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Education, Islam, and Cultural Preservation

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Education, Islam, and Cultural Preservation EDUCATION, ISLAM, AND CULTURAL PRESERVATION: A qualitative study of parents’ and children’s educational objectives, strategies, and participation in the Somali refugee community of Columbus, Ohio. A thesis presented to the faculty of the Center for International Studies of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Andrew F. Carlson November 2004 This thesis titled EDUCATION, ISLAM, AND CULTURAL PRESERVATION: A qualitative study of parents’ and children’s educational objectives, strategies, and participation in the Somali refugee community of Columbus, Ohio BY ANDREW F. CARLSON has been approved for the Department of International Development Studies and the Center for International Studies by W. S. Howard Professor of African Studies and Telecommunications Josep Rota Director, Center for International Studies CARLSON, ANDREW F. MA. November 2004. International Affairs EDUCATION, ISLAM, AND CULTURAL PRESERVATION: A qualitative study of parents’ and children’s educational objectives, strategies, and participation in the Somali refugee community of Columbus, Ohio (247 pp.) Thesis advisor: W.S. Howard Immigrant children in the United States and elsewhere create a sense of cultural identification based on a combination of their own experiences and cultural knowledge transmitted from their parents. For Somali refugees in Columbus, the issue of cultural transmission is particularly crucial because in 2003, a generation of children is growing up completely outside of Somalia, in contrast to their parents, who were raised and educated in Somalia. This study creates understanding of how these parents transmit cultural information, or “what they need to be Somali” to children through a combination of elements which includes secular education, religious education, instruction at home, and large-scale manipulation of their environment. The construction of a model for cultural transmission allows the examination of specific aspects of Somali and American culture which are sustained, and other aspects of culture or future possibilities which are filtered. This process contributes to children’s experience and helps build their self-identity as Somalis and Muslims. The study emphasizes qualitative research methods which allow individuals to describe their experiences as Somalis in Columbus. Better understanding of methods and strategies used by parents to preserve culture and cultural values will allow members of the Somali community as well as outsiders to better understand the choices parents make for the children’s educational experiences and can lead to improved options for every parent who participates in education in an area where immigrants or refugees are a significant part of the community. Approved: W.S Howard Professor of African Studies and Telecommunications Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis committee, Dr. W.S. Howard, Dr. Diane Ciekawy, and Dr. Ann Tickamyer, who have been willing to give me as much guidance as I have asked for. Their professionalism, humor, and occasional prodding have helped me complete not only this work but other projects as well. I would like to thank my mother, Dr. Karen Carlson, whose work in the United States has inspired me to examine how I interact with those around me. To Muhammed Sambul, thank you for the guidance and assistance in asking the right questions, as well as your help in arranging interviews and meetings. To Fathudin Mohamed, thank you for taking the time to speak with me about what duqsi was like at home, and for insight into what it means to be Somali in America. To Heather Boyce, thank you for sharing all those drives to Columbus, your ideas, and your insights into the International Academy and how children there consider language and culture. To staff members at the International Academy of Columbus: Thank you for speaking to me, for opening your school, and your lives, to me and this modest study. To Firdoze Bulbulia and Polly Sandenburgh, thank you for bringing the children of the International Academy together with students from Southeast Ohio, and in the process, sharing with me your ideas about education and Islam. 5 Table of Contents ABSTRACT 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 Chapter 1: Introduction 7 Living in Columbus Somalia, refugees, and Columbus Objectives of this study The International Academy of Columbus What is duqsi? Conducting fieldwork in Columbus: Assumptions and biases Chapter 2: Islam, refugee communities, and the United States 30 Islam and the United States in 2003 Being a Somali Muslim in a Western City Somalia’s political history and the creation of refugees Islam in Africa and the United States Chapter 3: Immigrant communities and educational strategies 41 Refugee and immigrant communities and religious education The relationship between education and culture How education works to preserve aspects of culture Investment in forms of capital Research questions Chapter 4: Methodology 56 Participant observation Intensive interviews Selection of participants Working with children Methodological limitations Chapter 5: Findings 79 Elements of cultural transmission Filter and sustain Children’s experience Being Somali in Columbus Other experiences 6 Chapter 6: Conclusions 113 Unanswered questions Opportunities for further research References 121 Appendix A: Interview transcriptions 133 Appendix B: Interview guides 242 List of Figures Figure One: Cultural Transmission Among Somalis in Columbus 80 7 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION “My community has been important to me all my life. I always think of my group. I cannot imagine living for myself; it contradicts all the things I believe in.” Yusuf, adult, Toronto1 “I love my duqsi because I’m learning my traditions and stuff, and what I need to be learning when I grow up, and what I need and what I’m supposed to know…[and] at International Academy…I learn the subjects because I can pass college, or high school, middle school…so, they’re both important.” Alena, student, Columbus Within the Somali community of Columbus, Ohio, parents continually find ways to transfer their conception of culture to their children. Strategies used by parents include the creation of schools for religious education, known as duqsi; the development of a public charter school, the International Academy of Columbus; instruction at home; and interaction with a relatively homogeneous community consisting of other Somalis or Muslims. These strategies ensure that children understand the Somali language, understand the practice of Islam, and develop methods for dealing with what parents perceive as negative aspects of American culture. All these elements contribute to Somali children’s experience during the transmission of cultural values from their parents. 1 From McGown, R.B., (1999). Muslims in the diaspora: the Somali communities of London and Toronto. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 8 For the purposes of this paper, I will use Goodenough’s definition of culture: “A society’s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members” (quoted in Keesing, 1974, p. 77). While this definition is broad, I would also include the idea that culture is “shared codes of meaning” (ibid. p. 79). Together, the knowledge children require and the symbols or codes of meaning are what are important for parents in the Somali community to work to preserve. There are certain things one should know as a Somali, either in Columbus or in Somalia, and certain symbols, such as the wearing of the hijab by women and girls, that are universally shared within the community. In this study, members of the Somali community in Columbus were observed working and going to school and later interviewed about their views about life in the United States, the education of their children, and the differences between living in Somalia and Columbus. Attempts to compare parents’ and children’s educational experiences were made in order to determine how parents use education to preserve aspects of Somali culture in their children, many of whom have grown up entirely outside Somalia or Africa. The intention of this study is to develop a deeper understanding of some of the methods by which culture is transmitted to children from parents, which ideas and values are sustained, which negative influences are filtered, and Somali children’s experiences. 9 I have divided this paper into six chapters. This first chapter is a discussion of some specific aspects of the community and schools I studied, and the assumptions and bias that I brought to the study. The second and third chapters are a discussion of current knowledge and scholarly activity related to Islam, education, and refugee communities. The fourth chapter discusses the methods used to gather the data for the study, and the fifth outlines the results of the interviews and observations. The final chapter concludes with some recommendations for future research and notes the limitations of this study. Living in Columbus When refugees travel from their home country, they inevitably face issues of cultural adjustment. Along with the individual’s adjustment to a new way of life, refugees who travel with families must also consider the way their children will live in their new home. For many of the Somali refugee community of Columbus, adjusting to life in America has meant a focus on education for their children. Whereas education in Somalia consisted of a combination of learning the typical subjects - reading, writing, and arithmetic – and Qur’anic studies, in the United States, these two aspects of life are separate and parents must make a specific effort to ensure that their children are learning how to be a good Muslim as well as how to read, write, or do math problems. Many Somali parents are also confronted with issues of authority in their households. Living in the United States, without a sufficient grasp of English, 10 many parents now rely on their children to assist them with day-to-day life. The difficulty with language is thus of new significance for families in which there may have been more “traditional” lines of authority and leadership.
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