Pre-Service Teachers and Muslim Parents: Exploring Religious Diversity in Canadian Public Schools

Abstract

This study explores how a group of Caucasian pre-service teachers responded to Muslim immigrant parents’ accounts of the marginalization of their faith practices in Canadian public schools. Data were collected through interviews with parents, dialogues between parents and pre-service teachers, online reflections, and focus groups among pre-service teachers. Results indicate that the parents expected recognition of religious symbolic clothing, exemptions from certain classes, and accommodation of prayer in the public schools their children attended. The pre-service teachers recognized educators’ misconceptions about Muslim women, expressed concerns that exemptions from dancing and swimming classes and gender segregation may hinder students’ learning opportunities, and rejected parents’ requests of prayer in the name of secularism. Implications for structural change and teacher practice are discussed.

Notes

¹ Alberta Learning has approved three courses about religion for teaching in any high school: Religious Ethics 20, Religious Meaning 20, and World Religions 30. These courses are designated as optional, not mandatory (see Hiemstra & Brink, 2006).

² Roman Catholic schools in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories along with other religiously based schools receive public funding in many Canadian provinces.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yan Guo

Yan Guo is Associate Professor of Language and Diversity in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary in Canada. Her research interests include critical and postcolonial perspectives in teaching English as an Additional Language, immigrant parent engagement, diversity in teacher education, intercultural communication, language and identity, and language policy. Her recent publications appeared in Canadian Journal of Education, Language and Education, Intercultural Education, and Canadian Ethnic Studies. She is currently editing a book, Home-School Relations: International Perspectives.