A study of Belgian teacher attitudes towards Muslim students

Muslims became the second largest religious group in almost all Western countries and a large majority of Muslim citizens are youngsters who attend public schools. However teachers’ attitudes regarding the education of Muslim students are largely ignored by educational researchers. In this study, we investigate the extent of negative (Islamophobic) and positive (Islamophilic) attitudes towards Muslims students and the determinants of these attitudes among Belgian teachers (N = 620). We found that the level of Islamophobia and Islamophilia is medium. However Islamophobic attitudes were more strongly present among teachers than Islamophilic attitudes. Teachers’ gender, religious background, age and educational background were found to have a significant effect on their attitudes. Most interestingly, we found that teachers working in schools that enroll a higher share of Muslim students have more negative attitudes towards Muslims students than other teachers. The implications of these findings for educational policy are discussed