Islam In The School Curriculum: Symbolic Pedagogy And Cultural Claims

Islam in the School Curriculum Also available from Continuum Citizenship Education, Identity and Nationhood, Dean Garratt and Heather Piper Faith Schools and Society, Jo Cairns Values in Education, Graham Haydon Islam in the School Curriculum Symbolic Pedagogy and Cultural Claims Shiraz Thobani Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704 11 York Road New York London SE1 7NX NY 10038 www.continuumbooks.com © Shiraz Thobani 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Shiraz Thobani has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 9781441100078 (hardcover) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thobani, Shiraz. Islam in the school curriculum / Shiraz Thobani. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4411-0007-8 1. Islam--Study and teaching--Great Britain. 2. Education--Curricula--Great Britain. 3. Education and state--Great Britain. I. Title. BP43.G7T46 2010 297.07'041--dc22 2009035038 Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group Contents List of Tables vi Abbreviations vii Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 1. Policy Contexts and Disputed Knowledge 14 2. Researching School-Based Islam 40 3. Tradition and Innovation in the Curriculum 64 4. Liberalism and Social Parity 89 5. State, Religion and Cultural Restoration 117 6. The Micropolitics of Representation 140 7. Symbolic Imaginings in State Schools 161 8. Creating the New Community 184 9. Politicized Islam and Civic Engagement 208 10. Recontextualized Culture and Social Implications 228 Glossary 246 References 251 Index 263 List of Tables Table 3.1 Examples of two schemes on Islam in postwar agreed syllabuses Table 4.1 The six-dimensional approach to the study of religion Table 4.2 Secondary-level frameworks on Islam in the 1975 Birmingham teachers’ handbook Table 5.1 Scheme on Islam for Key Stage 4 in the SCAA model syllabuses (Model 1) Table 6.1 Approaches to RE at the secondary level in the 1986 Crossford agreed syllabus Table 6.2 Framework on Islam in the 1995 Crossford agreed syllabus – Key Stage 3 (core) Table 6.3 Example of an additional unit (communicating belief) in the 1995 Crossford agreed syllabus – Key Stage 3 Table 7.1 Example of an Year 10 work scheme on Christianity and Islam (state school D) Table 7.2 The Islamic component in the GCSE religious studies syllabus (state school G) Table 8.1 Example of a secondary-level syllabus on Islamic studies for Muslim schools Abbreviations A-Level DES DfE DfES DCSF ECtHR GCSE ILEA LEA O-Level Ofsted QCA RE SACRE SCAA Advanced Level Department of Education and Science Department for Education Department for Education and Skills Department for Children, Schools and Families European Court of Human Rights General Certificate of Secondary Education Inner London Education Authority Local Education Authority Ordinary Level Office for Standards in Education Qualifications and Curriculum Authority Religious Education Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education School Curriculum and Assess