Insider Islamic spaces of inquiry : Muslim educators producing new knowledge in Sydney, Australia

In this chapter we share the challenges of educators working 'against the grain' (de Castell, 1993: 185) of orthodox knowledge and explore the enabling contribution of what we have termed 'insider Islamic spaces of inquiry' to generate new knowledge. The chapter draws on data from a practitioner research project involving a group of Muslim teachers working in Muslim schools and secular early childhood settings in Sydney, Australia. This was one of three groups nested in a larger project, named the Collaborative Practitioner Research Project (Skattebol and Arthur, 2014). The members of this group of Muslim practitioners named themselves the Habibties, which loosely means friends/darlings/honeys in Arabic and is used to show affection and friendship. This chapter discusses three research projects- Oznur's research on music teaching in Islamic schools, Fatima's research on the professional identities of Muslim educators in a secular setting, and Jen and Leonie's research on the processes of practitioner research. The key themes addressed in the chapter are collaborative practitioner research as a space for critical reflection; combining practitioner research with post-colonial theory to open up possibilities for practitioners to produce their own culturally relevant knowledge; and insider spaces of inquiry as particularly important for marginalised groups navigating cultural interfaces as they work across boundaries (Manathunga, 2009). Readers can expect to learn about findings from a project that provided insights into the broader dynamics of collaborative practitioner research practice as well as themes particular to Islamic educational contexts. The chapter provides evidence of the role of collaborative practitioner research as an important avenue for the production of a democratic palette of knowledge to inform teaching.