Leading multi‐ethnic schools: adjustments in concepts and practices for engaging with diversity 1

The student population across world is increasingly reflective of diverse cultures, religions and ethnicities. This rich diversity may become a challenge for educational leaders, teachers, and policy‐makers in the absence of an understanding of diverse sources of knowledge people draw on for directing their beliefs and daily practices. This paper explores the multi‐ethnic context in Britain with a focus on Muslim students in English secondary schools, and argues for drawing on diverse ethnic knowledge sources to inform and enrich approaches towards managing diversity. It discusses the concept of Adab derived from Muslim ethics and philosophy, and debates possible contributions of such conceptual adaptations towards improving educational engagement and performance.     

Religious Identity and Cultural Refashioning: Educational Constraints for Migrant Muslim Hui University Students in China

This study discusses the educational constraints facing Muslim Hui students and the measures that should be pondered by the Chinese government to address these constraints. Three key research questions are addressed: (1) How does the mainstream Han, Confucian, or the state ideology interact with Hui students’ culture? (2) In what ways do ethnic boundaries and educational uniformity affect the engagement of ethnic minorities in education as well as the larger society? (3) What are the major educational constraints faced by Hui migrant students of Muslim background? Through the mixed-methods research design, I find that the yearning of Muslim Hui Chinese students to achieve educational success and social mobility is limited by social, cultural, and educational factors that regard them as the “other”; they still face issues of marginalization—educationally, socially, and culturally—that delay them from achieving higher educational success.     

Empirical research: Challenges and impulses for Islamic religious education

ABSTRACT

The following article describes how empirical research can give new impulses to Islamic religious education. These impulses could lead to a reconciliation of the Islamic religious heritage with the fast-changing reality of Muslims in non-Muslim countries and societies. Due to the presence of Muslim children in public schools and the urgent question of their religious education, as an academic discipline, Islamic religious pedagogy (Islamische Religionspädagogik) has acquired a pioneering role among the various Islamic theological disciplines. On a scientific level, it has already taken its first steps in the scientific landscape in Germany and Austria and has established diverse references to modern science. Islamic religious pedagogy, as a young scientific discipline, necessarily requires empirical research to provide sound foundations for the quality of Islamic religious education and for a better understanding of religious educational processes. This calls for a dialogue between empirical educational research and theology and cannot be achieved based on purely theoretical assumptions.     

Re‐envisioning the Future: Democratic Citizenship Education and Islamic Education

In this article we address the issue of why democratic citizenship education should be incorporated more meaningfully into Islamic education discourses in formal institutions in the Arab and Muslim world. In the Arab and Muslim world civic and national education seem to be the dominant discourses. We argue that the latter discourses are inadequate to address some of the dystopias in the Arab and Muslim world such as the perpetuation of patriarchy, uncritical obedience to the state (often dictatorships), and blind patriotism. Consequently we posit that unless a culture of acceptance and hospitality (i.e. cosmopolitanism) is cultivated at Islamic educational institutions the possibility of democratic citizenship education unfolding is quite remote. That is, the future of Islamic education can only be re‐envisioned if an amended version of democratic citizenship education can inform Islamic education discourses in institutions—one constituted by a culture of acceptance and hospitality.     

Cultural Isomorphs of Educational Administration: Reflections on Western-centric Approaches to Values and Leadership

This article proposes that the achievement of conditions approximating reflective practice in educational administration in an increasingly globalized society is a function of three particular leadership qualities—sophistication, sensitivity and synergy. A case for the achievement of these conditions is presented in three phases. First, a context is established for promoting reflective administrative practice by looking at the prevailing or dominant social isomorphs associated with school administration in the English speaking world. Second, several robust and empirically verified theory perspectives on values derived from the work of Hodgkinson are presented as supports to the achievement of sophisticated and sensitive educational leadership practice. Although grounded in theory, these perspectives are presented in a practical and easily understood fashion that is relevant to school leaders. Third, the application and use of these perspectives in the setting of educational leadership practices is demonstrated. The article concludes by warning that since much of the prevailing literature has a North American bias, educators in Asia need to be alert to the potential of misleading cultural isomorphs.     

Muslim cosmopolitanisms in a transnational world: implications for the education of Muslims

ABSTRACT

In a transnational world, Muslim cosmopolitanisms are both numerous and diverse. These cosmopolitanisms constitute a broad spectrum of views and practices, representing a range of interpretations and expressions of Islam, some of which are polarized and polarizing. In this reflective, theoretical paper, I discuss the potential implications of Muslim cosmopolitanisms for the education of Muslims in a transnational world and argue that the teachings of Islam are sufficiently open to interpretation to support various Muslim cosmopolitanisms. While resistance to change has typified the education of Muslims historically in many parts of the world, this resistance is being challenged in new ways, characteristic of the Information Age, wherein near-instantaneous, transnational exchanges of information and ideas are democratizing and adding complexity to Islamic hermeneutics and praxis. In this context, I contend that Muslim cosmopolitan discourses have become necessary, and the outcomes of these discourses will be crucial in shaping the future education of Muslims. Given historical precedents, however, I posit that the triumph of Muslim educational orthodoxy is expected if these discourses lead to or reinforce polarization.     

Intercultural Identities: Addressing the Global Dimension through Art Education

Recent educational policy and practice have established an extended role for all subjects in addressing children and young peoples' academic and interpersonal development, with strategies facilitating key skills and wider learning across areas of Citizenship and Personal, Social and Health education providing an integrated approach to education and welfare. The significance of global development education within a holistic curriculum acknowledges the increased awareness of the interconnected nature of our relationship with each other and with the planet we share as world citizens. The arts have a strong track‐record in addressing such key issues – challenging hierarchical paradigms which reinforce prejudice and stereotyping, the arts encourage reflexive processes and critical engagement with diversity and pluralist perspectives. This article investigates curricular approaches to the global dimension within education in relation to theoretical perspectives and policies, presenting an intercultural art case study as a model of practice in engaging diverse participants in reflection on their own and others' experiences across a range of socio‐cultural contexts. Current political shifts reaffirming the centrality of the discrete disciplines over cross‐curricular practice could potentially undermine a more holistic approach to education. The article argues that policy and practice, implemented in response to changing political and philosophical ideology, must nevertheless maintain a commitment to fostering interdisciplinary values of cultural awareness. Such practice must form part of an inclusive internationalist educational vision, impacting on social cohesion.     

Shifting positions in physical education – notes on otherness,sameness, absence and presence

Currently, ethnographic interest in leadership is relatively sparse. This paper's focus derives from research about integrating diversity in leadership, and how some leaders are included and excluded from organisational influence in Further Education. Specific interest is in methodological opportunities to research leadership as observed behaviours in sensitive contexts of diversity. Three issues are foregrounded. Firstly, it is argued that notwithstanding the importance of interviews and biographies, research without observation underestimates the significance of whether what leaders do in relation to diversity is what they say they do. A second issue lies in considering whether data collected over seven months during intensive two-day case site visits, might legitimately be labelled ethnography. Thirdly, the ethical issues in defining and researching the diverse characteristics of actual and potential leaders are considered. Conclusions confirm a need to research leadership ethnographically not least to prevent critical perspectives about leadership, diversity and equality being air-brushed from studies of educational administration.     

Desert-Based Muslim Religious Education: Mahdara as a Model

As one of the oldest surviving educational religious models in the history of Muslim education, Mahdara remains a poorly studied desert-based religious institution of traditional learning. In its Bedouin context, the Mahdara produced religious scholars no less competent in the mastery of religious Islamic sciences than graduates of other reputable Islamic learning institutions. This article explores the historical development of the Mahdara, its academic program, social system, and contribution to the Mauritanian community while highlighting the major problems modernity poses to it in its struggle to preserve its sociohistorical position in society.     

When Race Enters the Room: Improving Leadership and Learning Through Racial Literacy

This article explains (a) why racial literacy—an understanding of the origins and function of race in US schools and society—is essential to the work of educational leaders, and (b) how educational leaders can improve their leadership through racial literacy. It introduces the concept of racial literacy as a first step to improving school leadership practices, to be followed by racial realism, racial reconstruction, and racial reconciliation in racially diverse school communities. The article concludes with recommendations and resources designed to advance the racial literacy of educational leaders and their teams as part of a broader commitment to inclusion and social justice in US schools.     

Educational leadership: Producing docile bodies? A Foucauldian perspective on Higher Education

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a long‐standing critical tradition in the educational leadership literature through an analytical examination of the idiosyncrasies of leadership in Higher Education institutions (based on the UK example). It applies a postmodern way of thinking to the educational leadership phenomenon to problematise and challenge the traditional views on the trajectories of power in Higher Education institutions, utilising Foucault’s key theoretical units of discipline, governmentality and biopolitics as a toolbox for dissecting the implications of neoliberal ideology on the leadership praxes. Significantly, the paper demonstrates how the engagement with Foucault’s three modes of objectification—dividing practices, scientific classification and self‐subjection—can expose the ways, in which the roles of educational leaders become re‐configured into economic‐rational individuals or subjects, who are compliant with the imposed requisites of the government’s neoliberal agendas. The paper concludes that Foucault’s theoretical perspectives could be used as a methodological template for a deeper critical analysis of leadership practices, equipping academics with additional tools for critiquing the existing boundaries of neoliberalism and intervening in the transformation of the social order by undertaking an investigation into the practices of governmentality, as suggested by Foucault.     

Setting the record straight: the selection,subordination and silencing of Maata Patene,teacher

Maori women teachers in nineteenth‐century New Zealand have been little acknowledged in educational histories, and indeed, in some instances their contributions have been explicitly nullified. Those who have taken leadership roles have been no more visible. This article examines the silencing and exclusion from educational history of a young Maori woman who was both a teacher and a community leader during this period. It identifies the various points at which her role was silenced and suggests that such silencing is a reflection of her position as woman and as Maori, in a missionary/colonial context. In telling her story, this article (re)instates Maata Patene to a position of leadership and agency in the history of New Zealand education.     

Thinking multicultural education ‘otherwise’ – from a secularist construction towards a plurality of epistemologies and worldviews

This article examines educational, political and philosophical perspectives on the concepts of worldview and religion in the context of multicultural education. Using a postcolonial and post-structural approach combined with theories that analyse the politics of secularism, we attempt to pinpoint key perspectives in the recognition of worldviews in the current discourse on liberal multiculturalism. We suggest that the liberal-secular foundation of multicultural education is blind to practices, which, while supposedly based on political neutrality, are discriminating and ‘Othering’ towards religions and non-Western worldviews. Through theoretical and contextual analysis, we aim to deconstruct the ‘Otherness’ of religious worldviews at the epistemic level.     

浅析回族服饰的文化象征性

回族作为以伊斯兰为民族文化根源的民族,在历史发展进程中呈现出伊斯兰教的内化与对汉族文化涵化同时发生而联系又紧密的特点。回族服饰具有伊斯兰文化与中华文化二元一体的结构特点,在伊斯兰文化语境下又体现出宗教文化的象征性。伊斯兰教的内化和汉族文化涵化构成了回族服饰文化的核心和其演变的主题。     

Shaping futures and feminisms: Qur’anic schools in West African francophone fiction

This article examines the representation of female education in Qur’anic schools in a selection of West African francophone novels. I argue that in being the earliest form of education for most Muslim women and also a neglected topic of scholarly interest, the Qur’anic school shapes their feminisms in more significant ways than has been acknowledged since scholarly attention to Islamic education in West Africa has mostly focused on the experience of boys in Qur’anic schools, and since theories on feminism in Islam have primarily articulated feminism as a politically oriented project. Using Islamic feminism as a disposition that is not always coterminous with activist objectives within the sociohistorical context of Islamic education in West African Muslim societies, this paper emphasizes the need to focus on forms of female literacy other than secular education.     

The impact of inter‐generational change on the attitudes of working‐class South Asian Muslim parents on the education of their daughters

This paper presents the findings of ethnographic research into inter‐generational attitudinal change of parents towards the education of young British Muslim women. Based on in‐depth interviews with parents of different generations, given social class and ethnicity, there is a universal belief in the importance of education for young Muslim women per se, with economic and cultural factors significant in shaping this sentiment. A range of important differences in attitudes towards Islamic schooling and mainstream education, and questions relating to marriage, however, were found. There are complex issues of identity and religion among Muslims in relation to educational issues, but there has been a move towards Islamisation among both generations; the first generations through a form of cultural traditionalism and the second generations through Islamic conservatism. Although this finding is based on a study of a relatively small and isolated working‐class Muslim community in a declining post‐industrial town in the West Midlands, it is argued that this Islamisation places both particular risks and opportunities in relation to young Muslim women in education in such isolated and disaffected communities which have a wider conceptual, theoretical and policy impact.     

The Changing Context of K–12 Education Administration: Consequences for Ed.D. Program Design and Delivery

This article explores the changing context of school leadership in our nation, a context that requires education leaders who are skilled and knowledgeable with a new set of dispositions to lead complex, diverse, and innovative institutions. The article also discusses recent critiques of existing leadership preparation programs, with emphasis on what has been said about the Ed.D. and Ph.D. degrees in educational leadership. Data are provided about trends in advanced degree offerings in higher education institutions, and the mission statements of top-ranked graduate programs in education leadership are assessed. Finally, the article discusses the consequences that these trends, critiques, and the changing context of school leadership might have upon the design and delivery of leadership preparation programs for current and aspiring school leaders.     

Education for the other: policy and provision for Muslim children in the UK and Swedish education systems

The European Convention on Human Rights has been signed by both the UK and Sweden as well as other European states, providing legal justification for accommodating the educational needs of religious minorities. This legal entitlement is explored in the paper, with particular reference to parental choice for schools based on an Islamic ethos. How the UK and Sweden have responded to accommodate the religious convictions of Muslim families is the focus of discussion, drawing on historical and policy backgrounds. The paper also draws on the theoretical work of Kumashiro and the concept of ‘Education for the Other’, examining the positioning of minority groups within the broad context of a multicultural society and the challenge of accommodating religious convictions in a climate of increasing support for cultural assimilation.