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Abstract
As a controversial schooling system, critical analysis of the informal curriculum of Islamic schools in Australia is timely for dispelling assertions and counter-assertions with evidence. This project employed a collective case study methodology to understand how broader contextual factors—that is, an Australian landscape shaped by neoliberal engendered market forces and racialisation—and stakeholder experience contributed to the construction of the espoused purpose of Islamic school. Drawing on data from a survey of stakeholders from three Islamic schools, analysis of documents and a leadership qualitative questionnaire, the findings reveal, by providing an alternative educational experience: Islamic practices; the space for religious expression; and, extra-curricular programmes to connect students with society, schools create a community and a sense of belonging. By doing so, they contribute to social cohesion. Consistent with Apple and Zine, an understanding of Islamic schools cannot be detached from the cultural climate. This paper contributes to debates of divisiveness charged at Islamic schools.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Emile Durkheim, Education and Sociology, Glencoe, IL: Simon and Schuster, 1956; Talcott Parsons, “The School Class as a Social System: Some of its Functions in American Society”, Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 29, No. 4, 1959, pp. 297–318; Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, The Concept of Education in Islam, n.p.: n.p., 1980, http://mef-ca.org/files/attas-text-final.pdf (accessed 05 October 2005).
2 al-Attas, The Concept of Education, op. cit.
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4 Michael S. Merry, Culture, Identity and Islamic Schooling: A Philosophical Approach, New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007; Michael S. Merry, “The Conundrum of Religious Schools in Twenty-first Century Europe”, Comparative Education, Vol. 51, No. 1, 2015, pp. 133–156, https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2014.935582 (accessed 02 October 2018); Michael S. Merry and Geert Driessen, “On the Right Track? Islamic Schools in the Netherlands after an Era of Turmoil”, Race, Ethnicity and Education, Vol. 19, No. 4, 2016, pp. 856–879, https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2014.985586 (accessed 01 October 2018); Serena Hussain and Jen’nan Ghazal Read, “Islamic Schools in the United States and England: Implications for Integration and Social Cohesion”, Social Compass, Vol. 62, No. 4, 2015, pp. 556–569, https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768615602149 (accessed 20 August 2017); Mohamad Abdalla, Dylan Chown and Nadeem Memon, “Islamic Studies in Australian Islamic Schools: Learner Voice”, Religions, Vol. 11, No. 8, 2020, art. 404, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11080404 (accessed 28 September 2021).
5 Michael Apple, Educating the Right Way, op. cit.
6 Ibid.
7 Yusef Waghid, Conceptions of Islamic Education: Pedagogical Framings, New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2011.
8 Merry, Culture, Identity and Islamic Schooling, op. cit.; Merry, “The Conundrum of Religious Schools”, op. cit.; Saeeda Shah, “Muslim Learners in English Schools: A Challenge for School Leaders”, Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 35, No. 4, 2009, pp. 523–540, https://doi.org/10.1080/03054980903112557 (accessed 10 September 2012).
9 Jennifer Buckingham, The Rise of Religious Schools in Australia, St Leonards, NSW: The Centre for Independent Studies, 2010.
10 Bronwyn Davies and Peter Bansel, “Neoliberalism and Education”, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Vol. 20, No. 3, 2007, pp. 247–259, https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390701281751 (accessed 15 January 2012).
11 Kalervo N. Gulson and P. Taylor Webb, “‘We Had to Hide we’re Muslim’: Ambient Fear, Islamic Schools and the Geographies of Race and Religion”, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Vol. 34, No. 4, 2013, pp. 628–641. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2013.822623 (accessed 17 October 2016); Emma Rowe, “Reading Islamophobia in Education Policy through a Lens of Critical Race Theory: A Study of the ‘Funding Freeze’ for Private Islamic Schools in Australia”, Whiteness and Education, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2020, pp. 54–73.
12 Derya Iner (Ed.), Islamophobia in Australia Report II (2017–-2018), Sydney: Charles Sturt University and ISRA, 2019.
13 Ibid.; Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Sharing the Stories of Australian Muslims Report 2021, Sydney, Australia: Australian Human Rights Commission, 2021, https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/publications (accessed 15 December 2021).
14 Wesam Charkawi, Spech presented at the showing of the documentary Before 1770, Sydney, October 27, 2019.
15 AHRC, Sharing the Stories, op. cit.
16 Mario Peucker, Joshua M. Roose and Shahram Akbarzadeh, “Muslim Active Citizenship in Australia: Socioeconomic Challenges and the Emergence of a Muslim Elite”, Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 49, No. 2, 2014, pp. 1–18, https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2014.899967 (accessed 01 September 2016).
17 Adrian Cherney and Kristina Murphy, “Being a ‘Suspect Community’ in a Post 9/11 World: The Impact of the War on Terror on Muslim Communities in Australia”, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, Vol. 49, No. 4, 2016, pp. 480–496, https://doi.org/10.1177/0004865815585392 (accessed 16 September 2018).
18 Peucker, Roose and Akbarzadeh, “Muslim Active Citizenship in Australia”, op. cit.
19 Q&A, “Social Cohesion, Offshore Detention & Factions”, ABC, aired October 12, 2015, https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/social-cohesion-offshore-detention-factions/10653936 (accessed 02 January 2016).
20 Peucker, Roose and Akbarzadeh, “Muslim Active Citizenship in Australia”, op. cit., p. 298.
21 James Redmayne and Lincoln Feast, “For Australia’s Muslims, Indonesian Seafaring History gives a sense of Belonging”, Reuters, March 6, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-australia-indonesia-voyage-idUKKBN20T02C (accessed 15 December 2021).
22 Regina Ganter, “Muslim Australians: The Deep Histories of Contact”, Journal of Australian Studies, Vol. 32, No. 4, 2008, pp. 481–492, https://doi.org/10.1080/14443050802471384.
23 Gary D. Bouma and Anna Halafoff, “Australia’s Changing Religious Profile – Rising Nones and Pentecostals, Declining British Protestants in Superdiversity: Views from the 2016 Census”, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2017, pp. 129–143, https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.34826 (accessed 15 December 2021).
24 AHRC, Sharing the Stories, op. cit.
25 Rowe, “Reading Islamophobia”, op. cit.
26 Gulson and Webb, “‘We had to Hide”, op. cit.
27 al-Attas, The Concept of Education, op. cit.
28 Ibid., p. 11.
29 Ibid., p. 15.
30 Waghid, Conceptions of Islamic Education, op. cit.
31 The words “Allah’s peace be upon him” (PBUH) are routinely evoked by Muslims in Arabic after mentioning Prophet Muhammad’s name.
32 Amjad Hussain, “Islamic Education in the West: Theoretical Foundations and Practical Implications”, in International Handbook of Religious Education, ed. Kath Engebretson, Marian de Souza, Gloria Durka and Liam Gearon, London, England: Springer, 2010, pp. 235–248.
33 Tariq Ramadan, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
34 Ibid., p. 129.
35 Apple, Ideology and Curriculum, op. cit.; Apple, Educating the Right Way, op. cit.
36 Apple, Educating the Right Way, op. cit.
37 Hussain and Read, “Islamic Schools”, op. cit.
38 Yasmin Hassen, “Making Muslims: The Politics of Religious Identity Construction and Victoria’s Islamic Schools”, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, Vol. 24, No. 4, 2013, pp. 501–517, https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2013.813120 (accessed 20 August 2017).
39 Jenny Berglund, “Islamic Religious Education in State Funded Muslim Schools in Sweden: A Sign of Secularization or Not?” Tidsskrift for Islamforskning, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2014, pp. 275–301, https://doi.org/10.7146/tifo.v8i1.25331 (accessed 20 August 2017).
40 Ibid., p. 28.
41 Fida Sanjakdar, Educating Muslim Children: A Study of the Hidden and Core Curriculum of an Islamic School, paper presented at the AARE Annual Conference, Fremantle, Western Australia, August 2001, https://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2001/san01187.pdf.
42 Hussain and Read, “Islamic Schools”, op. cit.
43 Jasmin Zine, “Safe Havens or Religious ‘Ghettos’? Narratives of Islamic Schooling in Canada”, Race Ethnicity and Education, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2007, pp. 71–92, https://doi.org/10.1080/13613320601100385 (accessed 03 February 2010).
44 Sanjakdar, Educating Muslim Children, op. cit.
45 Hassen, “Making Muslims”, op. cit.
46 Ibid., p. 514.
47 Ibid., p. 510.
48 Abdalla, Chown and Memon, “Islamic Studies”, op. cit.
49 Ibid., pp. 12–13.
50 Mohamad Abdalla, “Islamic Studies in Islamic Schools: Evidence-based Renewal”, in Islamic Schooling in the West: Pathways to Renewal, ed. Mohamad Abdalla, Dylan Chown and Muhammad Abdullah, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 257–283.
51 Abdalla, Chown and Memon, “Islamic Studies”, op. cit.
52 Hassen, “Making Muslims”, op. cit.
53 Abdalla, Chown and Memon, “Islamic Studies”, op. cit.
54 Hassen, “Making Muslims”, op. cit.
55 Peter D. Jones, “Islamic Schools in Australia”, La Trobe Journal, Vol. 89, 2012, pp. 36–47.
56 Joe L. Kincheloe, “Bricolage and the Quest for Multiple Perspectives: New Approaches to Research in Ethnic Studies”, in Ethnic Studies Research: Approaches and Perspectives, ed. Timothy Fong, Lanham, MD.: AltaMira Press, 2008, pp. page range.
57 Gloria Ladson-Billings and William F. Tate, “Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education”, Teachers College Record, Vol. 97, No. 1, 1995, pp. 47–68.
58 Zine, “Creating a Critical Faith-Centred Space”, op. cit.
59 Apple, Educating the Right Way, op. cit.
60 Zine, “Creating a Critical Faith-Centred Space”, op. cit., pp. 184–185.
61 Robert E. Stake, Multiple Case Study Analysis, New York, NY: Guilford Publications, 2005, p. 3.
62 Sara Ahmed, On being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012, p. 55.
63 Rowe, “Reading Islamophobia”, op. cit., p. 2.
64 John W. Creswell and Vicki L. Plano Clark, Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research, Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage, 2007.
65 Stake, Multiple Case Study Analysis, op. cit., p. 8.
66 Michael Quinn Patton, Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2002, p. 402.
67 Nada Ghamra-oui, “The Semiotics of an ‘Islamic’ Education: Engaging with the Concrete Realities of Muslims in Australia”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 40, No. 2, 2020, pp. 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2020.1773102 (accessed 07 September 2020).
68 Ibid.; Ahmed, On being Included, op. cit., p. 130.
69 Ibid.
70 Ahmed, On being Included, op. cit., p. 130.
71 Ibid., p. 105.
72 Ibid.
73 Ibid., p. 140.
74 Glenn A. Bowen, “Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method”, Qualitative Research Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2009, pp. 27–40, https://doi.org/10.3316/QRJ0902027.
75 Annette Braun, Meg Maguire and Stephen Ball, “Policy Enactments in the UK Secondary School: Examining Policy, Practice and School Positioning”, Journal of Education Policy, Vol. 25, No. 4, 2010, pp. 547–560, https://doi.org/10.1080/02680931003698544 (accessed 01 July 2013).
76 Anne Cranny-Francis, Multimedia: Texts and Contexts, London, England: Sage, 2005; Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2nd ed.), London: Routledge, 2006.
77 Gunther Kress, “Thinking about the Notion of ‘Cross-Cultural’ from a Social Semiotic Perspective”, Language and Intercultural Communication, Vol. 12, No. 4, 2012, pp. 369–385, https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2012.722102.
78 Cranny-Francis, Multimedia, op. cit.
79 Ibid.
80 Gunther Kress and van Leeuwen, Reading Images, op. cit.
81 Ibid., p. 1.
82 Victoria Clarke and Virginia Braun, “Thematic Analysis”, Journal of Positive Psychology, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2017, pp. 297–298, https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1262613 (accessed 01 July 2018).
83 Apple, Ideology and Curriculum, op. cit.; Apple, Educating the Right Way, op. cit.
84 Apple, Educating the Right Way, op. cit.
85 Ibid.
86 Ibid., p. 168.
87 S refers to Stakeholder Survey participants.
88 Afeefa Syeed and Nusaybah Ritchie, “Children and the Five Pillars of Islam: Practicing Spirituality in Daily Life”, in Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality: Perspectives from the World’s Religious Traditions, ed. Karen Marie Yust, Aostre N. Johnson, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006, pp. 296–308.
89 Refers to the Friday congregational sermon observed by Muslims.
90 Rachel Olding, “Prayer Group Audit at NSW Schools Reveals Guidelines not Followed”, Sydney Morning Herald, September 2, 2015, http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/prayer-group-audit-at-nsw-schools-reveals-guidelines-not-followed-20150902-gjdht1.html (accessed 10 February 2017).
91 Syeed and Ritchie, “Children and the Five Pillars”, op. cit.
92 Worldwide Muslim community.
93 Stands for Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala, a term routinely evoked by Muslims upon mention of Allah.
94 Abdalla, Chown and Memon, “Islamic Studies”, op. cit.
95 Nada Ghamra-oui, “Leading with Faith and Activism in Islamic Schools in Australia”, Leading & Managing, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2020, pp. 78–93, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.797845214465657 (accessed 01 July 2021).
96 Hussain and Read, “Islamic Schools”, op. cit.
97 Ghamra-oui, “Leading with Faith”, op. cit.
98 Saeeda Shah, “Educational Leadership: An Islamic Perspective”, British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 32, No. 3, 2006, pp. 363–385, https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920600635403 (accessed 12-10-0008); Ghamra-oui, “Leading with Faith”, op. cit.
99 Ghamra-oui, “Leading with Faith”, op. cit.
100 Salam Al-Mahadin, “The Social Semiotics of Hijab: Negotiating the Body Politics of Veiled Women”, Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2013, pp. 3–18, https://doi.org/10.1386/jammr.6.1.3_1.
101 Shah, “Muslim Learners”, op. cit.
102 Peace Academy, Induction Policy, 2014.
103 Bringelly Islamic College, Primary School Information Booklet, 2014.
104 Al-Mahadin, “The Social Semiotics of Hijab”, op. cit., p. 209.
105 Apple, Educating the Right Way, op. cit.
106 Symeon Dagkas, Tansin Benn and Haifaa Jawad, “Multiple Voices: Improving Participation of Muslim Girls in Physical Education and School Sport”, Sport, Education and Society, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2011, pp. 223–239, https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2011.540427 (accessed 01 January 2013).
107 Ibid.
108 Merry, Culture, Identity and Islamic Schooling, op. cit., p. 97.
109 Ramadan, Western Muslims, op. cit.
110 Ahmed, On being Included, op. cit., p. 56.
111 Jones, “Islamic Schools in Australia”, op. cit.
112 Waghid, Conceptions of Islamic Education, op. cit.
113 Ibid.; Joseph Zajda, “Values Education and Multiculturalism in the Global Culture”, in Global Values Education: Teaching Democracy and Peace, ed. Joseph Zajda and Holger Daun, New York, NY: Springer, 2009, pp. xiii–xxiii.
114 Waghid, Conceptions of Islamic Education, op. cit., p. 30.
115 Zajda, “Values Education”, op. cit.
116 Peace Academy, Anti Bullying Policy,
117 Reports of the deeds and narrations of Prophet Muhammad that became Sunnah.
118 Qur’an 49:11
119 Peace Academy, Anti Bullying Policy, op. cit., p. 12.
120 Waghid, Conceptions of Islamic Education, op. cit.
121 Zajda, “Values Education”, op. cit.
122 Apple, Educating the Right Way, op. cit.
123 Zine, “Creating a Critical Faith-Centred Space”, op. cit.
124 Robert Yin, Applications of Case Study Research (3rd ed.), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2012.
125 Hassen, “Making Muslims”, op. cit.
126 Ramadan, Western Muslims, op. cit.
127 Abdalla, Chown and Memon, “Islamic Studies”, op. cit.
128 Berglund, “Islamic Religious Education”, op. cit.
129 Merry, “The Conundrum of Religious Schools”, op. cit.
130 Ramadan, Western Muslims, op. cit., p. 132.
131 Hassen, “Making Muslims”, op. cit., p. 512.
132 Saeeda Shah, “Education of Muslim Students in Turbulent Times”, in Muslim Students, Education and Neoliberalism: Schooling a ‘Suspect Community,’ ed. Máirtín Mac an Ghaill and Chris Haywood, London, England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 51–66.
133 Kress, “Thinking about the Notion”, op. cit., p. 373.
134 al-Attas, The Concept of Education, op. cit.
135 Apple, Ideology and Curriculum, op. cit.
136 Apple, Educating the Right Way, op. cit.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Nada Ghamra-Oui
Nada Ghamra-oui is Senior Educational Consultant at N.N.G. Educational Consultancy in Sydney, Australia. Her main research interests are in the fields of Islamic schools and the cultural politics of education. Her interest in Muslims as a minority, social semiotics and educational leadership are reflected in her most recent publications: “The Semiotics of an ‘Islamic’ Education: Engaging with the Concrete Realities of Muslims in Australia”, in Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2020.