Exploring the Educational Aspirations of Muslims in Ontario’s Schools: An Education Roundtable

 Sarfaroz Niyozov and Nadeem Memon,
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto 

Background

Since 9/11, Muslims, living in the West, have been caught in constant challenges of understanding themselves and the environments in which they live. The education systems of the Diaspora countries are facing challenges stretching their capacities to the limits. In Canada there are some 700 thousands Muslims. Ontario where the majority of Canada’s Muslims live, has been continuously trying to meet the challenge.

 Exploring the educational aspirations of Muslim students in Ontario

Canada’s leading education institution—Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the University of Toronto, organized a Round Table devoted to exploring the educational aspirations of Muslim students in Ontario on May 14^th, 2006. The roundtable invited 60 key stakeholders from the educational community in Ontario that included (a) representatives of the community and educational leadership from the Toronto District School Board, York Region District School Board, and Toronto Islamic schools, (b) teachers in public, private and community-based schools, (c) education researchers from OISE/UT, and other universities’ faculties, graduate students, and (d) outreach and interfaith workers. OISE’s Dean, Dr. Jane Gaskell, in her welcome speech highlighted OISE’s commitment to diversity and equity, which includes but goes beyond Muslims’ education issues. Nadeem Memon, a Ph.D. candidate at OISE/UT, pointed out the urgency of understanding and responding to the needs of Muslim students through teacher education programs as the roundtable’s rationale. He outlined two major overarching concerns facing Muslim education in Canada: (1) the need for teacher education programs to critically address issues of Islamophobia in public schools, and (2) the growth of privately funded Islamic schools in Ontario needs an accredited teacher education program for Muslim educators comparable to the Catholic and Jewish teacher education programs at OISE/UT and York University respectively. 

 Setting up the stage, Nadeem Memon (i) acknowledged the tireless efforts of many individuals and community based organizations to address these concerns; (ii) invited the stakeholders to share, assess, and collaborate on joint initiatives to address educational needs of Muslim students, and assess whether there is indeed consensus on major educational concerns and strategic solutions, In case of consensus through the representation of diverse voices and perspectives, it is possible to envision that the round table would serve as the springboard to future collaboration both within the Muslim community, but also with OISE/UT and individual Boards of Education. 

 Sarfaroz Niyozov, a professor at the OISE/UT, followed by re-stating the need for a scholarly, open, and constructive engagement with the issues, included in the roundtable’s agenda, and reiterated its general objectives as follows:    

(a)   To identify short and long-term educational issues, challenges, and needs of the students from Muslim background, involved in studying in public, private, and faith-based schools in Ontario;

(b)   To initiate, identify and, in some cases, develop a number of strategic approaches,  which could lead to resolving some of these issues and challenges through individual and collaborative projects by OISE/UT, community institutions, individuals, and various schooling sectors (e.g., public, private, and community-based);

(c)   To create learning and sharing networks on the issues of common interest in relation to the roundtable’s major theme

 The tone for the roundtable was set by Jasmin Zine, Assistant Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, in her keynote address. As an established scholar in the field of Muslim Education in Canada, she began by engaging the images often conjured by the term “Islamic education”. These included images of boys rocking back and forth, memorizing the Holy Qur’an in a traditional madrassa setting are often times what our understanding of Islamic education is limited to. These images, she asserted, misconstrue the diverse historical legacy of learning in Islam. In a post 9/11 context the richness in pedagogical principles and practices in the Islamic heritage that go beyond the madrassa must be illustrated. She invited the roundtable to serve as another intervention to address the impact felt on 9/12 –by fleshing out what existing initiatives are and critically imagining how schools and communities can collaborate on a larger, more organized scale. Attendees were then separated into two roundtables by their area of expertise (a) Muslim students in the public system (including Catholic Board of Education), and (b) private schools, in this case, Islamic schools. The morning discussions were about the developments and challenges. The afternoon was devoted to identifying strategic solutions and initiatives that could address the challenges in a meaningful, strategic, and professional manner.

 Social, cultural and pedagogical issues confronting Muslim students today

Some of the key developments noted in the roundtable around Muslim students’ needs in public schools were increased accommodation toward designated areas for prayer, increased sensitivity toward needs of students during the month of Ramadan and dress code, achieved primarily through a TDSB document on Religious Accommodation (links to TDSB equity policy). There is also more encouragement for teachers to allow students to bring examples of appropriate materials (e.g., religious music, Islam’s contribution to science) to enrich the existing curricula. Documents are being developed on Asian heritage and African heritage, Muslim scholars are being called in for sensitivity training, and some boards are initiating programs such as a World Faiths Festival.  In terms of teacher education, more Muslim students are getting to B Ed and graduate courses on education. Undergraduate and graduate courses are including topics on Islam, religious and cultural diversity; more open discussions are happening about issues that concern Muslims in Canada and across the world. Parents are encouraged to participate in school visits. Inter-faith dialogue and field trips to Greater Toronto Area community organizations are organized to create a better understanding and developing positive outlook of each other.

Among the challenges that the public system faces in meeting the needs of Muslim students are the lack of a full inclusion of diverse epistemologies and religious perspectives in curriculum content both in teaching in the public system and in teacher training programs. This lack of information has made it difficult for teachers to counteract the sensationalization of political events by the media. Misunderstanding and misconstrued information have left many Muslim students open to verbal and physical assault by peers that have created an issue around school safety as well. A greater investment in support systems is needed for these students.  The other challenge faced is maximizing the success of Muslim students.  It was noted at the roundtable that student success is largely dependent on parental support, something that has remained a challenge for school boards to establish. Combined with an ESL cut back, there is an increase in the dropout rate and poor performance among Muslim students.

 To address these challenges the members of the roundtable suggested using the OISE/UT website as a central repository of information on cultural diversity, equity, anti racism. This site could be used for positing alternative information about Islam, which would benefit in-service, media literacy, and provide ready made teacher resources. By reinvigorating the anti-racist agenda and addressing questions about Islam in both the pre-service and in-service teacher education programs, teachers would learn and develop innovative approaches of dealing with religions, including Islam. To complement teacher education programs, it was suggested that a course on World Religions could also be taught. Other recommendations included bringing Muslim parents into teacher education programs as consultants and guest speakers, provision of the parenting seminars on motivating and guiding their children, ensuring that pre-service courses are culturally and religious sensitive, establishing partnerships with UofT’s School of Theology, Catholic Teacher Education Program at OISE/UT, and local Islamic schools.   

From a board perspective strategic solutions mentioned were to create collaborative networks to discuss issues of safe schools with Muslim parents and students, establish a committee to ensure that textbooks are culturally and religiously accurate and sensitive to current events, and map out the best practices and resources that have been employed by current teachers to address the needs of Muslim students

 In the second concurrent roundtable on privately-run full-time Islamic schools that was facilitated by Nadeem Memon, notable developments included the fact that Islamic schools are growing exponentially in number (currently 34) and enrolment (7% of school aged Muslim students attending).  Student bodies and teaching staff are comprised of greater cultural diversity and the demand for high schools is urgent.  Also worthy of note, however, is the growth of second generation Muslims who are becoming educators which is expanding the possible pool of teachers to feed into the growing number of schools.  More schools are now also registering with the Ministry of Education to uphold Ministry standards for curriculum and school record keeping.  Initiatives are in place to establish collaborative organizations to unite schools such as a Principal’s Council of Islamic Schools and likely a Muslim Board of Education. Other key developments included inter-Islamic school extra curricular activities, interfaith dialogues, encouragement of community outreach and community service, adopting standardized tests, and an increase in scholarship through international conferences on Islamic education, which has led to more available data on growth and challenges. 

The challenges in the private sector were numerous and of a distinct sort from those experienced in the public system.  The lack of public funding was a founding concern that manifested its impact in many other ways.  The lack of public funding is linked to the possible quality of Islamic schools and the inability to address the needs of students with special needs and English as a second language backgrounds.  Having to rely on community support and individual tuition fees has made Islamic education an issue of social class divide.  School facilities are also sub-standard many with no playgrounds, gymnasiums, or libraries, science or computer labs.   

In addition to funding, the dichotomy between Islamic schools and public education has also taken its toll on Muslim educators and students.  It was noted that teachers feel inferior to their public school colleagues and parents and students often feel a similar inferiority in the quality of education they are receiving.  With many teachers lacking Ontario certification, teacher training is also a major issue.  Educational trends such as citizenship, holistic, transformative, and experiential education are often not understood or reflecting in teaching practice for this reason. Curriculum resources, both an awareness of and access to, were also mentioned as a major challenge among Islamic school teachers. The challenge of teacher education therefore was paramount. The issue had its complexity in being two-pronged: (1) there are those new immigrant teachers who are qualified and experienced from their home countries but are not equipped contextually with trends and practices distinct to education in Ontario, (2) are all the teachers who teach in Islamic schools that need to align with the vision and pedagogical practices that define education in Islam.   

The second challenge of a clear definition of the goals within the Islamic school network.  It was noted that one of the major overarching challenges faced by Islamic schools is defining why they exist. The absence of overarching structures such as a board of education, has left these schools without a unifying mission and vision or consistency in quality of curriculum instruction.  

Policy recommendation

In the strategic solutions for Ontario’s Islamic schools then the first suggestion discussed was the urgent need for organized collaboration between schools and institutionalized standardization over what is taught and how. The second major suggestion made was to address the need for teacher training for those that are not able to enroll in pre-service programs in the province.  To address the barriers and challenges that Muslim immigrant educators have in gaining accreditation from the Ontario College of Teachers or even access to Ontario faculties of education, the roundtable suggested that OISE/UT develop a Teacher Training Certificate Program for Muslim educators seeking employment in Islamic schools.  Teacher education programs for Muslim educators do exist but have difficulty in gaining the support of major Islamic schools because of stigmatization.  It is hoped that the support and affiliation of an accredited certificate by OISE/UT would lend credibility to such an initiative and improve the pedagogical practices of teachers in Islamic schools.   

In addition to the teacher training certificate program, the recommendation was made for OISE/UT to develop and initiate a Bachelor of Education Stream in Islamic Education, following the model of the Catholic Education stream at OISE/UT and the Jewish Education stream at York University. This could be a model for Muslim teacher training programs in North America.  Such a program option would serve the growing number of Muslim students applying to faculties of education in Ontario, non-Muslim teachers who work in public schools that have predominant Muslim populations, and educators who are interested alternative pedagogical approaches based on Islamic principles.  

Other recommendations that relied on the support of OISE/UT included encouraging greater research initiatives on Islamic schools and Muslim students growing up in a post 9/11 era, more effort ought to be placed in establishing practicum placements in Islamic schools, creating greater awareness for discussion forums for teacher candidates who teach significant numbers of Muslim students in their practicum, and to establishing “Turn-Around” teams from among OISE/UT faculty and graduate students.  These turn-around teams could facilitate Professional Learning Communities between schools or within them, research and promote best practices between schools, and conduct professional development seminars. The roundtable ended with a joint deliberation about how to move forward. It was decided by the participants that the roundtable discussions should continue bi-annually with an expanding number of invited stakeholders.  

Conclusion

The networks and collaboration of these roundtables would allow for joint initiatives and resource sharing between boards, schools, and educators in both the public and private systems. It is envisioned that this new network of educators would be able to set up a process that could strategically and scholarly address the challenges and solutions suggested at the first roundtable described above through working teams and task forces. The participants found the round table to be a valuable and pedagogically-relevant forum. They expressed willingness and commitment to actively participate and support its endeavor. The next round table is expected to be held in an Islamic school in Toronto with the participation of teachers, scholars, and stakeholders from all education sectors.