"Halal-ing" the Child: Reframing Identities of Resistance in an Urban Muslim School

Abstract

In this article, Na'ilah Suad Nasir expands the literature on resistance theory by exploring the institutional response to classic "resistant" or "oppositional" student behavior. Using the case of one boy in an urban Muslim school who displays these resistant behaviors, she shows how the ideational artifacts of family and spirituality are enacted within the school context to support his growth. Nasir draws on data from extensive interviews and observations at the school site to paint a rich and complex picture of the dynamics at play when students appear to resist school. Rather than framing resistance as the property of the child, Nasir looks at how resistance can be cocreated in cultural settings and offers a potentially helpful perspective on how to construct schools in which resistant behavior does not become the norm.