Inside Muslim schools : a comparative ethnography of ethos in independent and voluntary-aided contexts

• Main Author: Breen, Damian
• Published: University of Warwick 2009
• Subjects: 371.2; LC Special aspects of education
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.535341

The thesis offers a comprehensive comparative ethnographic case study of the influence of status as independent or voluntary-aided on the ethos of two Muslim primary schools. The analysis draws comparisons between the two schools in the case study, whilst also drawing on historical narratives of a further two Muslim primary schools which have made the transition from independent to voluntary-aided status. Research findings demonstrate that status as either independent or voluntary-aided had a significant influence on ethos, as the voluntary-aided school in the case study shared consistencies with the schools in the historical narratives following their own transition into the state sector. In the historical narratives the transition from independent to voluntary-aided status fundamentally changed infrastructure in both schools. Consistently with this the ethnographic case studies of the independent and voluntary-aided school show very different models of ethos. The model at the independent school demonstrated a distinctly Islamic ethos emphasising Islamicisation of the curriculum and promoting the concept of Islam as a way of life by an all-Muslim staff leading children by example. In contrast the model of ethos at the voluntary-aided school represented a duality of the Islamic and the educational, consistently with the schools in the historical narratives after acquiring voluntary-aided status. Against a theoretical backdrop of institutional isomorphism, the comparative case study demonstrates the ways independent or voluntary-aided status influenced ethos. Implications are that the voluntaryaided sector may only facilitate one particular approach to Islamic education which reinforces the concept of duality between Islamic objectives for the individual child, and the voluntary-aided requirements of the state.