In almost every public school in the United States, attitudes and behaviors in the classroom presume an unacknowledged, yet pervasive, Christian norm. How does this affect students who are not Christian? The author's research into the life experiences of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh students of Indian American backgrounds uncovers the hidden cost of…

Focusing on the disagreements between Muslims and homosexuals over sexuality education, this article highlights the need in liberal societies for respectful dialogue between groups that hold diametrically opposed beliefs and values. The article argues that it should be possible for Muslims to set out a religious perspective that is critical of…

Imam Yahya Hendi came from afar--the occupied Palestinian Territories--to become, in 1999, the first full-time Muslim chaplain serving at a university in the United States. He is now the chaplain at Georgetown University. Rumee Ahmed, appointed earlier this year as Brown University's first Muslim chaplain, had a significantly shorter trip, moving…

This article aims to explore religious diversity and its implications for schools in England, with particular reference to the state funding of Muslim schools and multiculturalism. Recent demonstrations in France and England against the proposed ban on the wearing of religious symbols such as the Muslim headscarf (hijab) have brought to the fore…

This resource book reflects the way that migration affects personal identity and offers educators and students the resources to examine this migration through methods of storytelling. It reveals experiences of immigrants from the individual to the collective through memoirs, journalistic accounts, and interviews. These experiences reflect a recent…

Germany's national (or ethnic) identity has become thoroughly European and there are even signs of Eurocentrism. This is particularly problematic for the Turkish Muslims who, arguably, are not European. This article explores how fifteen-year-old German and Turkish youth in two Stuttgart secondary schools, one in a predominantly working-class area…

Introduction: Despite government support of culturally appropriate sex and relationships education (SRE), young people's access to information is limited and sexual health needs are not being met, particularly among youth from black and minority ethnic groups. Joint-working between health, education, voluntary sectors and parents has been heralded…

This paper is derived from a wider study of literacy practice that examines and explores the role played by Qur'anic literacy in the lives of men, women and children in a UK Muslim community. It also draws on the significant body of theoretical work being developed by Gregory and others on the role of siblings and older children in literacy…

This volume is the first authoritative reference work to provide a truly comprehensive international description and analysis of multicultural education around the world. It is organized around "key concepts" and uses "case studies" from various nations in different parts of the world to exemplify and illustrate the concepts. Case studies are from…

In this article, the authors examine the role of education in the maintenance of social cohesion and the formation of new identities amid the economic decline and political volatility of six new nations: Azerbaijan, in the southern Caucasus, and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in Central Asia. The authors first…

In Afghanistan, education has largely been destroyed, partly in the name of Islam, by the wars fought on its behalf, or by different ethnic groups vying for control of this Islamic country. Similarly, curriculum has been used to promote political and/or religious viewpoints and to strengthen positions of power. War dominated the language of…

This article reports on two Mideast-themed schools which have attracted fierce controversy amplified in the news media and the blogosphere. A new public school with a focus on Arabic language and culture is set to open in New York City this week, after being assailed for months by opponents who claim it will be a taxpayer-funded Islamic school…

The small-scale study focuses on a number of Muslim parents and practitioners who have rejected local primary community schools in favour of Muslim faith schooling. The rejection of the type of schools that we support and that we train our student teachers to prepare for prompts considerable concern. This concern has led us to question in what…

In this article, the author shares her experience teaching English to adult learners at the American Cultural Center in Dakar, Senegal, a poor, primarily Muslim country and former French colony in West Africa. Her class was composed of about 30 students, whose age ranged from about 18 to 50. They were mostly men and mostly Senegalese, along with a…

Singaporean preschool teachers are responsible for preparing their young students for a formal education that is predominantly conducted in English. What these teachers believe about how young children learn English literacy skills is important to study, especially when much of the research is situated in very different contexts. Talking to…