Different, threatening and problematic: Representations of non-mainstream religious schools

The political contexts of marketisation, multiculturalism and pluralism have influenced the emergence of niche, religious providers of education in Australia with increasing government support. The most substantive increases in enrolments within the non-mainstream religious school sector have been in Islamic schools and schools catering to "fundamentalist" Christian denominations. Concomitantly, non-mainstream religious schools have received considerable media attention in Australia. This study involves a comparison of the media reportage focusing on Muslim schools and "fundamentalist" Christian schools during a 12 month period in which Muslim schools across the country received significant media attention after they were threatened with funding cuts. It is suggested that exploring how different categories of non-mainstream religious schools are represented in the media could become a proxy for understanding how the Australian public are invited to perceive these schools