Secular Institutions, Islam and Education Policy: France and the U.S. in Comparative Perspective [Hardcover]

Amidst claims of threats to national identities in an era of increasing diversity, should we be worried about the upsurge in religious animosity in the United States, as well as Europe? This book explores how French society is divided along conflicts about religion, increasingly visible in public schools, and shows the effect that this has had.

1. The New Challenges to the ?cole La?que: Integrating Islam
2. Faire l'Islam La?c: The Makings Of French Islam
3. The French Republican School: L'?cole La?que and its Historical Origins
4. Policies Towards Religion in French Public Schools, 1989-2004
5. Rising Education Inequalities In French Schools
6. The Post-2004 Ban and the Integration Of Muslim Students: The Limits of a Narrowly Legalistic Approach
7. Cultural and Religious Conflicts in the History of American Schools
8. Assimilation and Educational Achievement of Minority Groups in The United States
9. Secular Institutions between Policy and Politics
This deeply-researched account of Islam and secularity with special emphasis on the failures of the national school system in France will be valuable to all who are concerned with a life-and-death question for modernity: How can individual freedom be squared with social peace, given the current resurgence of groups who feel alienated from the modern secular state? - E, D. Hirsch, Jr. Author of Cultural Literacy and The Making of Americans

Paola Mattei is Associate Professor in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Oxford, UK and Fellow of St Antony's College. She has published Restructuring Welfare Organisations in Europe: From Democracy to Good Management?, University Adaptation in Difficult Economic Times and Public Accountability and Health Care Governance.

Andrew Aguilar is a France Fulbright Fellow for the 2015-2016 academic yealCh