Muslimer, skolan och förorten: Muslimska gymnasieelevers orienteringar och strävan efter erkännande

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a deeper understanding of how Muslim students in upper-secondary schools experience their education, and how their experiences influence educational strategies, such as choice of school. Muslim pupils have come to play a particular role in the Swedish school debate, particularly with reference to multicultural neighbourhoods. In the politicised discussions about Islamic practices, such as the prayer and the Islamic dress, practices are often understood as “disturbances” in the school environment, and religious identification is viewed as a burden rather than an asset. Previous research has also highlighted that Islamophobia, as well as secular norms, impact students’ educational experiences. This study has been conducted in an upper-secondary school in Sweden (gymnasium) where a large proportion of students identify as Muslim. The school is located in a structurally socio-economically disadvantaged area of Gothenburg, where average grades and qualification rates are lower than the city average. The area is associated with school failure, social problems, unemployment and crime, which contribute to the stigmatisation of the area and also “marks” the young people who attend school there. The impact of stigmatisation and socio-economic inequality on pupils has been well-researched. However, the experiences of religious minorities and the significance of religious identification in these contexts have been insufficiently analysed in Swedish research. This study, therefore, aims to contribute in-depth knowledge about how religious identification interacts with socioeconomic factors and area stigmatisation in relation to Muslim students’ experiences of school. The neighbourhood also holds significance, as young Muslims in Sweden grow up in multicultural and multi-religious contexts that often differ from the places where they or their parents were born. The heterogeneity and diversity of the Muslim population mean that religious affiliation takes on new meanings, requiring young people to navigate and negotiate between different identifications and normative systems. New and overlapping imagined communities are formed and serve as alternatives to the majoritised culture. This study employs theoretical concepts such as orientation, recognition, and misrecognition to understand students’ experiences. School secularities are used as a complementary concept to interpret students’ experiences across different educational contexts. In the analysis, intersectionality has been used for theoretical sensitivity to demonstrate that students’ experiences of vulnerability manifest in various ways based on intertwined power structures where class, gender, racialisation, and religion intersect. The thesis employs a qualitative and abductive approach, inspired by the ethnographic tradition, with fieldwork during four semesters, collecting material including 33 semi-structured interviews and 50 days of observation. The analysis shows that students experience invisibilisation due to their minoritized religious identification, where their religious needs are not met. Simultaneously, students feel hypervisible in a white and secular school environment, receiving unwanted attention and being questioned about their religious practices. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that Muslim students’ experiences of misrecognition and disrespect impact interactions with teachers, social relationships, and educational strategies. The latter includes applying to schools in multicultural neighbourhoods where students feel they receive recognition from teachers and peers for their religious identification and as learners.