Faith
Faith has raised some interesting intersections with education within a teaching position I hold at a private college in Aldgate, where I teach a group made of up of mainly female Muslim students. The collective represents a wide spectrum of interpretations of Islam from different countries including; Morocco, Jordan, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Some are more conservative, choosing to wear a hijab, whilst others are less so, wearing make up and having boyfriends.
A conversation during Ramadan was a particularly interesting moment with which to focus discussions on intersectionality as good dialogue allowed a deeper understanding of experience. Prior to student disclosure, the room felt nervous, which may have been related to what Rekis says of ‘anticipation and fear of negative prejudices, rather than existing or felt prejudices from a specific audience or unwilling hearer’ (Reki, 2023). Students were conscious that their religious life conflicted with weekly work outputs and continued attempts at hiding fatigue during the day because of special sleeping and eating patterns. Last year, I was frustrated with the interruptions Ramadan caused, until I realised how important the process is to my students. As Appiah reveals in his Ted talk, for many, religion has not been separated from everyday life (Appiah, 2014), which is something I have slowly and with growing empathy made room for, even as the unwitting proponent as ‘secular’ oppressor (Reki, 2023). I think adjustments have to be made rather than pushing back as a reflex in the interests of performance. These can be visible and tangible, written into the fabric of things like the strategies suggested by Jawad which seek to overcome specific conflicts between religion and sport (Jawad, 2022). Another could be more of a negotiation, which I tend to prefer in the classroom given how diverse the student group. Here we attempt to embed best working practices around the rhythms of Ramadan, i.e. sleeping before breaking fast instead of staying up all night before college. A safe space was created in this conversation when I, from a place of ignorance, tried to sympathise with the perceived ‘challenge’ of the fast. This was enough to encourage sharing from the group which spoke to some extent of the ‘spiritual rewards’ Mirza talks of in ‘Black Bodies Out of Place…’ (Mirza, 2018). Students said that the process inspired joy in the collective and connective elements of the ritual and that it was an energising process, which echoes sentiments from other women who express their faith as a ‘transcendental space from which they derive inner strength’ (Mirza, 2018). This is a similar message I received from my students.
In many cases the most useful skill to practice is empathy, something which can be cultivated in different ways. In this case, my students were as careful with me as I with them, which fostered a sense of safety and led to gains in knowledge being exchanged. I do not understand Ramadan and consequently Islam in the way that I used to and that is entirely because of a ten minute conversation I had with my students.
References
- Appiah, A. K., 2014. Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question). [Online]Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY[Accessed 12th May 2024].
- Jawad, H., 2022. Religion global society. [Online]Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/09/islam-women-and-sport-the-case-of-visible-muslim-women/[Accessed 12th May 2024].
- Mirza, S. H., 2018. Black Bodies ‘Out of Place’ in Academic Spaces: Gender, Race, Faith and Culture in Post-race Times. Dismantling Race in Higher Education ed. s.l.:Palgrave Macmillan.
- Reki, J., 2023. Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account. Hypatia 38, pp. 781-782.
I really enjoyed reading this post Rob, it sounds as though the resources and literature around faith have really resonated with you because of their immediate connection to recent pedagogic experiences you have had with students observing Ramadan.
It sounds like you are doing some very meaningful reflection on the status quo of the working patterns we expect our students to conform to, and this contextually aware, person-centered approach will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the teaching environment you are able to create, and your students’ experiences.
As an atheist who has grown up within a historically christian, western, secular system, it makes me think that I should actively seek out more research, case studies, and accounts of the individual intersectional experiences of students and educators who have different experiences to my own, but are workign in similar environments, in order to meaningfully examine/challenge/examine my own empathy/lack of it.
A humane and empathetic account and it’s really great to see how much you naturally are embedding the ‘theories’ of the unit in your own teaching practice. This is something I need to work more on in general with the PgCert: to consider how it is informing and affecting my day-to-day teaching practice. Not so much about the ‘grand gesture’ of research and ideas for curriculum changes but about the day-to-day human interactions with students and how I can implement change to how the teaching spaces and interactions feel. Thank you for this.