AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF HOW A TEACHER HELPS HER STUDENTS VALUE BEING BLACK AND BEING MUSLIM THROUGH LANGUAGE AND LITERACY INSTRUCTION IN A SUNNI MUSLIM SCHOOL.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

SHELTON, ESTHER D.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania.

Subjects (All):

Language arts.

0279.

Penn dissertations--Education.

Education--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Education.

Education--Penn dissertations.

0279.

Physical Description:

323 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 48-07A.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

The purpose of this study is to examine the schooling process at an Islamic school. The study focuses on how one teacher, Sister Rehan, manipulated reading/language arts lessons from the Ginn Series (a textbook series written primarily for mainstream USA classrooms) to help her male students value being Black and being Muslim. Sister Rehan assumed a number of roles to help her students. The most salient of these roles were: (1) an agent of Black consciousness; (2) an advocate of Islam; (3) a model of standard English; (4) a psychological counselor and (5) a teacher of moral reasoning and conduct. It was illustrated how Sister Rehan used these many roles to address a number of themes relevant to her students: (1) What it means to be Black; (2) Why reading is important for a Black person; (3) Why standard English is important for a Black person; (4) Why education is important for a Black person and (5) What it means to be Muslim.

During the course of the research, it was revealed that some of the students in Sister Rehan's class had feelings of low self-esteem as it relates to being Black and these feelings were reflected in their interpretations of many issues discussed in class. Another significant finding was that the students spoke non-standard English and were ashamed of their language usage. Ironically, they considered speaking standard English as being "proper" and "sissy-like." It was also exposed that some of the students were dissatisfied with the Islamic religion and the Islamic schooling process.

Ethnography as a methodology was used to collect data for this study. Ethnography is based on the belief that each culture has its unique world-view and ways of assigning meaning to human behavior. Ethnographic research was especially suited for this study because the study centered around a uniquely distinct subculture, Black Sunni Muslims. As characteristic of ethnographic inquiry, this study is descriptive and analytic in nature.

Notes:

Thesis (Ed.D. in Education)--Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, 1987.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: A, page: 1683.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.