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Identity, Education and Belonging
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Identity, Education and Belonging by Fethi Mansouri and Sally Percival Wood is available as both an e-book (downloadable PDF files) or a d-book (print-on-demand). Both versions are available for online purchase at the MUP e-store.

Chapter Synopses

  

Preliminary

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Index

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References

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Introduction - Arab and Muslim Australians in the Current Socio-political

This introductory chapter locates the book's core themes into their wider socio-political context reflecting in particular on post September 11 Australia. The place and status of Muslim and Arab Diaspora communities in Western émigré societies have come increasingly under scrutiny in recent years as questions about their capacity and suitability to adapt are raised in the media, political and popular discourses. This chapter argues that such representations are not completely new, as illustrated by historical precedents involving early Muslim migrants settling in pre-Federation Australia.

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Chapter 1 - Multiculturalism, the Media and Muslims in Australia

This chapter offers a brief history of the Arab and Muslim presence in Australia. It then examines Australian multiculturalism and its gradual drift during the Howard years towards the culture-neutral notion of citizenship. This prioritisation of citizenship coincided with media scrutiny of Muslims, first during the rape trial of Lebanese men in 2000, but intensifying after September 11. A perceived incompatibility of Muslims in secular Australia was often framed within gender stereotypes: Muslim men as misogynist and women as subjugated. Young Muslims, at a critical juncture in identity formation, were often trapped between these contending notions of citizenship and the inherent incompatibility of Islam in Australia.

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Chapter 2: The Social and Educational Experiences of Arab and Muslim Australian Youth

This chapter interrogates the meaning of 'cultural identity' and the various ways it is formed in educational settings. As microcosms of society, schools might conceptualise cultural identity through a range of frameworks: intercultural, multicultural, cosmopolitan or, in some schools, monocultural. Young migrants from minority cultures, therefore, are frequently left to negotiate issues of culture and identity between the often conflicting spaces of school, home, community, and even nation. These issues are discussed via a survey of international studies into migrant youths' experiences of secondary education, and we then review surveys of young Arab and Muslim Australians during the 1980s and 1990s.

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Chapter 3: Educational Experiences of Arab and Muslim Australians: An Empirical Approach

This chapter introduces the Diversity Project which sought to understand the issues of identity formation among Arab and Muslim Australian youth in a post-September 11 environment that favours the secular notion of citizenship over a more fluid, inclusive multiculturalism. The chapter provides a socio-cultural overview of the two Melbourne schools engaged in the Diversity Project and reports on the attitudes of the Arab and Muslim student cohorts on a range of issues including: sense of belonging at school and in the wider community; educational aspirations; relationships among Arabs, Muslims and other students; and their sense of inclusion/exclusion in Australian society.

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Chapter 4: A Partnership Approach to Diversity in Education

The Diversity Project's 'partnership approach' to Arab and Muslim secondary students and their parents, and their degree of participation in the school community, is explored here. Parents' attitudes towards engagement and the effects (if any) this has on students' sense of belonging, is then explored. We then explain how the project's quantitative and qualitative research informed new strategies for nurturing Arab and Muslim parents' confidence and participation in school activities, and how this in turn impacted on student outcomes. The role of a 'cultural diversity facilitator', design of curricular and pedagogical materials, and the triangular engagement of students, parents and teachers are also explained.

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Chapter 5: Education, Multiculturalism and the Wider Social Challenge

Chapter 5 begins by examining the Diversity Project's research findings into the more personal experiences of Arab and Muslim secondary school students. Specifically, it looks at their perceptions of Arab and Muslim identity, and racism, within their school and, more broadly, Australian society. These perceptions are compared to those of non-Arab and non-Muslim students at the two participant schools. These findings are situated within the wider context of Western perceptions of Arabs and Muslims not only since September 11, but within the genealogy of perceptions as identified by Edward Said. The 'historical homogeneity' of this discourse, finally, is positioned within Australian multiculturalis.

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