This paper presents the findings of a study exploring the attitudes, experiences and relationships of
Muslim youth with their madrassa (supplementary school) and mainstream school teachers in the
backdrop of British government’s intense scrutiny and regulatory practices of educational spaces
occupied by Muslim youth.
This study further explores the perceived pedagogy used in both educational contexts and its influence
on the growth and development of the learners. British Muslims discuss how they negotiate their
identities against a normalised societal narrative dictating diverse cultural, religious and secular
educational contexts as conflicting polemics culminating in Muslim youth leading segregated lives.
The research was conducted in a small inner city, through an independent measures design
involving two groups of 22 participants, current and ex-madrassa pupils, aged 11 – 19. Interpretative
Phenomenological Analysis of the data revealed that over the past ten years there has been a change
in the attitudes of British Muslims towards their madrassa and school teachers. Due to the repetitive,
impersonalised rote learning pedagogy inculcating little meaningful knowledge; the harshness and
punitive nature of teachers and limited teacher-student engagement the ex-madrassa pupils held a
stronger relationship with their mainstream school teachers. In contrast the current pupils preferred
their madrassa teachers describing them as ‘fun and kind’. School teachers are perceived to develop
them as wealth producing capital and madrassa teachers as inculcators of moral character, laying the
foundations for becoming a better human being.
British Muslims discuss the changing nature of their madrassa teachers from overseas, to homegrown
British educated imams, helping to contextualise their understanding of Islam to their lives
in Britain and now more recently to online tutors with British teaching qualifications. They compare
these with professionally trained school teachers.
This evidence-based small-scale study identifies, through the voices of British Muslim youth, that
school and madrassa education does not have to be mutually exclusive. Through mutual sharing
of teacher training, pedagogy and curriculum planning, schools and madrassas have the potential
to homogenise the learning experiences helping Muslim youth inscribe their religious identities
within a secular pluralistic British society. This paper provides British Muslim youth a platform to
voice their felt experiences and make recommendations for madrassa teachers and leaders; school
teachers and leaders and policy makers.