Table Of ContentMUSLIM SCHOOLS,
COMMUNITIES &
CRITICAL RACE THEORY
Faith Schooling in an
Islamophobic Britain?
DAMIAN BREEN
Muslim Schools, Communities
and Critical Race Theory
Damian Breen
Muslim Schools,
Communities and
Critical Race Theory
Faith Schooling in an Islamophobic Britain?
Damian Breen
De Montfort University
Leicester, UK
ISBN 978-1-137-44396-0 ISBN 978-1-137-44397-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-44397-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017949540
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For Nyle
A
cknowledgements
This book marks the culmination of a decade’s work on a path that might
easily have never been trodden. Initially, I have to express my gratitude to
the participants in the research that informs this monograph, in particular
those that facilitated access so that the research could take the form that it
ultimately did. Assurances of anonymity make it impossible to directly
acknowledge several individuals whom I will always feel indebted to as a
result of their encouragement and their roles in the research. However, I am
able to acknowledge those in the academic world who have been instrumen-
tal in supporting and helping me to realise my aspirations. There is no ques-
tion that without the support and guidance of Chris Pole, throughout my
studies at the University of Leicester, I would not have made the transition
from optimistic student to viable PhD candidate. His guidance led me to
successfully attain an ESRC+3 studentship at the Institute of Education,
University of Warwick. It was at Warwick that my doctoral research on
Muslim schools developed and came to fruition. I am proud to have com-
pleted my PhD in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit
(WRERU) under the supervision of Eleanor Nesbitt and Bob Jackson. I will
always be grateful for the time I spent in Eleanor’s office, simultaneously
working out how to be a researcher on the one hand and how to present
myself within this newly accessed world on the other. I also enjoyed the
company of Natasha Leahy, Nick Lee, Alan Prout, Julia Ipgrave, Elisabeth
Arweck and Stephen Parker during my time at the Institute of Education,
and in particular I enjoyed the stimulating conversations we shared. I am of
course also grateful to the ESRC for their f unding of the research that would
ultimately inform this monograph.available to teachers in Chap
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As alluded to in Chaps. 4 and 5, I also feel that it is important to
acknowledge a shift in my own politics which occurred somewhere
between the final year of the PhD and the first year in my first permanent
academic post at Keele University. Discussions with Farzana Shain not
only ensured that I set about developing the doctoral research with a view
to writing a monograph but also led me to reconsider the academic posi-
tioning of the work. In addition to professional support and guidance, she
introduced me to several individuals who have been influential in recent
years including Kalwant Bhopal, Chris Allen and Nasar Meer. In this
period, I came to a realisation that my research increasingly revealed paral-
lels with emerging work on Critical Race Theory. Parallel to this process,
I have been fortunate enough to work collaboratively with Nasar Meer,
and he has proven to be a valuable mentor, appearing at exactly the right
time and offering practical as well as professional guidance. I am grateful
for the discussions we have shared around my work and the book in par-
ticular, as these have allowed me to identify and resolve conceptual prob-
lems that may have otherwise evaded detection. During this time, I was
also fortunate enough to cross paths with David Gillborn and share my
aspirations to apply CRT in the study of British Muslim communities. I
will always be grateful for the first in-depth conversation that we shared,
during which I felt like much was hanging in the balance, only to be met
with encouragement, support and practical guidance. I am also grateful
for your guidance on the book, which again allowed me to resolve issues
which otherwise may have been overlooked. In particular, I would like to
thank you for our discussions on the practice of being a white researcher
and the implications of occupying space, the politics of ‘speaking for’, and
strategies for using whiteness against itself in the field of ethnic and ‘racial’
studies. I learnt an awful lot from those conversations, and they have had
a lasting impact. Those who have had less direct academic input but who
invariably kept me sane along the way would include Stacey Pope, who has
intermittently vetted the contents of my mind over the last decade, and
Richard Courtney, who has offered much in the way of amusement.
Of course, academics are real people, and there is no way that I would
have been able to produce this work without the support of my family.
First and foremost, I would like to thank my partner-in-everything Sabrina
Salmon for believing in me and giving me support, contentment and end-
less happiness to offset the ludicrous stresses of completing a work such as
this. And of course, thank you for our son Nyle. The relentless charm and
cheeky smile you both share is my inspiration to keep on pushing
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT S ix
forward—I hope I have made you both proud. I would also like to thank
the wider family that I have inherited through Sabrina—aside from the fun
and games, you have welcomed me into a world which has connected the
ivory tower with real life in a way that has made me increasingly personally
invested in the politics around my research—thank you. There is also no
question that I would not have made it along the academic path without
the encouragement of my mum and dad, Breda and Patrick Breen. Their
constant encouragement and emphasis on the importance of education
has allowed me to navigate this academic world with some kind of pur-
pose. In particular, recent events have given us all reason to feel closer than
ever, and I hope this is felt by both of you as much as it is by me.
Finally, Chaps. 3, 6, 7 and 8 develop ideas and data that have appeared
to some degree previously, and so I very gratefully acknowledge the copy-
right holders of the following:
Breen, D. (2009). A Qualitative Narrative of the Transition from
Independent to Voluntary Aided Status: A Problem for the Concept of
the Muslim School. In A. A. Veinguer, G. Dietz, D. Jozsa, & T. Knauth
(Eds.), Islam in Education in European Countries Pedagogical Concepts
and Empirical Findings (pp. 95–112). Münster: Waxmann.
Breen, D. (2013). State-funded Muslim Schools and the Public Sphere:
Stakeholders and Legitimacy in the UK Context. In J. Miller,
K. O’Grady, & U. McKenna (Eds.), Religion in Education: Innovation
in International Research (pp. 41–57). London: Routledge-Falmer.
Breen, D. (2014). British Muslim Schools: Institutional Isomorphism and
the Transition from Independent to Voluntary-Aided Status. In R. Race
(Ed.) 2013: Advancing ‘Race’ and Ethnicity within Education
(pp. 32–46). Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Breen, D. (2016). Critical Race Theory, Policy Rhetoric and Outcomes:
The Case of Muslim Schools in Britain. Race Ethnicity and Education.
doi 10.1080/13613324.2016.1248828.
Dr Damian Breen (May 2017)
c
ontents
1 British Muslim Communities, ‘Faith’ Schooling and
Critical Race Theory 1
CRT and British Muslims? 4
References 7
2 Exploring the Application of Critical Race Theory to
Muslims in Britain 9
Critical Race Theory: ‘Roots’ 9
Tacit Intentionality 15
CRT, Education and Interest Convergence 16
Whiteness? 17
Counter-Narratives 19
Islamophobia: Premises and Possible Limitations 21
From Islamophobia to CRT 24
Anti-Muslim Racism? 26
A Meaningful Application of CRT in the Study of Muslim
Communities in Britain 31
References 32
3 Critical Race Theory, Policy Rhetoric and Outcomes:
The Case of Muslim Schools in Britain 35
Prevent: Implications for Political and Educational Equity 37
Fundamental British Values 39
xi
xii CONTENTS
Muslim Schools in England and Wales 41
New Labour: A Sustained Interest in State-Funded Minority
Religious Schooling? 42
Anxiety Following 2010? 43
Numbers of British Muslim Schools 46
Issues Around Faith Schooling and Muslim Schools Post-2010 49
Gains Made in the Post-2010 Era 51
In Conclusion: Identifying Master-Narratives Around
British Muslims and Implications for State-F unded Islamic
Schooling in Britain 54
References 57
4 Applying CRT in Research on Muslim Schools 61
Critical Race Theory: and Method 63
Voice and Counter-Storytelling in CRT 64
Whose Voice? 65
The Research Design 66
The Rationale for Ethnography 68
The Insider/Outsider Debate: Preparation, Ethics, Practice 70
Ethnic Diversity and British Muslims 70
Gender in the Context of Research in Muslim Schools 72
Conducting Research Among Muslim Women: Reality
in the Field 73
Moving from Methodology to Method 75
References 75
5 Researching Muslim Schools in Practice 79
Ethnographic Interviews 79
Participant Observation 84
Using Grounded Theory for Data Analysis 87
Conclusion 90
References 92
6 M uslim Schools as Mobilisations of Interests:
How Islamic Schools Come into Being 95
The Independent Sector: A Site for Islamic Schooling 96
Introducing Medina Primary: Positioning the School
Within the Independent Sector 99
