Muslim Parents' Shared Viewpoints About U.S. Public Schools: A Q Methodological Study

Despite the growing population of Muslim students in U.S. public schools, few empirically grounded studies appear in the literature that have reported the opinions and viewpoints about U.S. public schools from the perspective of Muslim parents. This study deeply investigates the perceptions Muslim parents hold about U.S. public schools and focuses on how Muslim identity and other factors shape those views. Q Methodology, a mixed methods technique for the systematic study of subjectivity, is applied to reveal and analyze a varied set of distinct models of shared viewpoints held by Muslim parents about public schools in the U.S. Data were analyzed from 54 Muslim parents in the metropolitan New York City region. This study identified and examined 8 models of shared viewpoints held by Muslim parents. Further analysis demonstrated the relative prevalence of each of the revealed shared viewpoints about U.S. public schools and ways in which the identified models reflect disagreements, consensus, and absence of salience in views about U.S. public schools. Muslim parents’ Muslim identity, their experience attending schools in the U.S., their children’s experience attending schools in the U.S., their experience as school teachers or administrators, their gender, and their highest level of education were examined to predict the likelihood a parent would share views with a particular Q model. Understanding the shared viewpoints of Muslim parents can be useful for educational policymakers, leaders, and teachers, who must ensure an effective and comfortable learning environment for all of their students