Blog Post 2
What We See First
“The discourse surrounding hijab or niqab designates Muslim women’s ‘radical otherness’ and associates it with religious oppression and cultural backwardness” (Meer, Dwyer & Modood, 2010). “The hijab is depicted as a barrier to integration at schools” (Espinoza, 2016), “a path to extremism” (Shackle, 2018) and “an expression of fundamentalism” (Shadid & Van Koningsveld, 2005).
These quotes invite two questions: What obstacles have the students who choose to wear the hijab already faced within educational settings? And how do feel when entering new spaces where they could encounter negative stereotyping?
When Faith Intersects with Gender (Ramadan, 2022) reminds us of that faith rarely stands alone; it is braided with gender, race, class and migration status. Fricker’s notion of epistemic injustice (2007, p 32) shows how these intersecting identities can erode a student’s credibility long before she speaks.
Our students arrive on to the BA Textile Design course curious and passionate about creative subjects. This is a common factor for them all, but they also bring with them a wealth personal histories, beliefs and their own cultural identities.
As course leaders and tutors, we rarely work with detailed knowledge of our students’ religious calendars, prayer needs or fasting practices. Most universities collect information about identity in a single tick-box survey, then store it on a central system that has little to do with daily teaching. In intercultural training we practise the pronunciation of students’ names yet receive little guidance to understand more of different cultural ways and customs. The gap between diversity data and lived experience can feel vast and that there is no one to ask questions to.
Inside this knowledge gap sits a quieter statistic. In 2015 Muslims made up just 0.6 % of UK university staff—a figure drawn from incomplete returns (ECU, 2015). By 2023 a third of staff still declined to state any belief. When visibility is low and silence becomes the norm and role‑models remain scarce.
Even if that unreported third reflected national demographics, staff from faith minority backgrounds would still be underrepresented. A student who chooses to wear the hijab could complete their degree without ever being taught by someone who also chooses to wear a hijab.
UCL document guidance document : ‘Providing a safe space for students to grow and learn where they feel their voice is heard has a large impact on their learning and well-being.’
- Ibtihal Ramadan (2022) When faith intersects with gender: the challenges and successes in the experiences of Muslim women academics, Gender and Education, 34:1, 33-48, DOI: 10.1080/09540253.2021.1893664
- Rekis J (2023). Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account. Hypatia 38, 779–800. https://doi.org/10.1017/hyp.2023.86
- https://edu.admin.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/edu/documents/media/2022-23_edi_report_acessible.pdf
- Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in Classroom. Trinity University
- https://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/publications/2020/apr/creating-safe-spaces-students-classroom
Really interesting post Claudia. I thought your points about data collection being divorced from action and training that positively impacts the student experience were really powerful. I wasn’t familiar with the UCL resource, thanks for sharing it.