Islamic Teachers in Difficult Times

Author(s):

Stefan Thomas HopmannIouri ZagoumennovOve HaugaløkkenGeir KarlsenLotte Rahbek ShouDonald K Sharpes Stefan Thomas Hopmann

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education

Format:

Symposium

Session Information

07 SES 02 B, Islamic Teachers in Difficult Times

Symposium

Time:

2009-09-28

11:15-12:45

Room:

HG, HS 32

Chair:

Stefan Thomas Hopmann

Discussant:

Ednan Aslan

Contribution

For many, a new global confrontation is between secular western values and conservative Muslim religious beliefs. The problem for European countries is to find the right legal and political balance between cultural assimilation and national integration of all immigrant religions, but especially first and second generation Muslims. Unquestionably, the economic, political and social agenda for the next century could be the conflict between the secular European societies and their historical (often Christian) values accentuating individual rights and freedoms, and the burgeoning Muslim communities scattered throughout Europe that often value more communal standards and not so much individual freedoms. It is questionable whether Muslim communities will ever become thoroughly assimilated culturally into European societies in the near future. Huge public conflicts about Muslim culture in general, but not at least about the role Muslim teachers and religious education should play in the process of integrating the young Muslims into society, have rattled public opinion and policy makers in quite a few countries in recent times (e.g. in Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands) and reminded us that peaceful integration or co-existence are at risk. In this situation, teaching and teacher education get a pivotal role. Teaching young Muslims by Muslim teachers, either in religion or other subjects, is expected to contribute to a better mutual understanding of values, beliefs, and social expectations (or feared to promote the opposite). The question is, if and how these teachers themselves experience cultural, political and social tensions, and if and how this is reflected by their educational beliefs and practice. Do they differ from their non-Muslim colleagues, and if so how? How do they assess the capacities of schooling to influence or even change the attitudes of the young? What kind of education, not at least teacher education would be helpful to enhance the chances of young Muslims to find a positive relation to the society surrounding them? Could other teaching (such as Catholic education) contribute to this as well? Research has only started to assess and evaluate these topics. In this symposium we want to address the state of research in the field and to present one international study, which opens up for comparative perspectives.

Method

The proposed symposium will draw on different sources: Primarily, it will present the work of an international research group studying the work and attitudes of teachers with a Muslim background in Denmark, Norway, Belorussia, the US, and Austria. This study is utilizing an international survey administered in these countries as well as additional information to map out the specific views of Muslim teachers on Western values and schooling. Secondly, it will give a review of other current research in the field, not at least from Denmark and Austria, which have had vigorous public debates on the integration issue. Last but not least the symposium aims at identifying key issues for future research.

Expected Outcomes

By using different perspectives, the sessions will highlight the current state of the art and the embedded issues on Muslim teaching and teacher education. Moreover, we expect to lay ground for future comparative research in the field. This seems to be of utmost importance as the underlying tensions between Muslim and Western culture are a common problem for all European societies and beyond.

References

ASLAN, E. (2007): Islamunterricht und Europa. In: Islam in Europa. Heidrich-Blaha, R., Ley, M., Lohlker, R. [Hrsg.], Favorita Papers 01/2007. Diplomatic Academy Vienna. ASLAN, E. (2009): Islamische Erziehung in Europa: Islamic Education in Europe. Wien u.a.: Böhlau. FASSMANN, H. [Hrsg.] (2007): 2. Österreichischer Migrations- und Integrationsbericht 2001-2006. Rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen, demographische Entwicklungen, sozioökonomische Strukturen. Drava Verlag, Klagenfurt/Celovec GILLIAM, L. (2006). De umulige børn og det ordentlige menneske: Et studie af identitet, ballade og muslimske fællesskaber blandt etniske minoritetsbørn i en dansk folkeskole. København: Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitet. HEITMEYER, W. & IMBUSCH, P. (2005). Integrationspotentiale einer modernen Gesellschaft. Analysen zu gesellschaftlicher Integration und Desintegration. Wiesbaden: VS/GWV. IHLE, A.H. (2007). Magt, Medborgerskab og Muslimske Friskoler i Danmark: Traditioner, idealer og politikker. Københavns Universitet. KARLSEN, G. (2004) (How) can Religion contribute to a disclosure of Pedagogy in late modernity? [Vitenskapelig foredrag]. NERA.s 32nd congress; 11.03.2004 - 13.03.2004. Publisert i: http://www.congress.is/nfpf/nera_program%20.pdf KARLSEN, G. (2005): From Negative Theology to Negative Pedagogy? Impacts of Derrida's Deconstruction of Relgion to Pedagogy [Vitenskapelig foredrag]. European Conference on Educational Research; 07.10.2005 - 10.10.2005. Publisert i: Conference Programme; 2005 KHORCHIDE, M. (2008): Der islamische Religionsunterricht zwischen Integration und Parallelgesellschaft. Dissertation, Universität Wien KRAINZ, U. B. (2009). Zur Problematik kultureller Integration. Kollektive Orientierungen junger muslimischer Männer der zweiten Generation am Beispiel des Wehr- und Wehrersatzdiensts in Österreich. (Thesis). NOHL, A.M. (2001). Migration und Differenzerfahrung. Junge Einheimische und Migranten im rekonstruktiven Milieuvergleich. Opladen: Leske und Budrich. RAHBEK L.S. et al.: Teacher Attitudes Towards Moslem Student Integration into Civil Society: Examples from Denmark, Norway and Belarus. To be presented at the 2009 AERA conference. ROHE, M. (2006). Perspektiven und Herausforderungen in der Integration muslimischer MitbürgerInnen in Österreich. Sicherheitsakademie des Bundesministeriums für Inneres. SAHIN, A. (2005): Exploring religious life-word and attitude toward Islam among British Muslim adolescents. In: Religion, Education and adolescence. International Empirical Perspectives. Francis, L, Robbins, M., Astley, J. [editors], University of Wales Press Cardiff SCHOU, L.R. & SHARPES, D.K. (2009). Muslim Student Integration into European Society. In Donald K. Sharpes (ed.) Handbook on International Studies in Education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. ZAGOUMENNOV, I. (2003) Student Oriented Methodologies in Inter-Ethnic Violence Prevention and Confidence Building Education. Minsk. ZAGOUMENNOV, I. (2004): Learning to Live Together: Inter-Ethnic Confidence-Building and Violence Prevention Education. Minsk. ZAGOUMENNOV, I. (2005): Community-Based Curriculum for Inter-Ethnic and Violence Prevention Education. ICSEI .Barcelona. ZAGOUMENNOV, I. (2008): Promoting Literacy and Confidence-Building in Multi-Ethnic Communities in Belarus.UNESCO. Baku.

Author Information

Stefan Thomas Hopmann

University of Vienna

Department of Educational Sciences

Wien

Iouri Zagoumennov

Minsk Institute for Education Development

Department of Pedagogy

Minsk

Ove Haugaløkken

NTNU Trondheim

Geir Karlsen

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Programme for Teacher Education

Trondheim

158

Lotte Rahbek Shou

Danish School of Education Aarhus University

Donald K Sharpes

Arizona State University

Stefan Thomas Hopmann

University of Vienna

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