Teenage Anglo boys and Images of a Girl Wearing a Hijab in a
Canadian Catholic High School
You are a teacher candidate in a practicum placement in a Catholic high school in a large urban area. The majority of the students in school are of Catholic faith, but there are also students of other religions. One thing that you have been witnessing is that Muslim girls who wear a hijab are being teased by other students in the school. One day, as you walk down the hall during a break you notice a male student teasing a female student who is wearing a hijab. Her brother runs to her rescue, and a fight starts between the two boys. The female student starts to cry. Other students gather around, and you are the only one in the hall; no other teacher or school personnel are present.
To learn more about this scenario, including the author’s own response, please attend the Intersections of Diverse Teachers and Diverse Learners at CSSE 2013, or stay tuned to the DiT website because we will be posting those details in the near future.
Until then, please leave a comment so that we can read your responses to this scenario. Here are some questions to consider interacting with each other and the author (Victorina Baxan, from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, at the University of Toronto) about:
- What would you do?
- Who do you think the “teaser” is?
- What reason is there for him to have this kind of behavior?
- Why do you think the female student started to cry: as it because of the boys fighting or because of the teasing? Why do you think that way?
- What kind of questions do you think she gets about the hijab?
- How could you tell if teasing has gotten out of hand?
- How might you help someone who is being teased?
This very real scenario underscores the importance of taking the time as educators to recognize what may be unfamiliar to some may also become a source of teasing or ridicule. In this instance, I think the primary concern as the teacher candidate encounters the situation is student safety and that the teacher candidate must intervene or seek assistance to stop the fight.
The more enduring issue to resolve is the teasing and the way to which the student’s brother reacted to it. The student doing the teasing is displaying both ignorance and insensitivity which perhaps could be addressed through education to all students about different cultures, religious beliefs, symbols and rituals. Since the school is predominantly Catholic, there may be an opportunity to use some of the Catholic beliefs and symbols as points of comparison.