Teachers’ professional identity formation has been the subject of significant critical analysis. There has been an increased interest in researching teachers’ professional identity, specifically emphasising personal experiences and professional contexts. However, there is a paucity of empirical and theoretical investigations into the role of politics, policy, and associated discourses in shaping teacher identity formation. In particular, much uncertainty still exists regarding the professional identity of Muslim teachers in England. Previous research on Muslim teachers in England has primarily centred on intersections of religion, race, and gender; their career progression; the role of their religious identity in their professional identity formation; and their perceptions of fundamental British values. More importantly, the question of how public policy discourses concerning the securitisation of education construct the professional identity of Muslim teachers has not yet been adequately scrutinised. It is this gap in the existing literature that this doctoral research, therefore, aims to address, particularly how securitisation discourses in education policy shape the professional identity formation of Muslim teachers in England. The current securitisation rhetoric is often associated with three interrelated public policy areas:1) the failure of multiculturalism in Britain, 2) the enactment of the Prevent duty, and 3) legal obligations to promote fundamental British values (FBV). The aforementioned public policies have been formulated in the context of national and international debates on Islam, Muslims, and education.This investigation utilises an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to comprehensively understand the lived experiences of Muslim teachers. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers who defined themselves as Muslims, comprising both male and female individuals from cross-sections of ethnic groups, and working in secondary schools in England. This thesis attempts to make sense of Muslim teachers' experiences through the ontological security theory proposed by Anthony Giddens, which enables us to thoroughly explore Muslim teachers' sense of continuity, trust, and well-being in the age of securitisation. This empirical investigation provides new insights into existing research on Muslim teachers in the UK, which has been largely overlooked in the current literature, by recruiting groups of diverse Muslim teachers from different ethnicities, genders, subject areas, regions, and teaching experiences. On a theoretical level, the present study has been one of the first attempts to fully scrutinise the impact of the growing trend of securitisation policies in education on teachers’ professional identity, drawing upon the ontological security theory presented by Giddens. The findings of this study suggest that the professional identity formations of Muslim teachers have been securitised under the influence of current securitisation discourses in education, undermining the sense of the ontological security of Muslim teachers.
| Date of Award | 20 Mar 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Shamim Miah (Main Supervisor) & Katherine Davey (Co-Supervisor) |
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