Ideal liberal subjects and Muslim “Others”: liberal nationalism and the racialization of Muslim youth in a progressive Danish school

Abstract

Drawing on an ethnographic case study of Muslim youth in a Danish lower secondary school, this article explores teacher talk about Muslim immigrant students and how teachers engaged liberal ideals of respect, individualism, and equality in ways that racialized immigrant students. I consider moments of vacillation in teacher talk to explore tensions between teacher’s desires to assimilate immigrant students to national norms of belonging and their desires to be perceived as inclusive and ‘open.’ In doing so, I ask how visions of liberal schooling impose ideas of what a ‘normal’ citizen should be and how teachers produce ‘ideal’ liberal subjects in their talk and in the everyday practices of schools. I argue that teachers engage the ideals of abstract liberalism to establish a colorblind discourse of non-racism. While educators described the school as an idealized space where students are encouraged to freely express themselves, to develop unique individual outlooks, it was clear that this vision of ‘openness’ did not include Muslim students’ attachments to religious and cultural identities.

Keywords:

• Immigrant youth
• nationalism
• racialization
• liberalism
• colorblind
• public schools

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Thea Abu El-Haj for her comments on an earlier version of this manuscript and the reviewers and editors at Race, Ethnicity and Education.

Notes

1. In 2008, 712,100 students attended 1605 folkeskolen in Denmark with 85% attending their local folkeskole and 15% attending private schools that include religious schools (Christian, Jewish, and Islamic) as well as international schools, Waldorf schools, and Montessori schools. Private schools, or friskoler, receive partial funding from the government. In 2008, the average class size was 19.6 with a student:teacher ratio of 10:1. Two-thirds of all teachers in the folkeskolen are women and two-thirds of principals are male.

2. In some cases, the folkeskole offers an optional 10th grade that allows students to gain additional skills in preparation for upper secondary education.

4. All names in this paper are pseudonyms.

5. In 2005, the Danish Newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed that were offensive to many Muslims in Denmark and around the world, instigating protests and violent incidents. The newspaper described the cartoons as opening debates about freedom of speech in Denmark.