In the Netherlands, Islamic schools and Islamic education in general have been subjects of public debate for quite some time. After the event of 9/11, they found themselves increasingly being criticised and some people in Dutch society go as far as considering them breeding grounds for terrorism and think they foster an anti-integration attitude…

Background: Despite the growing body of research concerning affective relationships between teachers and ethnic minority students, very little is known about student-teacher relationship (STR) quality for religious minority students. Many Islamic schools have a mixed workforce consisting of both Muslim and non-Muslim teachers. This means that the…

This paper contributes to current debates on positionality by critically discussing and comparing three researchers' experiences doing research involving Muslims. We introduce "positionality meetings" to enhance reflexivity in qualitative research projects. Based on empirical evidence from our independent projects and the positionality…

This contribution is situated in the discussion on sex education in the Netherlands, in relation to "Islamic Pedagogy," in particular "Islam 'and' Pedagogy," on the one side, and (religious) identity development on the other side. Islamic Pedagogy seems to be the theoretical framework of an example of developed teaching…

This collective paper on radicalization and violent extremism part of the 'Philosophy of education in a new key' initiative by "Educational Philosophy and Theory" brings together some of the leading contemporary scholars writing on the most pressing epistemological, ethical, political and educational issues facing post-9/11 scholarship…

This article investigates how 12 upper-elementary school teachers dealt with the occurrence of a terrorist attack in their city during school hours and in the immediate aftermath. All teachers were interviewed shortly after the terrorist attack about their goals, dilemmas, and pedagogical strategies employed in the classroom. We found that during…

This study explores the silencing and voicing of sensitive topics in history education from a cross-national and multilevel perspective. In this mixed-method study, we undertook a quantitative analysis of a 'teaching sensitive issues' questionnaire and qualitative analyses of history curricula and teachers' verbal responses. The findings show that…

What are the reasons behind the failure of the Islamic theology and imam-training programmes at the Dutch universities? To address this question, we employed qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews (N = 38) conducted between July 2016 and January 2017. The sample consists of stakeholders such as academics teaching in the…

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the sociocultural factors influencing learners of Arabic as a foreign language in the Sultanate of Oman. A qualitative inquiry approach was adopted for the study, using in-depth interviewing, and students' diaries to understand how the sociocultural context impact non-Arab learners of Arabic in the…

This article provides an overview of the discourses on Dutch mosque education. Based on a review of the scholarly debates on mosque education in West, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles containing references to mosque education between 2010 and 2016 (N = 45). The data are sampled from the five largest Dutch…

This article reflects on the place of RE in a pillarised education context, taking into account the fact of religious diversity and pluralisation among the school population on the one hand, and the freedom of religion and education of faith-based schools on the other. Particular attention will be given to Belgium and the Netherlands, which do not…

The Netherlands currently has 43 Islamic primary schools. Each is fully subsidised by the government. Yet since the first school was established in 1988 Islamic schools have been confronted with obstacles by the Ministry of Education, bad press and increasingly strict state supervision. Under pressure to improve their image, since 2008 Dutch…

Social media are useful facilitators when recruiting hidden populations for research. In our research on youth and radicalization, we were able to find and contact young people with extreme ideals through Facebook. In this article, we discuss our experiences using Facebook as a tool for finding respondents who do not trust researchers. Facebook…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesize published studies and practice in the "integration" of ethnic and religious minorities in Britain and The Netherlands, 1965-2015, drawing out implications for current policy and practice. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is an evaluative review and report of results of…

To encourage students to do geometry, the art of Islamic geometric ornamentation was chosen as the central theme of a lesson strand which was developed using the newly presented didactical tool called "Learning by Acting". The Dutch students who took these lessons in 2010 to 2013 were challenged to act as if they themselves were Persian…