Are Madrassa and Mainstream school educational practice and teacher-pupil relationship mutually exclusive? British Muslims discuss the influence of education institutions on their emerging identities

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a study exploring the attitudes, experiences and relationships of Muslim youth with their madrassa (supplementary school) and mainstream school teachers in the backdrop of British government’s intense scrutiny and regulatory practices of educational spaces occupied by Muslim youth. This study further explores the perceived pedagogy used in both educational contexts and its influence on the growth and development of the learners. British Muslims discuss how they negotiate their identities against a normalised societal narrative dictating diverse cultural, religious and secular educational contexts as conflicting polemics culminating in Muslim youth leading segregated lives. The research was conducted in a small inner city, through an independent measures design involving two groups of 22 participants, current and ex-madrassa pupils, aged 11 - 19. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the data revealed that over the past ten years there has been a change in the attitudes of British Muslims towards their madrassa and school teachers. Due to the repetitive, impersonalised rote learning pedagogy inculcating little meaningful knowledge; the harshness and punitive nature of teachers and limited teacher-student engagement, the ex-madrassa pupils held a stronger relationship with their mainstream school teachers . In contrast the current pupils preferred their madrassa teachers describing them as ‘fun and kind’. School teachers are perceived to develop them as wealth producing capital whereas madrassa teachers are seen as inculcators of moral character, laying the foundations for becoming a better human being. British Muslims discuss the changing nature of their madrassa teachers from overseas, to homegrown British educated imams, who are helping to contextualise their understanding of Islam to their lives in Britain and now more recently to online tutors with British teaching qualifications . They compare these with professionally trained school teachers. This evidence-based small-scale study identifies, through the voices of British Muslim youth, that school and madrassa education does not have to be mutually exclusive. Through mutual sharing of teacher training, pedagogy and curriculum planning, schools and madrassas have the potential to homogenise the learning experiences , helping Muslim youth inscribe their religious identities within a secular pluralistic British society. This paper provides British Muslim youth a platform to voice their felt experiences and make recommendations for madrassa teachers and leaders; school teachers and leaders and policy makers.