Can Islam Be French? by Bowen John R.; Bowen John R. R.;

Author:Bowen, John R.; Bowen, John R. R.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2011-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

HOW TO TEACH A SECULAR CURRICULUM IN A MUSLIM SCHOOL

By 2005, the middle school had its four classes in place, and the directors decided they needed a full-time principal—a requirement to receive state subsidies. They found Mme Fazilleau, a small, bustling woman who likes to address me in English (but declines to shake hands), and who had taught English for many years in a public school. For a number of years after her conversion to Islam she had worn a small headscarf while teaching, but by 2004 “the other teachers became very worried that because of the new law I would get them in trouble. So I resigned.” The school also has a director and several assistants, who keep the pupils on time and in line (literally) to move from class to recreation or lunch and back again.

As long as they follow the national curricular guidelines, teachers may devise their own teaching plans. These teachers cover the same subjects as in a public school, except that one hour of religious education and four hours of Arabic language are taught during optional periods on Wednesday and Saturday, following the plan adopted in Catholic private schools. (Spanish and English are taught during the regular hours.)

Mme Fazilleau explained that of the fifteen or more teachers working at any one time (all but one or two are women), most also teach in public schools and have their school head’s permission to work at Success School. A few have decided to teach in scarves and hence can only work in the private sector. Teachers receive a salary, but a modest one compared to those available in public schools.

I have met a number of the teachers while visiting the school or by accident on other occasions. Muslim educational life in the Paris region is like that: despite the size of the metropolitan region, lives intersect. Decent halâl restaurants, of course, attract conscientious Muslims, and once at lunch with Dhaou we found ourselves seated near the school’s recently hired French language teacher, a woman who also writes a regular column for one of the major French Islam-oriented Web sites. When she is not teaching at Success she teaches French at a public high school in Paris (without her headscarf). She remarked that the Success students were two years ahead of the public-school students.

French is taught the same way in both sectors, but I was particularly interested in domains where there might be an Islamic twist given to standard courses of study, such as civics, biology, and religion itself. In the spring of 2006, with the instructors’ permission, I attended some of these classes; the following are three instances of teachers trying to maintain an Islam-informed distance from the materials they are teaching without compromising their duty to fully instruct the pupils in those materials.

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