Redefining Resistance: Towards an Islamic subculture in schools

Abstract

Based on a critical ethnographic study of student narratives, this article examines Muslim student subcultures in Ontario schools. These subcultures embody a multisystemic framework for the continuity of Islamic beliefs and practices within this context. The social organisation of Muslim youth in schools represents nascent forms of Islamic subcultures and utilises, to varying extents, the politics of resistance to counteract their marginality and subordination as a religious minority in a secular public school system. This article challenges classical resistance theories in education which are predicated on the notion that anti-school behaviours are entrenched within class-based motives. The concept of resistance is redirected in this article to reflect alternative catalysts for student-based social action and educational critique that reflect the experiences of Muslim students. A mode of 'formalised resistance' will be introduced as a strategy used by Muslim students to resist marginalisation and develop the institutional conditions necessary for the development of an Islamic subculture in schools. The focus will also be upon how education has become an arena for contemporary cultural politics, and how Muslims use their religious identities to challenge Eurocentrism in school policies, practices and curriculum.