This paper explores the influence of the Neoliberal principles of ‘school markets’ on Islamic educational provision in Western Europe. It is based on a PhD research data on diversity in Muslim schools in Britain collected between 2009-2012 and a further update process between 2018-2019 to explore the impact of policy changes on Muslim schools’ interpretation of religious values. The main study was carried out in six case study schools located within four different geographical contexts in Britain.  A multiple qualitative case-study approach is used to enable the exploration of participants’ different kinds of experiences and meanings of Islamic schooling that are contextualised within the British socio-economic milieu. One of the study objectives was about exploring participants’ in-depth accounts of experiences and perspectives around their selected Muslim schools. Parents remain the agents of continuity for Islamic schools and meeting their needs becomes essential. Hence, the paper draws a general overview of parental expectations and educational priorities. It discusses parents’ expectations in the case-study schools based on the interviews and questionnaire data with school leaders and parents in these schools. In doing so, it explores the aspects of Islamic schooling which the leaders of the case-study schools hold to be the most important. The vision of each school is then compared in some of its regard the market dynamics emerging from parental choice. In comparison, the paper also explores research literature on parents’ choices of Islamic educational provision in both Belgium and Netherlands. In each country, parental choice of Islamic education is placed within the broader educational policy and practice context. Hence, aspects of state funding, choice and control are examined as they form crucial elements of competition, selectivity and accountability in the process of choice. These market powers present Islamic schools with both challenges and opportunities and contribute to shaping their resolutions and journeys.

The discipline of Islamic education in Western Europe demands taking into account the diversity of Muslims’ backgrounds, the variety of experiences and the responses of Muslim individuals and organisations in the face of complex contextual challenges. Giddens’ notion of “double hermeneutics” informed the theoretical and conceptual frameworks driving the research in its aim to analyse the relationships between structure and agency operating within these schools and to understand them as social phenomena. To a lesser extent, these frameworks were also influenced by Gadamer’s interpretation of the “practical wisdom” concept which is used as a conceptual tool for data analysis. In Giddens’ (1984) attempt to bridge the conceptual gaps related to meaning, action and subjectivity and the notions of structure and its constraints, he argues that human social activities are of a recursive nature. So, reflexive monitoring constitutes part of the knowledge production. This includes reproducing current educational practices, changing them or preserving and altering parts of them through the choices that individual agents continuously make and how this feeds back into the wider social discourses about these schools.

In his explanation of the ‘double hermeneutic’, Giddens (1993) incorporates Gadamer’s ontological view of understanding. Those involved in Islamic schooling engage with their contexts within a framework of underlying pre-understanding. The responses they get from such engagement form a new moment of understanding that itself loops back to modify that pre-knowledge for future action. Hence, the notions of ‘double hermeneutic’ and ‘practical wisdom’ seemed to clearly explain the ways people involved in Islamic schooling reflect on their day-to-day activities and, in the light of new knowledge, are able to influence the structure of these schools.

This paper is based on the literature review, interview data from school leadership and teachers in the case-study schools; will also use data from the parental questionnaire, school prospectuses and the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) reports. The questionnaire obtained demographic information about parents, including ethnicity and education as well as other closed and open-ended questions regarding expectations and evaluations of their chosen Muslim schools. These data were used to draw a broad overview of parental backgrounds and perspectives within the four schools. Although the questionnaire was used in this study to provide a background overview and as an information gathering exercise, it lacks the flexibility that is required to capture the subtle and complex character of the meaning and experience of ‘Islamic schooling’ in a Western context. At the same time, the double hermeneutic approach for this study meant I adopted a probing stance towards participants’ interpretations of their world to help produce a meaningful theoretical and conceptual account of Muslim schooling. This dual focus requires the semi-structured interview because it provides some flexibility to the natural flow of the interview talk, adaptability to what is being said and also (where necessary) questioning. In 2018-2019 further 1/2-1-hour interviews with the same school leaders are conducted to update their engagement with the current debate of ‘British values’ in light of the neo-liberal policies. Ofsted reports, printed and digital prospectuses and the websites of the case-study schools were used in this study to provide some demographic background and to offer secondary data to support or raise questions about emerging themes from the main data. Although self-descriptive documents of schools are not transparent descriptions of the day-to-day school routines, they represent their interactions with parents and the wider context through publicising and justifying themselves and, therefore, cannot be ignored. The analysis in this research is based on data derived from a total of 157 returned questionnaires (23.8 percent response rate), 9 focus groups of children, 1 focus group of parents, 22 individual interviews with teachers, 9 individual interviews with parents, 11 individual interviews with school managers and the consultancy of the prospectus, website and Ofsted report of each case-study school. However, as might be expected, the study produced a large amount of data: recording of 24 hours of individual interviews, 8 hours of focus group data, questionnaire responses and field notes.

It emerges from the study data that for the case-study school leaders, there were two main dilemmas that they have to resolve. The first dilemma appears to be between spirituality and academic standards and discusses how the leaders of the case-study schools interpret Islamic education within Britain. In examining the leaders’ responses to such dilemma two main approaches emerged; the moral approach that places special focus on spirituality and the social approach that prioritises social empowerment through its particular focus on academic standards. These interpretations will necessarily impact on matters of curriculum composition and the general ethos of the school. The second dilemma emerges between the quality of education, which all case-study schools sought to offer, and the subsequent economic demands. In resolving the latter dilemma schools are pushed to make choices regarding their financial arrangements between remaining autonomous, socio-economically inclusive and providing a competing quality educational service. Hence, various choices are being made through the day-to-day educational practical experiences. The choices that the leaders of those schools take in resolving these two dilemmas are creating diversity between and within these schools. In doing so, this section raises the issue of a developing consumerist approach amongst parents as customers looking for the best value for money within the Islamic schooling sector in England. However, the choices Islamic schools make in resolving the dilemma of ethos versus the market dynamics contribute to changes in the demographic composition of those schools. Hence, aspects of state funding, choice and control are examined as they form crucial elements of competition, selectivity and accountability in the process of choice. These market powers present Islamic schools with both challenges and opportunities and contribute to shaping their resolutions and journeys. These findings are to be compared to Belgium and Netherlands contexts.

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