Amelia Coleman Thesis

Different, threatening and problematic: Representations of non- mainstream religious schools (Chang, 2016) Amelia Coleman N8306869 Bachelor of Media and Communications (Public Relations) Queensland University of Technology Supervised by Dr Shaun Nykvist (Principal) Dr Rebecca English (Associate) Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Research) Office of Education Research (OER) Faculty of Education Queensland University of Technology 2017 Keywords School choice Media representation Religious schools Multicultural education Marketisation Discourse Identity Pluralism ii Abstract Over recent years we have seen a dramatic increase in representation of Muslim schools within the Australian media. This thesis presents the findings of a study comparing media representations of Muslim schools and “fundamentalist” Christian schools in Australia during a 12-month period in which Muslim schools were receiving significant media attention due to financial mismanagement issues occurring within these schools. During this time period an allegation was made that thousands of dollars of taxpayer funding was being sent to Muslim school’s parent organisation, AFIC, rather than being spent on the education of students (Taylor, 2016). The study focused on comparing how Muslim schools and “fundamentalist” Christian schools were constructed by the media during the timeframe in which Muslim schools were under investigation, and how their media representation may become a proxy for understanding how the Australian public are invited to feel about different types of religious schools. The study draws together Fairclough’s framework for Critical Discourse Analysis with Hall’s work on identity and cultural difference in order to explore inequalities that exist within representations of different varieties of non-mainstream religious schools in Australia. This study collected data from 107 media articles reporting on Muslim schools and “fundamentalist” Christian schools over a 12-month period from Australian media outlets. The data revealed that Muslim schools experienced significantly more negative representation than Christian schools during this period, through media reporting which constructed these schools as different, threatening and problematic. Analysis of the data suggests that conservative, racialised and “Islamophobic” discourses may have helped to construct a negative representation of Muslim schools in the media and may invite the Australia public to perceive these schools as problematic. In contrast, dominant discourses constructed by the media positioned Christian schools as a more acceptable and successful category of religious schooling in Australia. Analysis of the data suggests that Muslim schools were constructed as problematic and Christian schools as more successful, where it was in the interests of media outlets, who have the institutional power to influence the social identities of these schools, to construct them in this way. Problematic constructions of Muslim schools may have further been influenced by a socio-historical context which has perpetuated a public attitude that Muslim identities do not belong in Australia. The findings of this study aim to contribute an understanding of how media representation may affect perceptions of schools in Australia’s increasingly marketised and multi-faith education environment. The findings suggest that inequalities in media representations of different religious schools may influence discriminatory attitudes towards certain types of non-mainstream religious schools on the basis of religious values. iii Table of Contents Keywords ................................................................................................................................. ii Abstract ................................................................................................................................... iii List of figures .......................................................................................................................... VI List of tables .......................................................................................................................... VII List of abbreviations ............................................................................................................ VIII Statement of original authorship .......................................................................................... IX Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................... X Chapter One: Introduction to the study ............................................................................... VI 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Background to the study ........................................................................................................... 3 1.2.1 Muslim schools in the media ................................................................................................. 3 1.2.2 “Fundamentalist” Christian schools in the media .................................................................. 6 1.2.3 Religious affiliation in Australia ............................................................................................. 8 1.3 Research aim ............................................................................................................................ 11 1.4 Research questions .................................................................................................................. 11 1.5 Research design ....................................................................................................................... 11 1.6 Significance of the study ......................................................................................................... 12 1.7 Overview of the dissertation .................................................................................................... 13 Chapter Two: Literature review ............................................................................................ 15 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 15 2.2 Historical background of school funding in Australia .......................................................... 16 2.2.1 The emergence of funding for religious schools ................................................................. 16 2.2.2 Socio- Economic Status (SES) Index ................................................................................. 19 2.2.3 The emergence of funding for Non-mainstream religious schools ...................................... 20 2.3 Increased access to religious school choice in Australia influenced by a market for schooling ......................................................................................................................................... 24 2.3.1 Marketisation ....................................................................................................................... 24 2.3.2 Privatisation ........................................................................................................................ 25 2.3.3 Choice and competition ...................................................................................................... 26 2.4 Religious minorities rights in a marketised education environment ................................... 28 2.4.1 Religious minority groups inclusion in the education market .............................................. 28 2.5 Implications of the conditions that have allowed the funding and growth of religious schooling in secular societies ....................................................................................................... 30 2.6 Empirical literature exploring representations of schools in the media ............................. 33 2.7 Theoretical framework for exploring media representations of non-mainstream religious schools ............................................................................................................................................ 37 2.7.1 A discourse approach to exploring constructions of non-mainstream religious schools within media texts ........................................................................................................................ 37 2.7.2 Identities constructed for non-mainstream religious schools within media texts ................. 40 2.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 44 Chapter Three: Research methods ...................................................................................... 47 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 47 IV 3.2 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 47 3.3 Research design ....................................................................................................................... 48 3.3.1 Media analysis .................................................................................................................... 48 3.4 Data collection .........................................................................................................................

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