STRIVING FOR KNOWLEDGE AND DIGNITY How quranic ‘boarding’ students in Kano, Nigeria, learn to live with rejection & educational disadvantage Hannah Höchner D.Phil. Candidate Development Studies University of http://peef.soup.io/since/ 53324629?mode=own
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STRIVING FOR KNOWLEDGE AND DIGNITY How quranic ‘boarding’ students in Kano, Nigeria, learn to live with rejection & educational disadvantage Hannah Höchner.
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STRIVING FOR KNOWLEDGE AND DIGNITY
How quranic ‘boarding’ students in Kano, Nigeria, learn to live with rejection & educational disadvantage
Hannah HöchnerD.Phil. Candidate Development StudiesUniversity of Oxford
http://peef.soup.io/since/53324629?mode=own
Structure of presentation:
1. context: global trends shaping children’s experiences
“[Almajirai in urban areas are treated worse than in rural areas because] most of the village people are [quranic] teachers, they know the Quran and its importance very well. In Kano, some of them are illiterate. They only have the boko [western] studies.” (15 years)
striving to further their knowledge:Islamiyya education
‘traditional’ knowledge economy of quranic schooling system: memorisation of Quran (without translation / explication / access to
other Islamic subjects) = necessary first step stratified access to power & prestige associated with religious
knowledge – memorisation alone: demonstration of mastery impossible Islamiyya schools: easy access to translation &
explication of Quran, & other Islamic subjects! Almajirai aspire to such knowledge: secret enrolment in Islamiyya school translations: quranic exegesis at Friday mosque, books, radio,
preachers on the street, guessing from similarities Hausa & Arabic claim to know God‘s position on contentious issues (not formally not
entitled to such knowledge) “Even Allah says you should know him first before you worship him.” “God will also punish them for giving him bad food.” “Allah said what you cannot eat, don’t give it to someone to eat, even if he’s a
mad man.”
striving to further their knowledge:western education
aspired to as means ‘to progress’ “If you have only the Quranic studies, there are places
that when you go there, people will think you are nobody” (24 years)
aspirations for formal sector jobs hope to pursue western education in the future
“If your parents took you to Quranic school, and you refuse to study and say you only prefer boko [western education], what will you tell Allah in heaven?… After I complete my school, I can go to boko, because my parents will not give their consent for me to go to boko now. I have to obey them, because it is said that ‘whoever obeys his parents, obeys Allah’… we still have hope that we will go to boko. We will not lose hope.
conclusions
caveat: research with 1 group of children at 1 point in time general conclusions:
modern education not inconsequential for those not taking part
young people not passive victims in the face of rejection & exclusion, struggle to make sense of their experiences
Almajirai: aspirations for western & modern Islamic education ability to conceive of themselves positively cushions assaults
on their dignity – possible not to resent the better-off & to embrace hope to advance through western education in the future
important questions: what discourses are available for young people to position
themselves vis-à-vis an exclusionary modernity? under what conditions may ‘protective shields’ break down?