ISLAM | #Barxiluna “It’s difficult to unlearn the symbolic violence we faced at school, which has consequences for self-esteem, mental health and life”, Yousra Touri El Mansouri
“Barxiluna برشلونة: (Dis)memory of the Islamic Past and Present" is a set of activities that emphasise Barcelona’s Muslim legacy and how it has influenced the city. The fourth activity in this series, organised by the Espai Avinyó - Language and Culture Space and the Office for Religious Affairs, with the collaboration of the Sant Andreu Interculturality Service, focused again on the sphere of eduction with “The Hidden Curriculum”, a visit to a school to share knowledge and experience about how things work and what type of consequences the hidden curriculum can have on the lives of young Muslims.
As part of the programme “Barxiluna برشلونة: (Dis)memory of the Islamic Past and Present”, two activities were organised to reflect on the history, heritage and museography relating to the Islamic legacy. The importance of the Islamic legacy stems from the significant historical and present-day links between the city of Barcelona and Islam. Firstly, with the round table and debate on “History and Heritage”, which highlighted the need and obligation to appreciate the Islamic past and present of the city of Barcelona. An account of its plural and diverse reality must be given, and not only in material terms, but also in terms of the way in which the history of Muslim people has been treated in historiography, science, urban planning, etc.
And later, the issue was raised as part of the visit and discussion space “(Im)possible Museums: from historical accounts to museum narrative”, organised by the Museu d’ Història de Catalunya, a role model for the dissemination of history and collective heritage in Catalonia. For this reason, a visit was conducted to the permanent exhibition “The Memory of a Country”, which offers a synthetic and historical overview of the past and present. The activity reflected on the following questions: How has Muslim history and heritage been disseminated up to now in Catalonia? How has the construction of the “Muslim Other” shaped the narrative of the museum and its collection? In what ways could the museum’s historical and museographical narrative be redesigned to generate new ways of connecting with Muslim communities and the educational fabric around them?
In the third activity, “The Curriculum”, set within the context of education, the aim was to open up a new space for debate, and for working on how the history and presence of Islam has been conveyed in the Catalan educational curriculum, paying particular attention to textbooks and to narratives of the history of Islam and of Muslim people. The goal was to analyse the presentation of the Muslim world, historical events, geographical aspects, the economic, political and social dimensions, etc., presented in textbooks used with the pupils. Based on the analysis of texts from the main publishing houses, the anti-racism perspective, and experiences linked to the field of education, the content, discourses and ways of representing Islam in the textbooks currently used in Catalonia were jointly analysed, and specific measures aimed at resolving the sort of racism that is reproduced in the educational sphere were discussed.
In this fourth activity, the focus was once again on the educational sphere, with questions which do not form part of the official curriculum, entitled “The Hidden Curriculum”.
#Barxiluna. (DIS)MEMORY OF THE ISLAMIC PAST AND PRESENT. THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM:
As part of the programme “Barxiluna برشلونة: (Dis)memory of the Islamic Past and Present” and after reflecting on history, heritage, museography and the official curriculum about the Islamic legacy, the Espai Avinyó and the Office for Religious Affairs (OAR) organised a meeting on 20 May 2023, with the participation of the Association of Muslim Students (AEM), the social educator Yousra Touri El Mansouri and the music group Pinan 450f. The meeting was organised in collaboration with the Sant Andreu Interculturality Service and the Escola L’Estel.
The hidden curriculum is the set of experiences and teachings that make up the experience of students at school, outside of the official curriculum, and are normally learnt implicitly, but on occasions explicitly: “I can unlearn how America was discovered. It’s difficult to unlearn the symbolic violence we faced at school, which has consequences for self-esteem, mental health and life”, notes Yousra Touri El Mansouri.
The session went around various spaces and classrooms at the school on a Saturday morning to show the relationship between the hidden curriculum and racism and Islamophobia, focusing on the knowledge and experience of Muslims who have been through the Catalan education system. Finally, there was a reading of part of the ten-point plan Welcome to school… intercultural school?, a fanzine for teachers and school staff. The activity concluded with a short concert from Pinan 450f.
The following reflections stand out:
- In the music classroom, Touri El Mansouri warned of the “folklorisation and homogenisation of difference in a school text defining ethnic music and oriental music as a ‘hotchpotch’”, as Adnan X from Pinan 450f says: “We do blues, rock and rap, yet everything that comes from that is regarded as ethnic music, with no value attached”.
- Commenting on a wall display on “African fauna”, various people point to the uniform vision of the continent and experiences where other colleagues compare the physical abilities of students with racist conceptions of people and geographies.
- In the library, in front of a Tintín comic, Adnan X says: “We grew up reading Tintín comics without knowing this was the image of European colonisation, bloody and despotic”.
- In the teachers’ room, Yousra Touri El Mansouri observes: “One defence mechanism against discrimination at school was to seek excellence, get the best marks, to justify your existence. Or the opposite, to not care about anything, so that nothing’s expected of me”.
- In the dining hall, Lina Ball from the AEM explains that:“As I requested a halal menu, they put me on the table for kids with food intolerances, another form of discrimination. Now schools have vegetarian and vegan menus. Why not halal?”
