Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Outcomes of Muslim Schools Dr. Geert Driessen ITS, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands g.driessen@its.ru.nl www.geertdriessen.nl Paper Annual Meeting ECER 2014 Porto, Portugal, September 1-5, 2014

1. Muslims in North-West Europe Around 15 million Origin:  former colonies  labor immigrants (‘guest-workers’)  asylum seekers (e.g., Middle East, Africa)  converts

2. Muslims in the Netherlands Non-western immigrants 11% of the Dutch population of 16.7 million:  former colonies: Surinam, Antilles  labor immigrants: Turkey, Morocco, Spain, Italy, etc.  asylum seekers: Middle East, Africa Socio-economic position Overrepresentation: low level of education, illiterate, no job, on social welfare, in crime-statistics Muslims 825,000 or 5% of the Dutch population:  Turkish: 285,000  Moroccan: 296,000  other: Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Surinam, native Dutch converts

3. The education system in the Netherlands Freedom of education  to establish a school  to teach according to a particular ideology, religious persuasion or educational principle  to choose a school  full equal funding of all schools by the government Primary schools  Public: 30%  Protestant 33%  Catholic: 30%  Other (e.g., Islamic, Hindu, Jewish, Montessori): 7%

4. The founding of Islamic schools Islamic schools founded in NL: opportunties existed and no alternatives (like religious education in other countries) 1988: 2 Islamic primary schools 2014: 48 Islamic primary schools Total number of primary schools (in 2013): 6,800 with 1,550,000 pupils (85,000 Turkish or Moroccan origin) 13% from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds Islamic primary schools (in 2013): 43 with 9,300 pupils (30% Turkish and 40% Moroccan) 48% from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds

5. Motives for and against At existing public and denominational schools:  No possibilities to fast and pray  No clothing regulations  Boys and girls mixed  No attention paid to the own identity  No Islamic religious instruction  No religious emancipation  Poor educational results  No parental participation Motives against separate Islamic schools  They will lead to isolation and segregation instead of integration  No real justice to Western norms and values  Result in an exodus from existing schools  More a political affair than a religious one  For orthodox and fundamentalistic groups

6. Goals 1. Religious and cultural personality development in the spirit of Islam 2. Improving the quality of education and the pupils’ achievement levels

7. Early* empirical studies: the schools ‘Liberal’ versus ‘orthodox’ Islamic schools  15% liberal  35% orthodox, focus on the Netherlands  50% orthodox, focus on Islamic society Links with very orthodox foreign political-religious organizations * No recent data available  

8. Early empirical studies: the parents Islamic schools: characteristics parents  greater role of Islam in upbringing  less focused on Dutch society  less usage of Dutch language  less integrated, more segregated  

9. Early empirical studies: the staff Islamic schools: teachers and principals  70% non-Muslim  relatively young, less experienced  traditional educational approach  problems with Religious Instruction (teachers: not qualified, in Arabic)  difficulties with parental involvement and participation  problematic position of principals: non-Muslim team vs. (often) orthodox board  

10. Recent empirical studies: output   Domain Grade Islamic vs. SES comparable schools Islamic vs. average Dutch school Achievement Language 2 - - tests 5 - 8 Math + Study skills Total Secondary education Level Attitudes Self-efficacy Task-motivation ++ Citizenship Knowledge -- Reflection + + Skills  

11. Recent empirical studies: summary output Islamic schools versus schools with a comparable SES pupil population:  Achievement: the same or somewhat better (math)  Attitudes, citizenship: the same or somewhat better Islamic schools versus the average Dutch school:  Achievement: somewhat worse (language)  Attitudes, citizenship: somewhat better to much better

12. Developments  ‘9/11’, murder Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh  Economic recession  Political climate: change from left to right (populist anti-Islam party) Immigrant policy: from integration with maintenance of own culture to assimilation Widespread fraud and malfunctioning of Islamic school boards Islamic schools under scrutiny Theft of final examinations at an Islamic secondary school Syria, Iraq; Jihadists, IS  

13. The future of Islamic schools  Policy shift: quality instead of quantity, but now again: expansion Quality school boards: younger, more experienced Transparency Quality teachers: more experienced, Muslims Recent successes: positive evaluations by Inspectorate and Ministry of Education