Transcript Religious nurture in Muslim families

Religious nurture in Muslim families:
Implications for social work
Jonathan Scourfield and Roz Warden
Cardiff University
(School of Social Sciences and Centre for the Study
of Islam in the UK)
Social Work and Spirituality
Spirituality as ‘a universal quality of human
beings and their cultures related to the quest for
meaning, purpose, morality, transcendence,
well-being and profound relationships with
ourselves, others and ultimate reality’ (Canda
and Furman, 2010, p.5)
Islamic Social Work Models
(Source: Barise, 2005)
The research project
• Funded by the Religion and Society programme
(Arts and Humanities Research Council and
Economic and Social Research Council)
• Early and middle childhood
• How children are brought up to be Muslims
Our sample of families
Ethnic origin
20 Pakistani
10 Bangladeshi
5 Indian
5 Somali
9 Middle Eastern
7 Mixed ethnicity
4 Others
Social Class
(National Statistics
Socio-Economic
Classification)
15 managerial and professional occupations
24 intermediate occupations
18 Routine and manual occupations
3 unclassified (students and asylum seekers)
•
60 Muslim families where there are children of primary school age
and below
• interviews with at least two generations (99 parents and 120
children)
• children keep oral diaries and take photographs in 24 families
• some observation of formal learning
First Generation1
Second Generation2
86.8%
Muslim
Third Generation3
99.4%
Muslim
Passing on
religion to the
next generation
Muslim
12.4%
No Religion
37.9%
Christian
86.5%
Christian
Christian
60.9%
75.4%
Analysis of data from
2003 Home Office
Citizenship Survey
86.4%
No Religion
Other Religions
47.7%
98.5%
Other Religions
Other Religions
24.0%
No Religion
84.6%
No Religion
62.8%
75.4%
No Religion
No Religion
11.1%
Christian
37.8%
Differences between families
• Ethnicity
• Social class
• School of thought
Islamic nurture: The big picture
• Common core of belief.
• Variation in practice, but almost all children involved
in some formal learning about Islam
• Starting young
Why does Islam seem to be passed on so
successfully in a secular context?
• Intensive and extensive religious nurture – Islam
dominates time and space
• Ethnic defence. Religion is connected to ethnic
minority experience.
Spirituality?
These sisters, what they were teaching me was better than
what my parents taught me and I was going regularly, every
week, to halaqas and talks and Islamic events and then next
thing I’m going into work with my hijab on and there was a
lot of things I stopped doing, like not going down to the pub
with friends and stuff like that, things like that I used to do
with my work colleagues like now I would not do at all erm
and so all those, just stopping things basically that wasn’t,
that was really forbidden for me to do which totally relegates
my Islamic values so as I was learning more, I became
more, I would say more spiritual and so yeah, it’s always
been a very important part of me, my life. (Mrs Adam)
Specific findings relevant to social work
• Disputes about religious nurture when parents
separate
• The significance of family photos
General implications for social work
• The need to appreciate the monotheistic world view of
Islam and the importance of religious obedience
• Appreciating diversity – not just one Muslim community
• The need to appreciate the importance of religious
nurture for Muslim children – e.g. supplementary
education
• The potential for services from an Islamic perspective
(e.g. parenting classes, Islamic Social Services
Association)
References
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Work, 6 (2): 114-132.
Canda, E., and Furman, L., 2010. Spiritual Diversity in Social Work Practice: The Heart of Helping.
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