Jasmin Zine. Canadian Islamic Schools: Unraveling the Politics of Faith, Gender, Knowledge, and Identity.
McAndrew, Marie
Jasmin Zine. Canadian Islamic Schools: Unraveling the Politics of
Faith, Gender, Knowledge, and Identity. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 2008. 369 pp. Bibliography. Index. $35.00 sc. $80.00 hc.
The compatibility of ethno-specific schooling with pluralism and
secularism is often questioned in modern democratic societies,
especially with regard to religious traditions, such as Islam, often
stereotyped as less adapted to the requirements of common civic values.
Many competing normative arguments are raised in this regard by
academics, opinion-makers, and even the general public. But the lack of
research on the role and actual functioning of such institutions, their
formal and hidden curriculum, as well as the lived experience of
teachers, parents, and students who attend them is striking, both in
Canada and abroad. Thus, Jasmin Zine's endeavour, a critical
ethnography of four diversified Toronto Islamic schools over a period of
more than eighteen months, some of which she was associated with as a
teacher or a parent, can only be commended. The result is a rather
fascinating book that sheds light on many relevant issues. For the sake
of brevity, I will focus on four of them.
The first one, discussed in chapter 4, concerns the reason why
students and parents choose an Islamic school and the benefit they gain
from it. Although the main results were as expected (such as providing a
socially- and spiritually-based alternative to secular public schools,
protecting students from negative influences or contributing to the
reproduction of Islamic identity and lifestyle), others were less so.
Indeed, many Islamic schools play a role in promoting equal access to
education by rehabilitating wayward students. This section of the book
also shows that students who opt for Islamic education do not live in a
ghetto and have many contacts with students in public schools or in the
neighborhood. A second issue, explored mostly in chapter 8, concerns the
curricular and pedagogical strengths and challenges identified by the
various educational stake-holders, especially in a context where
independent community-based schools, not funded in Ontario, are largely
under-resourced.
However, the most interesting part of the book, in my opinion, lies
in chapters 5, 6, and 7, in which Zine, using what she characterizes as
a critical faith-based epistemology, analyses with subtlety and empathy,
but no complacency, two main challenges facing today's Islamic
schools. On the one hand, how do girls construct their gender identity
through the compulsory or freely chosen wearing of the veil and in
reaction to the double standards they sometimes face, not so much in
teaching and learning, but in school norms and hidden curriculum? On the
other hand, to what extent do Ontario Islamic schools differ from
mainstream institutions regarding the knowledge they transmit, given
their relatively limited room for maneuver, to go astray from the
official curriculum (which they need to respect both to get ministerial
approval and to attract and retain their clientele)? Although she has
had to conclude that Islamic and mainstream knowledge are usually only
juxtaposed, she documents fascinating instances where the integration of
both perspectives actually provide students with a more meaningful and a
more pedagogically-sound experience (for example, filling the gap
concerning Muslim contributions in Mathematics, History, Sciences and
searching for complementary knowledge in these domains in the Holy
Scriptures).
The book has, nevertheless, some shortcomings that may irritate
some readers, or at least limit its use with non-specialists or
undergraduate students. I will concentrate on three elements. The first,
stemming from the fact that it is derived from a Ph.D. thesis, is the
heavy theoretical and epistemological apparatus she describes at length
in the first ninety pages of the book, the relevance of which is not
always obvious in the later, much more grounded, analysis. In some
passages of the book, I was also puzzled by her rather unidirectional
and not very complex description of mainstream education in Canada and
of its treatment of Muslim students. Indeed, many studies show that,
like Islamic schools, public schools are also sites of unequal power
relationships and of significant breakthroughs in intercultural
adaptation. Her treatment of the position of the Canadian Muslim
Congress and of many Muslim parents in favor of public education, as
mere reflections of the adoption of a post- colonial ideology, is an
example of that reductionism, which thankfully does not mark the entire
book. Finally, as a Quebecer, I was disappointed by her shallow and
stereotypical treatment of our hijab controversy of 1995, as well as of
the more recent debate surrounding reasonable accommodation, in which
she did not apply the principles of inclusiveness and of a variety of
sources and voices she promoted when dealing with her main object (her
analysis is based on one or two minor Anglophone sources).
But these minor irritants should not deter any academics,
policy-makers, or community members from reading this valuable and
original piece of work which makes a significant contribution to a very
socially relevant topic.
Marie McAndrew
Chaire de recherche du Canada sur l'Education et les rapports
ethniques et
Departement de Administration et fondements de l'education
Universite de Montreal
