Representation of the Arab world and Islam in American high schools curriculum: A case study of a high school in Minnesota.

摘要

This qualitative case study ascertains what is taught about Arabs and Muslims in American high schools by examining the curriculum of social studies and world literature at a large urban high school in Minnesota. The curriculum includes textbooks, any instructional material as well as publications in the library of the school. I studied the prevailing literature about images of Arabs and Muslims in the media and in education and on my field study at the high school.;Data from triangulated sources were evaluated in the study. The data includes 10 transcriptions of interviews with educators; 12 social studies textbooks and 2 literature texts; supplementary instructional materials that teachers used in their classes, as well as the listings at the school's library. Data analysis consists of manually coding and evaluating the interviews; and systematically, analyzing the textbooks and other documents according to a set of domains.;The main finding of this study was that information about Arabs and Muslims, as taught in that school, was highly limited. Coverage in the textbooks lacked content about the region that may provide a critical and in-depth understanding of the Arab world and its people. Consequently, these limitations led to stereotyping and distortion. Images of both Muslims and Arabs were conflated, although the religion of Islam was more covered than the Arabs.;On the other hand, two out of five social studies textbooks had made significant attempt to provide a comprehensive coverage of the region. They presented some critical coverage of Arabs and Muslims as well as socio-political challenges facing the region. Furthermore, direct stereotypes against Arabs and Muslims, which were omnipresent in the media and in the old studies of textbooks, were not found in nearly all the texts. Furthermore, some teachers were aware of the limitations of the coverage and pondered for additional resources.