One of the attitudes that I came across frequently in my previous career was that 'foreigners should do what we Brits do, because that is what they would expect if we were in their country'. This interests me when it comes to education as, particularly in PRE, the consensus seems to be that a multicultural approach is the right approach. So, I decided to explore this, particularly as it relates to Part Two of Teachers; Standards and the obligation to not undermine, ‘… fundamental British values, …’ (Department for 2011: 14).
I think that what was being expressed in the attitude in the paragraph above is something that is very explicit in the dominant discourse of politicians, media and parents at the school gates – are students from black and minority ethnic (BME) families, particularly those with a Muslim identity, really loyal to/ a part of British society or are they ‘other’? Amanda Keddie in her article “The politics of Britishness: multiculturalism, schooling and social cohesion” comes across exactly this anxiety when she interviews a teacher who is troubled because she believes that her BME students identify more strongly with their ancestral countries of origin rather than Britain (Keddie 2014: 539).
Keddie acknowledges that the establishment of a unifying national identity is important; and, that the British identity that is usually being referred to in this current discourse is ‘… (… White Anglo) …’ (Keddie 2014: 539 & 40). This poses a distinct challenge in school environments. These are predominantly and distinctively secular spaces which stand in stark contrast to pupils with a Muslim heritage who tend to construct their identities in such a way as to emphasise their faith component (Shah 2009: 523-24). It is the Islamic concept of the Ummah that seems to give Muslim students a sense of identity and solidarity in the face of a perceived racism here in Britain and a Western assault on Islam abroad (Shah 2009: 526).
This problematic relationship between a secular school environment and a child, or group of children, feeling that an important part of their identity is the faith component, is further exacerbated by post 9/11 politics and the so-called ‘war on terror’. Mairtin Mac an Ghaill and Chris Haywood in their article “Pakistani and Bangladeshi young men: re-racialization, class and masculinity within the neo-liberal school” (Mac an Ghaill and Haywood 2014) suggest that the Government’s reaction to 9/11 and subsequent events has turned the school from one which was a local working out of the multicultural nature of British society to one which is a strategic expression of the current regime’s neo-liberal politics of citizenship (Mac an Ghaill and Haywood 2014: 753-54). Keddie agrees that there is currently a perception that multiculturalism has contributed to a fragmentation of British identity and that the government’s response has given schools a central role in promoting, ‘… a stronger commitment to Britishness as a core identity.’ (Keddie 2014: 540).
There is also the related, but much less prominent, concern of the academic underperformance of children from ethnicities (the statistics are kept in such a way that performance can be disaggregated by ethnicity only and not by faith) which can be broadly understood to identify as Muslim, such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi (Mac an Ghaill and Haywood 2014: 765) (Ipgrave 2010: 6-7) (Ball 2013: 189-90). Mac an Ghail and Haywood relate this to the cultural shift in schools. Formerly the culture was an educational one where the child was a pupil, and later a student, whose educational attainment was a collaborative project between school, parents and child (Mac an Ghaill and Haywood 2014: 762). Now this has been transformed into the business culture of performance tables, consumer choice and self-interest (Ball 2013: 53).
This intensifies the problem of integration, and the celebrating of core British values for schools, as the children from these BME backgrounds are not being seen to benefit from the country’s educational system, even against the assessment criteria laid down by the government itself (Shah 2009: 530-31). This leads to a cycle of disadvantage, political alienation and social isolation from the dominant white community, which can be seen to drive BME youth from Muslim backgrounds into an overriding identification with their faith heritage (Shah 2009: 534).
One of the central problems for teachers, and policy makers, is that ‘Britishness’ is a contested concept, changing over time and within context, and is a highly multivalent term (Keddie 2014: 541). Keddie goes on to note that whilst her research does not indicate that the concept ‘British’ is itself perceived as racist, ‘…it does carry racial connotations …’ and it is perceived as being dominated by ideas of ‘whiteness’ and ‘Englishness’ (Keddie 2014: 541).
The challenge is one to us, as educators, to understand the changes that need to be made in our attitudes, our ways of organising our schools’ ways of functioning and what we understand being ‘British’ as meaning, if we truly want to be able to integrate our Muslim children. Inclusion is not about tinkering with the system and lecturing BME communities as to how they must adapt to be included. This kind of view of inclusion is a part of the picture that portrays Muslim communities as the problem. They are portrayed as,
… a traditional religious community living a self-segregating, anti-modern existence that is alien to a British way of life.
(Mac an Ghaill and Haywood 2014: 764)
I think that the thinking that needs to be done here requires a move from a permissive identity-based response to Islam and our Muslim students’ living of it to a theological one (Ipgrave 2010: 13ff.). The permissive approach tends toward a simplistic and idealised view of Islam, where the school, and individual teachers, decide what a ‘good’ Muslim child needs and how she/he should behave (Ipgrave 2010: 13). Can a child wear a niqab, and what about a hijab? What about cancelling swimming during Ramadan and the request to have boys and girls sit separately during classes?
This approach also tends toward a secular hierarchy of knowledge where the new knowledge being presented by the school is privileged over the knowledge handed on by the faith community. This view of learning sets school directly at odds with being a Muslim and can lead to the alienation of the child from education rather than harnessing their faith to drive up educational attainment (Ipgrave 2010: 16) (Shah 2009: 532-33).
Our classrooms need to be places where we welcome our children bringing in a variety of worldviews (Ipgrave 2010: 17-18). Our role is sometimes to encourage a respectful dialogue between worldviews and sometimes to leave them, for now, sitting side by side in contradiction. No one should be made to feel that they must choose between an Islamic worldview and a British one. Equally teachers must be sophisticated enough to know that a Muslim avowing the creation of the world by Allah can also believe in the Big Bang Theory. Similarly, a Muslim who believes in Islamic teaching on the role of women can also believe in gender equality. We need to recognize that our view of Islam as dangerous, homophobic and misogynistic, for example, is just a form of racism.
Our children need to be taught, and are capable of handling, various forms of knowledge (including scientific, secular and religious) (Ipgrave 2010: 19), they also need to be taught to recognise which form of knowledge is being asked for in a question, whether in a conversation with a friend or in an exam.
As Shah asserts:
The new generation of British-born Muslims, in particular, sees itself as equal partners in national membership—not marginalised immigrants. … The issue is no longer to which group these students have been born but the right to equality as British citizens with multiple identities. The resistance to the dominant educational discourse is not a rejection of education—this would not align with the Islamic philosophy … —but a challenge to existing power relations, seeking not just toleration for ethnic difference but “expecting others to respect them and adapt public attitudes and arrangements so that the heritage they represent is encouraged rather than contemptuously expected to whither away” (Modood et al., (1997), Ethnic minorities in Britain: diversity and disadvantage (London, Policy Studies Institute), p. 358)
(Shah 2009: 534)
This creates a sense of Britishness which is genuinely pluralistic. The question for us as teachers is whether we want to create an environment that says to Muslim pupils that they belong and can, with integrity, develop their learning because the knowledge and experience they acquire from their faith is valued and is relevant to them, to other pupils and to the teaching staff. So, a fundamental building block of a learning community is put in place: everyone, religious and non-religious, can learn from one another.
C. Anthony Braddick-Southgate
Bibliography
Ball, Stephen J. 2013. The Education Debate (Policy and Politics in the Twenty-first Century) (Policy Press: Bristol).
Department for, Education. 2011. Teachers' Standards: Guidance for school leaders, school staff and governing bodies (Crown Copyright: London).
Ipgrave, Julia. 2010. 'Including the Religious Viewpoints and Experiences of Muslim Students in an Environment that is Both Plural and Secular', Journal of International Migration and Integration / Revue de l'integration et de la migration internationale, 11: 5-22.
Keddie, Amanda. 2014. 'The politics of Britishness: multiculturalism, schooling and social cohesion', British Educational Research Journal., 40: 539-54.
Mac an Ghaill, Mairtin, and Chris Haywood. 2014. 'Pakistani and Bangladeshi young men: re-racialization, class and masculinity within the neo-liberal school', British Journal of Sociology of Education, 35: 753-76.
Shah, Saeeda. 2009. 'Muslim learners in English schools: a challenge for school leaders', Oxford Review of Education, 34: 523-40.