One of the final pieces of this fellowship is to reflect upon our guiding question. Each of us developed a guiding question before coming to Indonesia that was meant to create a connection between our international field experience and our teaching practice back home. i was immediately drawn to the fact that Indonesia is the largest majority Muslim country, so I wanted to investigate how the systems in place support Muslim student success. We have a pretty good sized Muslim student population at my school, and we have struggled to properly support them. Until a few years ago, many students were not getting the chance to pray because there was just no system for it. Students were not asking to pray because they thought they weren't allowed to. Some students were simply missing the entire class period because they went home to pray and didn't think they could come back. When we first began addressing this need, it was rough. We told students they could be excused to pray, but didn't have a good room to offer them. We were offering a room in the main office, but it was sometimes in use, leaving students without a space. It didn't really meet the guidelines that Muslims need for a space to pray. Not all teachers knew about the new policy, so some were not allowing students to leave, and some students didn't feel comfortable asking. We now have a specific room designated only for prayer, and students can get a prayer pass from the office that they just need to show their teacher, but the system is far from perfect. Boys and girls can't pray together, so sometimes my girls are out of class far too long because they are waiting for the boys to finish. Other student groups sometimes get into the room to use it for events, and it has been left dirty, leaving our Muslim students feeling disrespected. And our teaching schedule still leaves me wondering how a Muslim teacher, especially a male teacher, would be able to teach and practice their faith.
We have also been working on making sure our Muslim students feel heard. 2 years ago, students asked to start a Muslim Student Association as a space to both be in affinity and talk about their faith and a space to be share about and demystify their faith for the rest of the school. Their leadership has led to some really impactful programs here, and I have seen my Muslim students' confidence grow as a result of the club.
So my guiding question was, "How does structuring the school system around Islam support Muslim student success?"
First, here are the structures my teaching colleagues and I witnessed:
1. The school calendar is built around Islamic holidays. Major holidays are observed, and students generally have a lighter load when they are fasting.
2. The school day is also built around prayer. Friday afternoons end early so that students can go home and pray. The breaks throughout the school day align with prayer times, and every school, Islamic or not, has a mosque attached so that students can pray during these breaks.
3. Islamic studies is a core content class that all students take. If students are not Muslim, they are either studying their own religions or in a type of study hall during that class period.
4. The school uniforms align with appropriate Islamic dress.
These structures meant that no student was missing class time to pray. They weren't missing school for holidays (that sometimes in the US their classmates or teachers don't even know are happening). They weren't expected to take final exams and the ACT while also fasting all day. The systems meant that students saw their religion reflected in their education, not just in Islamic studies, but throughout the day, as their moral lens was called upon in all their learning (for example, one educator explained to us that they call upon the religion a lot when teaching students about bullying prevention). We witnessed students feeling very comfortable and confident talking about their religion and beliefs. We witnessed students calling upon their faith as a motivator to work hard and persevere in school. In short, Muslim students were able to feel included, heard, and like school was made for them, all feelings that I want my students to be able to have as well.
So what takeaways can I glean from this experience and guiding question? I can't change the bell schedule or school calendar, but I can adopt some structures and suggest them to my colleagues:
1. At the start of each year, I can put all major holidays of all religions my students practice into my plan book. For those days I know students will be gone, I will be able to plan lessons that are "missable" (ie not heavy on direct instruction or involving lots of interaction that will be difficult to make up) and make sure that students get materials and assignments before they end up being out of class. This past Friday was Eid, and almost all of my Muslim students were out. Knowing this ahead of time, I changed my plans around and centered a lesson that involved more individual reflection and writing that students could do outside of class if needed.
2. For my class period(s) that fall during prayer times, I can work in a structure (just like our structures for a Daily Do Now and and Exit Ticket) in which students spend time doing some individual work so that praying students don't miss out on important groupwork. Right now, that's at about 1:10pm. For much of the school year after the Daylight Savings switch, it will be during lunch, so I may want to remind students that they can eat in my class in case they were unable to finish their lunches because of prayer.
3. I can work on incorporating student voice around faith and what drives them more. The Muslim Student Association at our school has shown how much more included students feel as soon as they are able to share their stories, so this should be a central part of my curriculum. As i saw in my time in Indonesia, giving students time to reflect on their morals and beliefs also led to more positive citizenship, which is one of my main goals as an educator.
I look forward to continuing to reflect on everything I saw and experienced in Indonesia and finding ways to apply it to my teaching practice. I'm also excited to not be doing this work in a vacuum, as I have all my TGC colleagues and new Indonesian connections to collaborate with!