Learning from the outsiders-within: wearing the niqab in Swedish teacher profession and training

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses how the politics of the niqab manifests in educational settings by drawing on interviews with niqabi Swedish teachers and teachers-in-training. Participants contested dominant discourse on niqabi wearers as ‘unassimilated’ and out-of-place in multicultural education. They built on their marginal positions as outsiders-within education to affirm children’s cultural identities and religious rights neglected by mainstream educators. Contrary to the preconception that the niqab “hides teachers’ face”, participants wore the niqab up when alone with children and introduced it to pupils in intimate and hands-on interactions. Suggestively, through unfolding pupil-teacher relationships, children gained a child-centric view of the niqabi teachers, to which adults in the public space are exempt. Participants were arbitrarily included in Muslim and mainstream schools as individual educators saw fit, illustrating lack of institutional rights in the schools and universities participants attended.