‘Miss are you a Muslim?’: an exploration of identity and image of female Muslim teachers and their implications in education

Asif, Uzma (2023) ‘Miss are you a Muslim?’: an exploration of identity and image of female Muslim teachers and their implications in education. Doctoral thesis (EdD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

The stereotypes around Muslim women include the perception that Muslim women are oppressed. While not all Muslim women project the same image and Muslim women practise their religion in different ways, the homogenisation of the category ‘Muslim women’ has implications for female Muslim teachers (FMTs) in education. At times this label is constructed widely in society and at times narrowly with individuals – in each case it usually works as a disadvantage to women. The negative impact of this is sometimes exemplified in educational contexts. Research is needed to understand the stereotypes and disadvantages faced by FMTs and Muslim women more generally. There is a need to unpack homogenisation to explore the impact of the prejudices and stereotypes against Muslim women. In this research, I explore implications for the image and identity of FMTs through investigating contemporary stereotypes of FMTs and Muslim women more generally. I use feminist methodology and apply multiple methods: semi-structured interviews and autoethnographic data in the form of Scenarios, used as prompts during the interviews; I apply thematic analysis to the semi-structured interview data. I explore the feminist praxis for Muslim women in a British educational context and whether this contemporary western discourse empowers them to regain and claim the rights already present in the religion, lost historically and traditionally to men. My data shows how FMTs navigate stereotypes and competing norms to generate self-regard and more complicated understandings of being Muslim and British. Therefore, the study contributes to a culturally sensitive version of British Muslim feminism in education. In addition, I use the Foucauldian notion of the panopticon (1975) to demonstrate surveillance culture in education and to conceptualise the scrutiny faced by FMTs. I conclude that some FMTs actively pursue teaching to challenge negative stereotypes around Muslims and that FMTs face pressure to adapt to their settings from both students and staff. I conclude that FMTs have a potentially transformational role in challenging the stereotypes of Muslims with Britain’s multicultural youth. The study will be of interest to the education sector as it complicates education both as a tool for liberation and oppression.