Muslim students’ experiences and perspectives on current teaching practices in Canadian schools

Abstract

This study investigated seven Muslim elementary school students’ classroom experiences in a large urban area in western Canada. Although existing studies have examined the experiences of Muslim high school, college and university students, no research focused specifically on Muslim elementary school children’s classroom experiences in Alberta prior to this study. The study used an interpretive inquiry approach in which interviews with children about their lived experiences of schooling served as a foundation for critical analysis of school culture. The study results provide important insights into the lives of Muslim immigrant children who are trying to adapt to their host country while maintaining their family and community religious beliefs and practices. According to the findings, there are clear signs of the presence of Islamophobia in Canadian schools.

Keywords

Multiculturalism Muslims acculturation education sense of belonging Islamophobia

Canada is one of the most multicultural countries in the world, and Muslims are one of its fastest-growing immigrant populations (Statistics Canada, 2011). Muslims currently represent 3.2% of Canada’s total population, and this number will increase to 6% or 7% by 2036 (Statistics Canada, 2011). Most members of this population are young, and the number of Muslim children will grow rapidly in the future, especially in the western Canadian province of Alberta, which has become a popular destination for immigrants from around the world, including Muslims. This study investigated how seven immigrant Muslim elementary students in urban Alberta experienced their schooling and what they think about their teachers’ attitudes towards them. My study makes an important contribution to the literature since the existing studies have examined the experiences of Muslim high school, college and university students in different big cities of Canada (Abukhattala, 2004; Zine, 2001, 2004, 2006), but prior to my study, no research focused specifically on the classroom experiences of Muslim children who were attending mainstream public elementary schools in Alberta.

In this article, I briefly describe the study’s context, the literature on acculturation theory that informed the study, and the study’s methodology. I then discuss the participants’ school experiences, using quotes from my conversations with them. My findings indicate that even though an essential goal of Canadian multiculturalism is an increase in the sense of belonging of all cultural groups, teachers in Alberta are failing to achieve this goal in relation to Muslim students due to widespread negative views about Muslims in Canadian society and schools. In the last section of the article, I discuss the implications for teachers based on my participants’ recommendations.

Background

The impacts of 9/11

In a post-9/11 world, views on Muslims’ presence in the West (i.e. Europe, North America and Australia) have posed questions about Muslim integration, identity, culture, religion and education, and have positioned Muslims in western countries as outliers among other immigrant groups (Niyozov and Pluim, 2009). Particularly in North America, the post-9/11 phenomenon of Islamophobia, defined as ‘a closed-minded hatred, fear or prejudice toward Islam and Muslims’, contributes to the ostracizing of Muslim communities and leads to individual, ideological and systemic forms of oppression and discrimination (McCoy et al., 2011; Sivanandan, 2006). Islamophobic beliefs about Muslims are based on the assumption that Muslims are religious radicals who believe in violence against non-Muslims. Islamophobia is not new in western culture, but Islamophobic discourses have intensified since 9/11 (Sajid, 2005). According to the findings of various research studies since 9/11, Muslims in North America are the victims of negative stereotypes because of their religious beliefs (Amer, 2005; Charani, 2005; Erickson and Al-Timimi, 2001; Niyozov and Pluim, 2009; Sajid, 2005; Shaheen, 2003; Sivanandan, 2006).

C-surveys conducted by the Canadian chapter of the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) in 2002 revealed that in the year following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 60% of Canadian Muslim respondents reported having experienced bias or discrimination (McCoy et al., 2011). This situation mirrors what McCoy et al. (2011: 3) describe in Europe: that Islam has become a symbol of ‘threat’ to Europe, and Muslim residents, even those who are European citizens or European-born, are ‘caught up in the ever-expanding loop of xeno-racism’.

The impacts of 9/11 are also seen in Canadian schools (Sheridan and North, 2004). Due to widespread negative views about Muslims in Canadian society, some teachers intentionally or unintentionally promote practices of racism and Islamophobia. For example, Zine (2004), in her ethnographic analysis of seven Muslim students’ schooling experience in Toronto, provided evidence that discriminatory attitudes on the part of students are often compounded by teachers’ lack of response or penalizing of the victims. Teachers’ biased attitudes damaged Muslim students’ self-esteem and identities, and, because of the lack of social acceptance, Muslim youth developed feelings of disaffection and marginality.

Canadian multiculturalism

Canada was the first country in the world to adopt a multiculturalism policy at the national level. Canada’s multicultural approach focuses on the importance of a cohesive society by recognizing the importance of diversity among the immigrant population. According to Canadian multiculturalism policy, it is not a requirement for immigrants to assimilate. They are not required to leave their ethnic and cultural identities behind; rather, they are encouraged to keep their ethnic and cultural distinctiveness because it is considered to have a positive impact on social cohesion (Reitz et al., 2009). This concept of multiculturalism is different from other countries. By creating a new third space (Bhabha, 1994 cited in Ghosh and Abdi, 2004: 36) in which people from different cultures can live comfortably together, Canada’s policy aims for a ‘fusion of horizons’ (Taylor, 1994, cited in Ghosh and Abdi, 2004: 35). Multiculturalism in Canada is intended to develop a common culture and to integrate immigrants within an already diverse society that accepts all differences among groups.

Even though Canadian multicultural policy seems very sound and appears to give immigrants the full right to retain their culture and have it recognized, in practice the situation is different. Canadian multiculturalism has failed to achieve its goals of equality and justice (Reitz et al., 2009). Although the population of racial minorities in Canada is increasing, there is a decrease in the level of integration of these minority groups, and around one-third of Canada’s racial minorities face discrimination of some kind (Banting et al., 2007: 65). Canadians usually deny the existence of ethno-racial discrimination in their society, but the results of Canadian attitude surveys contradict these claims (Berry and Kalin, 1995; Esses et al., 2001; Reitz et al., 2009). These surveys provide evidence that certain groups of immigrants experience discrimination in mainstream Canadian society (Dion, 2001). Many Canadians have a totally different attitude towards multiculturalism than the official policy. Some may consider multiculturalism important, but, according to others, it is ‘fundamentally flawed’ (Reitz et al., 2009: 1). Adams (2007: 29), in his review of public opinion data, finds that most Canadians think that ‘something about multiculturalism is broken and that immigrants aren’t adequately adapting to life in Canada’. There is a perception among some Canadians that ‘certain religious minorities have values, beliefs or practices that are difficult to integrate into Canadian society because they clash with Canadian ideas’ (Soysal, 1997, cited in Reitz et al., 2009: 9). Not all immigrants are accepted by mainstream society. Certain groups of immigrants, such as Muslims, get little acceptance or, in some cases, total rejection from mainstream society. This trend, paired with concerns due to recent cases of Islamic extremism, has sparked a debate about the integration of Muslims in Canada (McCoy et al., 2011). Next, I situate this debate within acculturation theory.

Acculturation of immigrants

Acculturation refers to the process of the adaptation of immigrants to the host country’s culture and to cultural changes that come forth through intercultural contacts (Berry, 1997, 2012). It is a process whereby a person or group experiences constant, first-hand interactions with a person or group from another culture. In this process, identities, senses of self, behaviours, attitudes and values go through constant change (Berry and Kalin, 1995). This definition highlights acculturation as change that may occur in both dominant (mainstream) and non-dominant (immigrant) groups, but non-dominant groups are more likely to change during the acculturation process (Berry, 1997, 2012).

Process of acculturation

The effect of acculturation is greater on the minority or immigrant group than on the members of the host society. This is because the immigrant group must adapt to the culture of the host society in order to attain a certain position in the host society (Kâgitçibasi, 2009). When studying acculturation, one must measure changes not only at the level of an individual, but also at the group level. The level of acculturation will vary from person to person depending on their attachment to their own culture and their willingness to adopt the host culture (Berry, 1997). This means that the level of acculturation may be different for the whole group compared to the level of acculturation for any particular individual (Berry, 2006).

The way in which members of pluralistic societies acculturate also depends on the closeness of the community. An individual’s acculturation depends heavily on the group’s tendency to maintain contact and encourage group participation (Berry, 2006). These factors impact the acculturation strategy that is adopted by different groups. According to Berry (2006), individuals within a group may choose to adopt one acculturation strategy over another, but they might change their strategy depending on the group they interact with. Furthermore, dominant groups can exert force over minority groups to choose a particular acculturation strategy (Berry, 2006).

Limitations of acculturation strategies

Berry (1997) proposed four acculturation patterns of an individual regarding their involvement and experience with the dominant culture: assimilation, integration, separation and marginalization. He described these acculturation patterns as a continuum in which complete inclusion of the minority group is on one side and complete exclusion is on the other. If an individual becomes fully absorbed into the dominant culture’s ways of life, both culturally and linguistically, it results in ‘assimilation’. If acceptance of the dominant culture and maintenance of the heritage culture are both high, the outcome is called ‘integration’. If maintenance of the heritage culture is low, the outcome is called ‘marginalization’, and if maintenance of the heritage culture is high but a positive relationship with the dominant culture is low, it is called ‘separation’. Separation is often the immigrants’ own decision. Marginalization is a result of exclusion, where immigrants have already separated from their home culture but have not fully adopted the host culture.

Berry’s model has some limitations. First, the lines between the four stages of acculturation are not clearly defined (Wallen and Fraenkel, 2001). Second, the theory does not consider the greater or lesser acceptance of certain ethnic groups in the host society. This acceptance, or lack thereof, limits the immigrants’ choices of acculturation strategies and puts them in a disadvantageous position in regard to acculturation. Berry assumed that the immigrant has full control over which acculturation strategy they choose. Furthermore, the model does not include other factors that may impact the immigrant’s choice (Kosic, 2002). Berry’s (1980) acculturation strategy model does not acknowledge that immigrants from cultures which are very different from the host culture, such as Muslims in Canada, are not well accepted in the host society (Kâgitçibasi, 2009). These culturally distant immigrants do not have the opportunity to choose a strategy of acculturation. For example, because of their dress code, beliefs, culture and religion, Muslims may not be free to choose full assimilation into the dominant society. In spite of these limitations, Berry’s acculturation approach is theoretically strong and popular among researchers.

Stress and conflict can develop if there is a difference between the acculturation strategy immigrants prefer and the strategy they have to adopt (Clément et al., 2001). It is very hard to explain how immigrants negotiate between their two cultures. How immigrants decide which dimension of acculturation to choose is not an easy question. They do not have a lot of choices, and these possibilities are further restricted due to many other factors, such as the demands of the host culture or their own ethnic culture and their own personal preferences and circumstances (Berry, 1997, 2012; Ward, 2004). Often, these choices are affected and restricted by immigration policies. The ideologies and strategies of immigrants are not always aligned with those of the host society. Research on acculturation has shown that immigrants from similar cultures to the host culture find the cross-cultural transition easier compared to immigrants who come from a culture that is extremely different from the host culture (Kâgitçibasi, 2009).

The role of schools in Muslim immigrant children’s acculturation

Studies have shown that integration is the most desirable acculturation strategy for immigrants in a multicultural society like Canada, because maintenance of the ethnic culture while adopting the host culture’s values is always beneficial for the development of a multicultural society (Berry, 1984: Ward and Kennedy, 1999). The integration of immigrants into the mainstream population, as the most desirable acculturation strategy (Berry, 1980), occurs when immigrants maintain a balance between the dominant culture and their heritage culture, but in the case of immigrant children, it demands more than just maintaining a balance. In order to integrate immigrant children into the mainstream culture, the development of their sense of belonging is very important. Immigrant children cannot fully integrate until they feel welcome at home or in school (Lee, 2001).

In the case of Muslim children’s integration into Canadian schools, many experience racism and a lack of social acceptance, which leads them to develop feelings of disaffection, marginality, social isolation and loneliness (Zine, 2004). Most of the time, the attitudes and behaviours of Muslim children’s non-Muslim peers and teachers at school are based on stereotypical assumptions about the Muslim community at large (Abu El-Haj, 2002; Rezai-Rashti, 1994; Zine, 2000, 2004). When these young immigrant children do not see their race, culture and language as part of their classroom, they do not see themselves belonging to the classroom group, and some of them start to think that their values, race and culture are inferior to the dominant culture (Zine, 2004). Schooling is considered an important part of the acculturation of immigrant children. It is very important for them to integrate into both their ethnic community and mainstream society (Berry, 1980), but in the case of Muslim immigrant children who become targets of criticism and discrimination, not only from their peers but also from their teachers, other school staff and the community at large, integration may not be possible (Abu El-Haj, 2002; Rezai-Rashti, 1994; Zine, 2000, 2004). An increase in Islamophobia not only makes Muslim children’s psychosocial adaptation and acculturation into the school community extremely difficult, and in some cases totally impossible; it also makes it difficult for them to maintain their own ethnic identities. As a result, some Muslim children are forced by their fear of rejection to hide their religious identities. Some of these Muslim children fail to connect with their new homeland and feel they do not belong in their new place (McDonough and Hoodfar, 2005; Niyozov and Pluim, 2009). Thus, when young Muslim immigrants feel that they are viewed negatively by others in school, they are more likely to view society negatively and reject being part of the larger society. This could lead to their separation or marginalization instead of integration.

In the following sections, I discuss my study’s aims and methodology, and then present highlights of its findings with discussion.

Methodology

This qualitative study investigated Muslim students’ classroom experiences in a large urban area in western Canada. Through snowball sampling, I chose seven participants – three males and four females aged 11 to 18. The students I interviewed included individuals from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. They self-identified as Muslims and all of them belonged to the Sunni sect of Islam. Among them, the students previously had schooling experiences in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Dubai before immigrating to Canada. All seven study participants had lived in Canada for at least eight years and had attended schools both inside and outside of Canada, which allowed them to compare their experiences in both places.

This study used an interpretive inquiry approach (Ellis, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c, 2006; Ellis, et al., 2011; Smith, 2010) as methodology and hermeneutics as a source of guiding ideas of how to think and talk about the processes involved in the interpretive inquiry. The interpretation of the dialogues with the children about their lived experiences of schooling served as a foundation for critical analysis (Darder et al., 2009; Freire, 1985). The data was collected through pre-interview activities and open-ended interviews. The purpose of the pre-interview activities was to help participants recall significant memories and reflections (Ellis, 2006) and establish some common ground for further discussions. During the interviews, I did not suppress the interviewees’ responses by limiting their answers to the narrowly specified questions. I simply asked the participating Muslim children to share stories about their experiences at school with me and then I transcribed these recorded stories and used the written texts for analysis (Mishler, 1986). In order to analyse my participants’ stories, I used pragmatic analysis, in which I sought common themes among the data collected in the form of stories, with an aim to look for different kinds of ‘responses, actions, and understandings’ (Polkinghorne, 1995: 13). According to Polkinghorne (1995: 5), stories are the linguistic form in which lived human experiences can be expressed; he further explains that ‘narrative configuration refers to the process by which happenings are drawn together and integrated into a temporally organized whole’.

As I did my research with the children, I tried to lessen the power relationship that often exists during social interactions between a child and an adult (Green and Hogan, 2005; Lewis and Lindsay, 2000) through the use of pre-interview activities and open-ended choices about what aspects of their experiences the children wanted to share with me (Ellis, 2006; Ellis et al., 2013). I involved the participants in the data collection and data interpretation processes as co-producers of the data. I gave them the freedom to choose what they wanted to share with me or not by providing opportunities for them to review the data several times. They were encouraged to delete and/or add information as they saw appropriate during their review of the data. I saw them as co-participants, not as the subjects of my research, and as co-producers and co-interpreters of their data (Patton, 2002).

Presentation of data and discussion

‘Relationships with peers’ was the most common theme that emerged from the data, followed by teachers and their attitudes towards Muslim immigrant children. Almost all of my participants appreciated how, in their elementary grades when they were newly arrived in their schools, teachers were nice to them and tried to help them adjust to their school environments. Some of the participants who were not used to this kind of attitude from their teachers back home even felt quite overwhelmed by their teachers’ behaviour. Unfortunately, things got worse in high school when teachers started teaching about current global issues – specifically 9/11.

Teachers’ lack of understanding of newcomer children’s needs

Almost all my participants talked about their experiences with some of their teachers and how they sometimes unintentionally hurt their students’ feelings. Specifically in the case of immigrant children, teachers sometimes got impatient or even annoyed by the extra assistance these children needed in their initial settlement in the new environment of their classes and schools, especially in the elementary grades, without realizing that all these things were new for these young students. These immigrant children were not less competent than their classmates; they were just new and did not know much about the new world around them. Their difficulties were part of their adjustment to the new environment. Amjad (2009, 2012a, 2012b), in her similar studies, also found that it is hard for teachers sometimes to understand the adjustment issues of young immigrant children, especially Muslim immigrant children, whose cultural background is vastly different from the mainstream western culture and norms. One of my female participants, Shama, shared her experience as a new immigrant child in her elementary grades as follows:

My teachers in elementary years were very nice. Only one of my teachers was very weird and very rude. She was very impatient with me. I was not aware about the lockers and how to use them. She was very angry and rude when I asked her. She didn’t realize that I am new to this system. I don’t think there were some other reasons behind it. She just wanted things to go smoothly and just wanted to go with the flow. She didn’t like students to tell exactly the things, but I kept on asking for help. She was just annoyed by me.

Amina, another female participant, also shared some of her elementary grade experiences. She said that when she arrived in Canada she was a quiet child, because this was considered a quality of a good child in Muslim culture. She never made eye contact with elders, always listened to them, and spoke less in front of them. After immigration, when she started going to school, her teacher misunderstood this quality and thought that Amina was a withdrawn and even asocial child. She called Amina’s mother to discuss her shyness and asked her to encourage Amina to talk at home. Amina said that her mother was very upset, because she always thought of her as a very confident and respectful child. That teacher did not understand this young immigrant student, who was already in a challenging situation of adjusting to a new environment, and she expected her to do things that were against her culture and religion. That experience made Amina’s adjustment to the school culture very difficult:

When I entered into my elementary grades, my teacher, who just started her teaching career, misunderstood my behaviour. She thought I am a very shy and dumb student when I was not. For one of my class assignments I wrote an essay after many days of hard work, and she doubted on my skills of writing by saying did I cheat it from somewhere. I was quite shocked as cheating is considered a very bad thing in my culture and religion. I cried for many days, but I didn’t tell it to my mom as she will feel bad and shocked. Now that I have grown up and better understand the whole situation I always feel angry for not complaining about that teacher’s behaviour to my mom.

Lack of cultural sensitivity

In other participants’ school experiences, teachers had a hard time in understanding the culture and religion of Muslim immigrant children. Sometimes the teachers mistreated the Muslim students because of their own limited knowledge about these children’s home culture and religion. Khan (2009), in her qualitative case study, also mentioned teachers’ lack of understanding about Muslim culture and practices, which creates hurdles for these young children’s school adjustment. Often, teachers made comments in front of other students without realizing how hurtful they might be for their young students, who have a natural need for respect among their peers. These kinds of behaviours not only affected the feelings and school performance of these students, but also affected their positive image among their classmates. Although these kinds of behaviours were often unintentional, they had a devastating effect on the school performance and adjustment of the new immigrant students, especially in their early grades. Other studies on immigrant children’s educational performance and social, cultural and psychological adjustment clearly show that lower self-esteem in Muslim immigrant children is linked to poorer school performance (Abo-Zena et al., 2009; Tobias-Nahi and Garfield, 2007).

Shama, who started wearing her hijab in her elementary grades, shared a comment made by her teacher which hurt her feelings and motivated other children in the school to comment on her style of dress:

In grade eight I started wearing hijab and all my friends and teachers were quite surprised by that. One of my teachers in front of the whole class said to me, ‘Now we are not going to see your pretty hair again’, and I said ‘nope’. This kind of remark made me a little upset and initiated a series of comments from other students to ask me questions about my scarf.

As Shama’s experience indicates, teachers sometimes indirectly contributed to the negative behaviours of Muslim children’s peers at school. Shama also told me that, in her higher grades, she and her classmates studied topics such as sharia law and terrorism in their social studies class. The class discussions about these topics sometimes hurt her feelings, because her classmates openly criticized Muslim culture and Islam due to widespread negative assumptions in the society about Muslims. Shama mentioned that one of her Muslim classmates always got very upset when teachers discussed these topics. For one of their class assignments, the teacher asked the students to write an essay about sharia law, and a student made some very rude comments about Muslims. This student also quoted teachings from the Quran without having proper knowledge of it. Being a Muslim, Shama felt angry and embarrassed in front of the whole class. According to her, teachers should care about these kinds of things, especially when they have Muslim children in their classes:

One of my Muslim friends in my class got very upset with the class discussions about Muslims and 9/11. Everyone in the class thinks that because you are Muslim and have the same religion as the suspects of 9/11 have, you are responsible for this event and they want you to agree with them. It is not that somebody is pinpointing towards you, but it is actually the atmosphere created through the discussions make you feel in this way.

Sensory (2009), in her investigation of the creation of ‘textbook Muslims’, raised the same issues. According to her, when you do not have personal experiences with those groups which are different from your own, your main source of information about ‘others’ will be mainly based on the media. When teachers share their biased image of Muslims on the basis of the information they gather from the media, it affects the image of Muslims for the non-Muslim students in the class as well.

Schools can play a major role in increasing the racism that already exists in society. Racist attitudes affect society in many ways. They increase discrimination, violence, poverty and stereotypes about minority ethnocultural groups, which could also become a reason behind the exclusion of Muslim children from certain groups or classes. This exclusion could marginalize the competencies of these religiously diverse children, who have different norms of competence than the dominant society. Mainstream classroom teachers who are unfamiliar with or hold stereotypical beliefs regarding certain groups underestimate these children’s learning abilities and interact differently with these children. Such racist views affect teachers’ expectations of children in the minority group and can also affect peers’ attitudes, resulting in them making fun of or physical jokes about immigrant children, or even physically attacking them. The findings of my study corroborate those of Zine (2004), who also criticized public schools and many teachers for damaging Muslim students’ self-esteem and identities by showing racist attitudes towards their Muslim students.

‘Good’ versus ‘bad’ teachers

While some teachers have biased attitudes towards Muslim children, some teachers are working against racism and Islamophobia by making connections with these students and their families. They try to make their students feel welcome, safe and comfortable in their classrooms. Shama said that in spite of a few ‘ignorant and inconsiderate’ teachers, there were a few other teachers in her school who actually helped, by explaining the difference between Muslims and extremists while teaching such topics. Shama shared an example of one of her teachers who, while teaching such a topic in his class, explained everything and provided a very good picture of the current global situation. She said she really appreciated his way of teaching and that every teacher should adopt the same strategy in their classrooms:

In my social studies class, one of my teachers talked about current issues, but he made the difference between Taliban and Muslims very clear in front of the whole class. He also explained that terrorism is more a political thing than related to religion. It is more kind of a tribal mentality than what religion teaches us. I thought that was a good idea and a right thing to do instead of just telling what they do is based on religion.

While a few teachers played an important role in providing students with a good overview of the current global situation, others totally ignored the fact that they had students from Muslim backgrounds in their class who could be hurt by some of the topics discussed in class. Sometimes teachers had class discussions without considering the diverse population of the class. Teachers sometimes ignored the importance of providing detailed information while teaching such topics in their classes. Shama shared the following experience from her class discussions:

The discussions on religion are part of our social studies curriculum. I don’t really remember the right words used by the teachers, but they showed us the movies about 9/11. Teacher tried not to use the word Muslim but she used the word Islamists. After that our social studies teacher gave us an assignment to write an essay and everyone in the class chose to write about the event of 9/11 except me and my friend. They all described 9/11 as a terrorist activity and talked about Muslims badly. It was just me and another girl who chose a different topic, but all others chose 9/11. So I am guessing they got affected by it a lot.

In contrast to Shama, Saeed did not think that teachers are responsible for the negative behaviours of students in school. According to him, students learn these negative attitudes from the media or from their parents, who may also learn them through the media: ‘I don’t think teachers are responsible for such kind of behaviour from the students. These students learn these things either from their parents or through the media’.

Ali, who moved to Edmonton from Fort McMurray, a predominantly white community, said that the attitudes of the teachers were almost the same in both cities. He said he did not remember any hard times in his class when he was in his elementary days:

I was a quiet child in my elementary grades so I don’t remember much about my interactions with my teachers. Even in my higher grades I am a little shy to talk in the class so I have nothing special to share.

Ali also said that things changed a little bit when he entered his middle and high school grades, but still there was nothing special to share. Farooq said that his middle school teachers did not say bad things about Muslims, but, on the other hand, they did not try to stop negative comments or explain the details about incidents of terrorism when a discussion arose in the class. Again, the response from teachers varied from teacher to teacher according to how each teacher taught in their class. Farooq said:

While teaching about these events, the teachers don’t show two different perspectives, they just stay in the middle. They don’t say Muslims are not terrorists or Muslims are terrorists, they just be in the central line. They really don’t create any problem. Central line means the teachers would say most of the Muslims are not terrorists but some of them may be. Some teachers explain it a little but most of them don’t.

Farooq blames teachers for not fulfilling their duty of providing real facts or the right information. According to him, if his teachers ever explained something in front of the class, they provided only partially correct information and ignored some facts. As a Muslim student, he wanted his teachers to explain more details in front of the class instead of just saying that the Taliban are responsible for all the events that happened on 9/11 and they are Muslims. This statement is very general; it does not provide the whole picture and could contribute to the negative image of Muslims:

The teachers are not giving exact right information, but they are giving information which is partially right. When people talk about Muslims [in class], I feel they are talking about me, not about anybody else, just about me because I am Muslim. We have many Muslim students in our school in other grades, but in my class I am the only Muslim student. I don’t say teachers say something in favour of Muslims but they shouldn’t go on the terrorist side about Muslims. Everyone have different angle of looking at the different things. We had a discussion in our class about 9/11, like who did the 9/11, and only two of the students think government was responsible, the rest of the class said the terrorists are responsible for 9/11. They think terrorists are mostly Muslims like al-Qaida and things like that. I tried to explain the difference between terrorists and Muslims, but people have different views which are wrapped around their head by media.

Teachers’ biased approaches to curriculum topics

Amina, who had just finished high school, shared some of her experiences regarding teachers teaching a biased curriculum in class. She talked about the discussions in her social studies classes where sometimes teachers also became part of these discussions and supported the comments made by non-Muslim classmates. These discussions hurt her feelings and, being a Muslim, she knew that the negative things said about Muslims are not true:

In our social studies classes we often had discussions on the current global events. Whenever we had these discussions, other students in the class and teachers openly blamed and criticized Muslims. According to them, teachings of Islam provoke and motivate terrorism, while being a Muslim I know it is not true. Islam is a religion of peace and love. The people who are terrorists could not be Muslims. They are just using the label of Islam. I tried to explain it in front of my class, but they didn’t listen to me. Even the teacher didn’t pay attention to my comments. It is the duty of teachers to provide a big picture to their students. I always had that complaint with my teachers.

Farooq mentioned a similar class discussion, which made him upset and indirectly affected his school performance because he felt disconnected from the class afterwards. He was also punished by his teacher, who took points off his final marks because Farooq went against what his teacher had said regarding Muslims and Islam. Farooq said he felt very disappointed after that and that he did not belong in that place, where his beliefs had no value at all. His classmates also openly made fun of him about it. All these things led him to fall behind and eventually fail the class:

When they have these kinds of discussions in the class I feel kind of disconnected. These things are affecting my studies as well. In the past couple of months I am failing as I am not paying attention anymore. I also started feeling that school is too boring and that’s the only reason I failed. The school experiences don’t affect me at home because when I come home I forget everything. Only in school I feel upset because of the comments passed on me. One of the assignments on these topics affects my marks as well as I will go completely opposite to what teacher said in the class and instead I backfired on them and they really don’t like that and that really bring my marks down.

Saeed also talked about class discussions in which Muslims and Islam were openly criticized without the students or teacher seeming to realize that there was a Muslim child in the class whose feelings were being hurt by these discussions. The other students and the teacher all thought that Muslims are not good people and should be barred from entering Canada, because they are killers and could be dangerous for the unity of Canada. Other global issues were also discussed in the class, and Saeed’s classmates also blamed Muslims for these incidents:

Everyone is thinking that it is the Muslim culture and mentality to kill everybody. That is what we discussed in class. Both teachers and students have the same thoughts. The teachers commented that Muslims want to show the world how cruel they could be so they can conquer the world. What they did in Syria they can do in the other countries too and maybe the UN [United Nations] will jump in and they will take over the UN as well. These are the comments of my teachers, but the students say the same thing as well. They changed it, though, as most of them haven’t gone out of this country so they have no experience with other cultures. The farthest they may go is Mexico, so they don’t know what the world is really about and they think that their country will be attacked first because there are too many Muslims coming in. Most of them are not in favour of Muslims.

Sahli et al. (2009), in their study, also pointed towards similar issues of teachers’ ignorance. They recommended that teachers should critically evaluate their own personal lenses and assumptions in order to create an inclusive school environment and reduce inequalities. Mossalli (2009), in her study, provides us with a deep picture of the life of Muslim teenagers in US schools. A teacher’s ignorance about Muslim children’s beliefs affects their positive self-image. Teaching in an era of globalization is not an easy job and is very demanding, especially when teachers have a culturally and religiously diverse student population in their classrooms. Every word and action of the teachers have a profound effect on students’ development and can contribute to their future acculturation in their new homeland. Negative experiences that Muslim students have in schools can restrict their positive adjustment in school, affecting not only the school culture but the broader culture as well.

Mariam shared an experience where her teacher showed the class a video in which Muslims were openly criticized. She was the only young Muslim child in the whole class. She got so upset after watching the video that she felt like she was responsible for all the current events of terrorism. She tried to explain her point of view, being a Muslim, to her friends, but nobody listened to her because the teacher showed the video to the class and the students trusted the teacher more than this young Muslim girl who wanted to defend her identity in front of her friends and classmates. This incident affected her growth as a well-integrated future Canadian citizen:

Sometimes you are watching some documentary and people say Muslims did this and that when they didn’t, and sometimes while sitting I told them how you know it happened and Muslims did that. The videos we see are arranged by teachers or principals. The teachers don’t explain and say that Muslims did this, it is the students who discuss in this way. It is media who is responsible for it. Just during the videos they said this. Once we watched video on 9/11 in which narrator said Muslims did that and it happened twice. We watched those videos in social studies class. We read a book about World War II and then 9/11 came up and our teacher wanted us to watch this video. The teacher didn’t say Muslims are responsible. Once we had a substitute teacher and he said something about Muslims are terrorists and terrorism is a practice of Muslims, and that really really hurts my feelings. I shared it with my parents and they said just ignore it as he didn’t know about it. I am not sure, students must think Muslims are bad after watching that movie.

Implications for teachers

With growing diversity in Canada, Canada’s culturally and religiously diverse classrooms demand culturally and religiously sensitive teaching practices. Teachers require an acute sense of social justice and a clear vision of the role of the school as an acculturation agent in a multicultural society like Canada. At present, teacher training programs lack a focus on concepts such as cultural relevance, multiculturalism and justice (Amjad, 2009, 2012a, 2012b; Ellis et al., 2011; Sleeter and Stillman, 2005). And, as this study’s findings indicate, some Muslim students perceive most of their teachers not only as inefficient in combatting racism, discrimination and Islamophobia, but also as promoting injustice through their teaching methods and curriculum. These two main aspects of teaching – teaching methods and curricula – have an equal part in teaching and a strong impact on students’ future development. It is important that teacher training programs prepare all existing and future teachers to understand the demands of their diverse student populations.

The next two sections include suggestions for school improvements based on my participants’ recommendations.

Teaching methods

The findings of my study raise the importance of culturally and religiously responsive teaching methods to eliminate prejudice. My participants shared that some of their teachers did not understand the requirements of their diverse classrooms. At times, they fully ignored the presence of Muslim children in their classrooms while teaching about current global problems for which Muslims are blamed. They held open discussions on these topics during which they openly criticized Islam and Muslims. Teachers need to be sensitive to their students’ backgrounds before presenting any negative viewpoints in front of the whole class, and consider in advance how such views can affect these students’ peer relationships, academic engagement, and overall sense of being and belonging. In the case of Muslim children, there is so much negativity about Islam and Muslims that it is hard for teachers to protect their classrooms from anti-Islam discussions while teaching about current global issues. Their success entirely depends on how the teachers present global issues to the class. They can either blindly oppose Muslims and Islam or provide evidence so that students can see the bigger picture. Teachers naturally have their own personal viewpoints, but being teachers, they have an obligation to help children develop their ability to critically examine a topic while considering alternative, sometimes conflicting, perspectives. As one of my participants, Shama, suggested, it is important for teachers to make clear the difference between terrorism and Islam while teaching about sharia law or other topics concerning Muslims. Not all Muslims are terrorists or responsible for whatever is happening around the globe. A deliberate effort by teachers is needed to clear up these misconceptions.

It is difficult for non-Muslim teachers to identify the biases within their teaching or in the curricula they are using, because their understanding is greatly influenced by their own personal experiences and interpretations from their position in the social structures of society (Banks, 2003). Teachers need to work towards building healthier relationships with all their students, but especially so with their students from minority backgrounds so that they are better able to understand the students’ behaviours, experiences and needs. In order to teach in a multicultural classroom, a purposeful shift in mindset is essential. Teachers need to adopt inclusive approaches to their teaching which focus on developing mutual respect.

Teachers should be careful when making comments to any of their students in their classrooms. The findings of my study confirm that unintentional comments can have a devastating effect on students’ peer relations and class performance. An example of this from my study was when a teacher openly made remarks about Shama’s head covering, which later affected the attitudes of other class members towards Shama. Classrooms could be used as spaces to reduce distance and biases among different groups. After parents, teachers have the most powerful interactions with children and can make a strong impression on a child’s personality. Further, any effort towards the promotion of multiculturalism could affect the solidarity of the whole nation. Therefore, it is the national and professional duty of teachers to adopt culturally responsive teaching methods.

Inclusive curricula

The second important aspect of teaching is curricula. Teachers to some extent have the power to select and teach curricula according to their own philosophy. In order to strive for social justice in our current culturally and religiously diverse classrooms, it is imperative that teachers understand the sensitive nature and importance of current global issues, and are able to plan curricula that include the needs of all their students. My participants’ school experiences are an indication that, currently, the public school curriculum, at least in Alberta, is still Eurocentric and thus unable to meet the needs of diverse students and fulfil the goals of Canada’s multicultural policy. While teaching topics of global political importance, teachers can suggest materials to add to the curriculum that provide their students with a broader, multi-perspectival picture. Teachers need to put in more effort and inform themselves about multiple perspectives on current global issues, and present unbiased views to their students. We need curricula based on a wide range of perspectives, including those of religious, not just ethnic and cultural, minority groups. Our culturally and religiously diverse students do not see themselves as belonging in their classrooms otherwise. Teachers need to introduce a curriculum that helps students develop not only tolerance, but also an understanding of different world views, and to embrace diversity.

Social studies teachers in Alberta often have discussions in their classes about sharia law and terrorism. According to the participants of my study, in most of these discussions, the teachers speak against Muslim beliefs and blame the whole Muslim community for the increase in terrorism. One of my participants mentioned a movie her teacher showed about the Holocaust; after the movie, the teacher said that if another Holocaust ever happens, it will happen to Muslims. This video made my participant feel distraught for days. These kinds of disturbing effects of biased curricula can easily be reduced by a careful selection of the curricula and additional teaching materials, but the sad reality revealed by my participants is that teachers are not fully aware of these effects because of their inability and lack of training to prepare an inclusive curriculum for their classes. According to my participants, only a few of their teachers showed sensitive attitudes towards their students’ differences and tried to present an unbiased picture while teaching these topics in their classrooms. My participants appreciated these teachers and wished that all their teachers would show the same sensitivity and awareness while teaching such topics.

Conclusion

In order to provide better, more equitable and more fulfilling school experiences for religiously and culturally diverse immigrant children, especially Muslim students, Canadian schools should have the ability to cater to the needs of their culturally and religiously diverse populations. They should have the ability to provide positive learning environments to these diverse students. To do so, they need to re-evaluate their curricula and teaching practices. Canada was among the first countries in the world to adopt a policy of multiculturalism, and Canada is working towards equality and human rights. Due to the current global crises, such as conflicts, wars, droughts and famines, there is a rise in refugees to Canada from Muslim countries, which in turn brings an increase in the Muslim student population in Canadian schools. It is now time to implement the Canadian multicultural policy in schools beyond merely cultural celebrations.

A few years ago, I saw a news report in the Dallas Morning News (Selk, 2015) about a Muslim student in Texas who made a clock at home and took it to school. Instead of being praised for his creativity, he was arrested because the teachers and other staff in the school suspected that the clock was a bomb. The worst part of the story was what the police officer said when he saw the boy: ‘Yup. That’s who I thought it was’ (i.e. he knew it would be a Muslim student). This is an eye-opening incident for us all. Although it did not occur in Canada, we must learn from it. We need to prevent such incidents from happening in the future if we want to integrate young Muslim children into Canadian society.

As a multicultural country, Canada has always taken actions towards the promotion of human rights and equality. I am hopeful that my participants’ astute observations and interpretations of their school experiences and their peers’ and teachers’ behaviours and attitudes towards them will help to bring about needed improvements in the future at both the institutional and policy levels, and that Canada will become a safe haven for people of all religions and cultures.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

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