Domesticating Madrasa Education: perception of madrasa education and its influence explored by British Muslim youth
Domesticating Madrasa Education: perception of madrasa education and its influence explored by British Muslim youth

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents findings of a study exploring the attitudes of Muslim youth in relation to their madrasa education and its influence on their lives. It further explores the flexibility of madrasas to adapt and reform against a backdrop of changing socio-political landscape scrutinising and planning for how diverse Muslim faith groups use their educational spaces in absentia of Muslim youth voices. A mixed method approach was used combining data from 40 questionnaires and nine semi-structured small-group interviews collected through an independent measures design involving two groups of participants, current and ex-madrasa pupils, aged 11 – 19. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the data reveals the more recent teaching experiences of current madrasa pupils elicit a more positive response than the ex-pupils. Muslim youth argue that whilst madrasas play an important role in their early socialisation to God, Qur’an and Islam they are only now beginning to contextualise Islamic education to life in Britain. This evidence-based small scale study conducted in Peterborough identifies, through the voices of Muslim youth, that madrasas have the potential, with suggested improvements, to help Muslim youth inscribe their religious identities within a secular pluralistic British society. The findings have great ramifications for madrasa leaders and policy makers.

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