When religion intersects equity and inclusion: Muslim educator affective responses in Ontario public schools

ABSTRACT

Ontario education policy articulates an explicit commitment to equity and inclusion for increasingly diverse classrooms. Despite policy commitments, when equity and inclusion intersect with religion, enactments remain underwhelming. This paper draws on the voices of 30 Ontario public school educators, all of whom self-identify as Muslim, to share the ways they affect and have been affected in attempting to enact a responsive pedagogy for faith-centred learners. Through the use of dialogic portraits in two different school boards, the voices of Muslim educators express consistent sentiments of responsibility to advocate for basic religious accommodations while at the same time needing to tread carefully with anything to do with religion in order to not be marginalised by colleagues. Participants in this study reinforce the need for more robust conceptions of equity and inclusion that consider the complexities of the religious identities of learners and educators in public education.

KEYWORDS:

• Equity and inclusion
• Muslim learners and educators
• culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy
• Ontario public schools
• affect

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by an internal early career research grant from the University of South Australia URIPA 2019.