Reza Gholami
Biographic Data
| ID | 77542 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Reza Gholami |
| GIVEN NAMES | Reza |
| FAMILY NAME | Gholami |
| SIGNATURE | GHOLAMI R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Birmingham |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6462-7847 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Is religious expression supported at school? Examining youth perspectives in an age of antagonisms
Liberal multicultural education policies have traditionally viewed religious freedom and equality as complementary aspects of state support for majority and minority groups. This complementarity has been undermined internationally by securitisation policy discourses, which portray Muslim minorities as potential extremists needing restrictions, and right-wing populist portrayals of majority religious freedom and minority religious equality as anta…
Unfit for free speech? How minoritised youth expression and (self-)censorship is organised across schools in ‘no-majority’ cities
Analysis of the silencing of racially minoritised communities is a cornerstone of race-critical theories. Yet amid resurgent attacks on anti-racist education by alleged ‘free speech’ defenders internationally, few studies analyse the speech conditions experienced by minoritised youth across urban contexts. Drawing on substantial qualitative data from case studies of four secondary schools in the ‘no-majority’ cities of London and Birmingham, the …
Education policy and ‘free speech’ on race and faith equality at school
Right-wing populists have recurrently created moral panics inter-nationally about the supposed need to ‘protect free speech’ in higher education (HE), and ‘protect children’ from progressive speech in schools. This paper presents the first systematic analysis of how such dynamics function with respect to race and faith equality in a national school policy context. Drawing on a critical post-structural framework, we conceptualise the policy proble…
Educating for living diversity: ‘Migrant’ identities, belonging and community‐centred pedagogies for social justice
This paper addresses the continued conundrums of racial and religious diversity in education. While social diversity is steadily increasing in Global North countries, there is little evidence of meaningful conviviality. Conversely, despite decades of dedicated multiculturalist policymaking, there is ample evidence of persisting educational disparities affecting pupils from minority backgrounds, as well as de facto segregation inside classrooms. T…
Diasporic education in the mainstream school: Creative Pedagogies of Belonging Across Time and Space
This article builds upon a theoretical framework for “diasporic education” to explore the impact of such an educational approach in a state-funded primary school in England. Diasporic education refers to curricular, pedagogic and political processes that utilise as educational resource the transnational connections of racially and religiously minoritised, or “migrant”, communities. The paper draws on collaborative research with an educational the…
The neutral order of things: Race, Faith and Schooling in Liberal Democracy
Basing views about race on facts? Meso-level policy actors' navigation of anti-racist and faith-inclusive expression with schools
Towards Critical Secular Studies in Education: Addressing Secular Education Formations and Their Intersecting Inequalities
This paper calls for systematic inquiry into the relationship between secular governing formations and education inequalities. We present a thematic analysis of existing scholarship on secularism, the secular and post-secular in education. Our review of 184 texts reveals a frequent implicit or explicit reliance on the liberal state to address religious inequalities in education, and to draw the line on the extent of public religious expression. T…
Thinking and working with ‘diasporic education’: The challenges and possibilities of a concept
The educational activities of migrant and/or minoritised communities, and the disadvantages those communities face in education have been of interest to sociologists for a long time. Although a strong conceptual vocabulary exists in the field, in my own work I have often found the concept of diaspora to be a powerful and generative analytical tool with which to approach the complex dynamics of racially, ethnically and religiously diverse educatio…
Critical Race Theory and Islamophobia: Challenging inequity in Higher Education
This paper engages with a dominant model of Islamophobia which gives race and racism primacy. It argues that such an approach is parochial, conceptually narrow and practically ineffective. I take as my case the UK’s Muslim student awarding gap – Muslims are currently the worst performing religious group at UK universities. Existing work explains this problem in terms of racism/Islamophobia. These factors are correctly identified, but a lack of an…
Integration, class and secularism: The marginalization of Shia identities in the UK Iranian diaspora
The art of self-making: Identity and citizenship education in late-modernity
Taking the English National Curriculum as its main example, this article argues that an overly nationalistic, normative and ‘fact-based’ citizenship education curriculum is failing to engage the dimensions of young people’s identities which they experience as deeply meaningful. There is thus a chasm – albeit a false one – between official discourses and pedagogies of citizenship and what young people consider to be their ‘real’ selves. I argue th…
Secularism and Identity: Non-Islamiosity in the Iranian Diaspora
Within western political, media and academic discourses, Muslim communities are predominantly seen through the prism of their Islamic religiosities, yet there exist within diasporic communities unique and complex secularisms. Drawing on detailed interview and ethnographic material gathered in the UK, this book examines the ways in which a form of secularism - ’non-Islamiosity’ - amongst members of the Iranian diaspora shapes ideas and practices o…
The devil is not in the detail: Representational absence and stereotyping in the ‘Trojan Horse’ news story
Using Content Analysis, this study investigated the coverage of the Trojan Horse news story aiming to ascertain whether its representation by the British press emphasised ‘Islamist extremism’ over ‘poor school governance’. The sample coverage was extracted from five national newspapers and ranged from 9 June (the date of release of the Ofsted Advice Note) to 26 June 2014. Our analysis shows that the coverage reported evidence of Islamist ideology…
Is This Islamic Enough?' Intra-Diasporic Secularism and Religious Experience in the Shi'a Iranian Diaspora in London
This paper explores the relationship between devout Iranian Shi'a in London and an intra-diasporic secularism referred to as ‘non-Islamiosity’—a discourse, sensibility and mode of practice through which some London Iranians construct, experience and live diasporic identity, community and consciousness in a way that marginalises, excludes or eradicates (only) Islam. It is argued that intra-diasporic relations of power vis-à-vis Islam and non-Islam…
Critical Race Theory and Islamophobia: Challenging inequity in Higher Education
This paper engages with a dominant model of Islamophobia which gives race and racism primacy. It argues that such an approach is parochial, conceptually narrow and practically ineffective. I take as my case the UK’s Muslim student awarding gap – Muslims are currently the worst performing religious group at UK universities. Existing work explains this problem in terms of racism/Islamophobia. These factors are correctly identified, but a lack of an…
The art of self-making: Identity and citizenship education in late-modernity
Taking the English National Curriculum as its main example, this article argues that an overly nationalistic, normative and ‘fact-based’ citizenship education curriculum is failing to engage the dimensions of young people’s identities which they experience as deeply meaningful. There is thus a chasm – albeit a false one – between official discourses and pedagogies of citizenship and what young people consider to be their ‘real’ selves. I argue th…
Integration, class and secularism: The marginalization of Shia identities in the UK Iranian diaspora
The devil is not in the detail: Representational absence and stereotyping in the ‘Trojan Horse’ news story
Using Content Analysis, this study investigated the coverage of the Trojan Horse news story aiming to ascertain whether its representation by the British press emphasised ‘Islamist extremism’ over ‘poor school governance’. The sample coverage was extracted from five national newspapers and ranged from 9 June (the date of release of the Ofsted Advice Note) to 26 June 2014. Our analysis shows that the coverage reported evidence of Islamist ideology…
Is This Islamic Enough?' Intra-Diasporic Secularism and Religious Experience in the Shi'a Iranian Diaspora in London
This paper explores the relationship between devout Iranian Shi'a in London and an intra-diasporic secularism referred to as ‘non-Islamiosity’—a discourse, sensibility and mode of practice through which some London Iranians construct, experience and live diasporic identity, community and consciousness in a way that marginalises, excludes or eradicates (only) Islam. It is argued that intra-diasporic relations of power vis-à-vis Islam and non-Islam…
Education policy and ‘free speech’ on race and faith equality at school
Right-wing populists have recurrently created moral panics inter-nationally about the supposed need to ‘protect free speech’ in higher education (HE), and ‘protect children’ from progressive speech in schools. This paper presents the first systematic analysis of how such dynamics function with respect to race and faith equality in a national school policy context. Drawing on a critical post-structural framework, we conceptualise the policy proble…
Basing views about race on facts? Meso-level policy actors' navigation of anti-racist and faith-inclusive expression with schools
Educating for living diversity: ‘Migrant’ identities, belonging and community‐centred pedagogies for social justice
This paper addresses the continued conundrums of racial and religious diversity in education. While social diversity is steadily increasing in Global North countries, there is little evidence of meaningful conviviality. Conversely, despite decades of dedicated multiculturalist policymaking, there is ample evidence of persisting educational disparities affecting pupils from minority backgrounds, as well as de facto segregation inside classrooms. T…
Diasporic education in the mainstream school: Creative Pedagogies of Belonging Across Time and Space
This article builds upon a theoretical framework for “diasporic education” to explore the impact of such an educational approach in a state-funded primary school in England. Diasporic education refers to curricular, pedagogic and political processes that utilise as educational resource the transnational connections of racially and religiously minoritised, or “migrant”, communities. The paper draws on collaborative research with an educational the…
Towards Critical Secular Studies in Education: Addressing Secular Education Formations and Their Intersecting Inequalities
This paper calls for systematic inquiry into the relationship between secular governing formations and education inequalities. We present a thematic analysis of existing scholarship on secularism, the secular and post-secular in education. Our review of 184 texts reveals a frequent implicit or explicit reliance on the liberal state to address religious inequalities in education, and to draw the line on the extent of public religious expression. T…
Thinking and working with ‘diasporic education’: The challenges and possibilities of a concept
The educational activities of migrant and/or minoritised communities, and the disadvantages those communities face in education have been of interest to sociologists for a long time. Although a strong conceptual vocabulary exists in the field, in my own work I have often found the concept of diaspora to be a powerful and generative analytical tool with which to approach the complex dynamics of racially, ethnically and religiously diverse educatio…
Is This Islamic Enough?' Intra-Diasporic Secularism and Religious Experience in the Shi'a Iranian Diaspora in London
This paper explores the relationship between devout Iranian Shi'a in London and an intra-diasporic secularism referred to as ‘non-Islamiosity’—a discourse, sensibility and mode of practice through which some London Iranians construct, experience and live diasporic identity, community and consciousness in a way that marginalises, excludes or eradicates (only) Islam. It is argued that intra-diasporic relations of power vis-à-vis Islam and non-Islam…
Secularism and Identity: Non-Islamiosity in the Iranian Diaspora
Within western political, media and academic discourses, Muslim communities are predominantly seen through the prism of their Islamic religiosities, yet there exist within diasporic communities unique and complex secularisms. Drawing on detailed interview and ethnographic material gathered in the UK, this book examines the ways in which a form of secularism - ’non-Islamiosity’ - amongst members of the Iranian diaspora shapes ideas and practices o…
The devil is not in the detail: Representational absence and stereotyping in the ‘Trojan Horse’ news story
Using Content Analysis, this study investigated the coverage of the Trojan Horse news story aiming to ascertain whether its representation by the British press emphasised ‘Islamist extremism’ over ‘poor school governance’. The sample coverage was extracted from five national newspapers and ranged from 9 June (the date of release of the Ofsted Advice Note) to 26 June 2014. Our analysis shows that the coverage reported evidence of Islamist ideology…
The art of self-making: Identity and citizenship education in late-modernity
Taking the English National Curriculum as its main example, this article argues that an overly nationalistic, normative and ‘fact-based’ citizenship education curriculum is failing to engage the dimensions of young people’s identities which they experience as deeply meaningful. There is thus a chasm – albeit a false one – between official discourses and pedagogies of citizenship and what young people consider to be their ‘real’ selves. I argue th…
Integration, class and secularism: The marginalization of Shia identities in the UK Iranian diaspora
Critical Race Theory and Islamophobia: Challenging inequity in Higher Education
This paper engages with a dominant model of Islamophobia which gives race and racism primacy. It argues that such an approach is parochial, conceptually narrow and practically ineffective. I take as my case the UK’s Muslim student awarding gap – Muslims are currently the worst performing religious group at UK universities. Existing work explains this problem in terms of racism/Islamophobia. These factors are correctly identified, but a lack of an…
Thinking and working with ‘diasporic education’: The challenges and possibilities of a concept
The educational activities of migrant and/or minoritised communities, and the disadvantages those communities face in education have been of interest to sociologists for a long time. Although a strong conceptual vocabulary exists in the field, in my own work I have often found the concept of diaspora to be a powerful and generative analytical tool with which to approach the complex dynamics of racially, ethnically and religiously diverse educatio…
Towards Critical Secular Studies in Education: Addressing Secular Education Formations and Their Intersecting Inequalities
This paper calls for systematic inquiry into the relationship between secular governing formations and education inequalities. We present a thematic analysis of existing scholarship on secularism, the secular and post-secular in education. Our review of 184 texts reveals a frequent implicit or explicit reliance on the liberal state to address religious inequalities in education, and to draw the line on the extent of public religious expression. T…
Education policy and ‘free speech’ on race and faith equality at school
Right-wing populists have recurrently created moral panics inter-nationally about the supposed need to ‘protect free speech’ in higher education (HE), and ‘protect children’ from progressive speech in schools. This paper presents the first systematic analysis of how such dynamics function with respect to race and faith equality in a national school policy context. Drawing on a critical post-structural framework, we conceptualise the policy proble…
Educating for living diversity: ‘Migrant’ identities, belonging and community‐centred pedagogies for social justice
This paper addresses the continued conundrums of racial and religious diversity in education. While social diversity is steadily increasing in Global North countries, there is little evidence of meaningful conviviality. Conversely, despite decades of dedicated multiculturalist policymaking, there is ample evidence of persisting educational disparities affecting pupils from minority backgrounds, as well as de facto segregation inside classrooms. T…
Diasporic education in the mainstream school: Creative Pedagogies of Belonging Across Time and Space
This article builds upon a theoretical framework for “diasporic education” to explore the impact of such an educational approach in a state-funded primary school in England. Diasporic education refers to curricular, pedagogic and political processes that utilise as educational resource the transnational connections of racially and religiously minoritised, or “migrant”, communities. The paper draws on collaborative research with an educational the…
The neutral order of things: Race, Faith and Schooling in Liberal Democracy
Basing views about race on facts? Meso-level policy actors' navigation of anti-racist and faith-inclusive expression with schools
Is religious expression supported at school? Examining youth perspectives in an age of antagonisms
Liberal multicultural education policies have traditionally viewed religious freedom and equality as complementary aspects of state support for majority and minority groups. This complementarity has been undermined internationally by securitisation policy discourses, which portray Muslim minorities as potential extremists needing restrictions, and right-wing populist portrayals of majority religious freedom and minority religious equality as anta…
Unfit for free speech? How minoritised youth expression and (self-)censorship is organised across schools in ‘no-majority’ cities
Analysis of the silencing of racially minoritised communities is a cornerstone of race-critical theories. Yet amid resurgent attacks on anti-racist education by alleged ‘free speech’ defenders internationally, few studies analyse the speech conditions experienced by minoritised youth across urban contexts. Drawing on substantial qualitative data from case studies of four secondary schools in the ‘no-majority’ cities of London and Birmingham, the …
Sociology (13 works) · Gender Studies (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Law (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Pedagogy (5 works)