimination. Exclusion criteria removed opinion pieces, policy briefs without data, studies focused solely on higher education, or those that framed Muslim students through deficit perspectives without engaging student voice.
To analyze the studies, I followed established protocols for systematic reviews. Articles were coded using thematic analysis across five categories aligned with PQMT (problem statements, research questions, methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and findings). Coding emphasized recurring conditions such as Islamophobia, invisibility, and systemic barriers; costs such as alienation, disengagement, and reduced achievement; and counter-narratives of resilience, agency, and belonging. The synthesis brought together convergences and divergences across methodological traditions, allowing for a richer understanding of both patterns and lived experiences.
Results
The literature reveals that Muslim students’ schooling experiences are deeply shaped by systemic Islamophobia, invisibility, and forms of exclusion. Across both narrative accounts and large-scale surveys, students describe daily encounters with microaggressions, stereotyping, and exclusionary practices that erode their trust in educational institutions and reinforce a sense of otherness. Many report feeling misrepresented—or entirely overlooked—within curricula, teaching practices, and peer interactions, dynamics that contribute to fractured identity development and socio-emotional strain.
Despite these pervasive challenges, the scholarship consistently highlights the resilience and agency demonstrated by Muslim youth. Students often consciously negotiate their identities and assert their belonging in subtle yet powerful ways—from embracing religious or cultural expressions like wearing the hijab to fostering supportive ties within family and community networks. These acts of self-affirmation reflect a refusal to accept invisibility and exemplify how students actively construct belonging despite institutional barriers.
Institutional context plays a pivotal role in either perpetuating or mitigating these experiences. Research shows that when schools implement culturally responsive practices—such as integrating Muslim representation into curriculum, facilitating teacher professional development on religious and cultural inclusion, and enforcing anti-bullying protocols—students report enhanced feelings of belonging and achievement. In contrast, color-blind or punitive policies often exacerbate exclusion, highlighting how school structures can either sustain or disrupt the damaging effects of systemic bias.
Critique of Existing Work
While the existing literature has made important contributions by documenting Muslim students’ experiences, it is not without limitations. Much of the research treats Muslim youth as a single, homogenous group, overlooking sectarian, cultural, and regional diversity. This lack of differentiation erases the experiences of South and Southwest Asian Shia students, whose identities intersect not only with broader Islamophobia but also with intra-Muslim marginalization and cultural invisibility. In addition, institutional responses discussed in the literature are often surface-level, framed through generalized diversity initiatives that fail to directly address the structural and political nature of anti-Muslim bias in schools. The reliance on broad “multicultural” frameworks risks minimizing the unique realities Muslim students face, leaving their narratives insufficiently centered in policy and practice.
Contribution and Extension
This proposal builds on existing scholarship in three critical ways. First, it foregrounds the experiences of South and Southwest Asian Shia Muslim youth, a group whose perspectives are rarely represented in studies of schooling and belonging. Attending to this diversity disrupts the tendency to collapse Muslim students into a monolithic category and instead acknowledges the complexity of their identities. Second, it bridges qualitative and quantitative evidence to create a fuller picture of both structural inequities and student agency, showing how numerical trends and personal stories converge to reveal layered dimensions of exclusion and belonging. Third, it advances a justice-oriented framework that moves beyond documenting harm to envisioning how schools can be transformed into affirming spaces. By centering student voices, proposing culturally responsive practices, and emphasizing community partnerships, this contribution critiques the limitations of existing scholarship while charting a path for educators and leaders committed to equity and belonging.
Taken together, these insights underline a central truth: educational environments have the potential to be affirming and inclusive for Muslim students, but only when institutions commit to rejecting deficit framings, addressing the structural roots of Islamophobia, and cultivating practices that recognize youth in their full humanity.

Author

• Fatima Jaffer, California State University, Dominguez Hills