Headscarf

Probably have you noticed that appart from being a only-girls school, most of the students attending BVG wear a headscarf. However, it does not mean that BVG is a Muslim school, but the majority of its students are. There is an only-girls Islamic school in Bradford, Feversham College. 

It only seems paradoxical that coming from Granada, the so-called last Muslim kingdom in Spain, some of us were so impressed by this enviroment and, in some cases, we realized how little we knew about Islam. The most we know and understand our students and their cultures, the better. Actually there is a module in Máster de Profesorado offered in the UGR called "Atención a la diversidad y a la multiculturalidad", which deals with this particular aspect inside education.

Some information that you will probably find useful is that there is more than one type of headscarf, the most widely used is hijab but there are others. Actually we had been told that apart from the tipologies, there are also different trendies and fashion, which students follow, even for weddings!

Since March 2007, it is into headmasters and managers at English schools to decide if headscarf is allowed or not. In France, for instance, the wearing of all conspicuous religious symbols in public schools was banned back in 2004. In Spain, there have been some attemps to forbid burqa in public spaces, but still each schools can have its own dress code and there is no major regulation on it.

Further reading of the use of hijab at schools

- Afshar, H. (2008). Can I see your hair? Choice, agency and attitudes: the dilemma of faith and feminism for Muslim women who cover. Ethnic and Racial Studies , 31 (2), 411- 427.
- Antón Valero, J. A. (2005). La discusión sobre el velo y la capacidad de la escuela para el debate cultural. Mugak (26), 17-26.
- Cañamares Arribas, S. (2006). El empleo de simbología religiosa en España. Boletín Mexicano de Derecho Comparado (116), 317-350.
- Franks, M. (2000). Crossing the borders of whiteness? White Muslim women who wear the hijab in Britain today. Ethnic and Racial Studies , 23 (5), 917-929.
- Marco Méndez, O. (2007). An Ethnographic Approach to the Hijabization Process: some "Mindful" bodies uncovered. Altafulla: FIMAM.
- San Román, T. (2006). El velo, el Rolex y la Antropología. Perifèria. Revista de investigación y formación en antropología (4), 1-4.

Looking back, we can say it has been a prolific month. First of all, we have been privileged to live firsthand a different educational system, which is always an enriching experience. Working in a school just for girls which ara mainly Muslims, was a shoking aspect that early in this month called our attention, but that helps us to learn about they culture and way of behaving so we can be prepared if we face something similar back in Spain. 

The way of teaching is also very different from what we do at home. It has been already mentioned that here most of the teachers have their own class, so are pupils who move from one room to another, that gives the teacher the posibility of manage her/his room in the better way to teach his/her subject (btw, pupils going from a class to another is not such a mess as we can suppose a priori). Having lots of resources (specially in Sciences which is the fild I have been involved in) and assistants in most of the classes, both for students with special needs and for the class in general, makes a huge difference with the average Spanish highschool. 

Some subjects are very different as well. Although some of them, such as Maths, are pretty much the same thing than in Spain, some other are taught so differently: In Music lessons students do play actual instruments (to the point that they have a band that sounds pretty well), rather than studying about history of music; Religious Studies is a subject in which they compare how different religions face different issues like anticonception methods, mariage, death.... far away from the Catholicism subject that we have in Spain under the name of "Religion"; About Sciences.... just go and look what Nacho said about science classes in the previous post. 

Further than learning from the educational system, during our staying here we have had the chance of making good friends, some contacts, and we have opened new jobs opportunities. Being a teacher, or even an assistant teacher, in the UK has become an option for some of us.

These are some of the bunch of things that we are bringing back home to try to implement when we will be teachers and headmasters and headmistress. However, I have seen some other number of things that I, personally, do not like here, so this experience have been useful too for knowing what we need to prevent to apply in the Spanish educational system: spreading students in bright and no-so-bright levels,  the fact that all the schools are private and a qualification is not needed anymore to be a teacher in some places, their unhealthy obsession for marks and external evaluations, such as GCSE or Ogsted, which lets no space for the personal development of the students... among others.

At the end of the day, this city may not be the most beatiful city ever, nevertheless, after one month of adventure here, we all have grown fond of Bradford.

¡¡¡HASTA LA VISTA!!!

I could talk all day about all the experiments we saw during our practicals in Science classes, but it is not something that you can explain with just words. Instead of that, I will end this post showing you the charismatic pet of physics classroom!! Her name is Peggy, and is a blind Gecko (because of genetic causes). The physic's teacher has been feeding her everyday, and she is very lovely. I can't show you the picture of Peggy because of a problem with my mobile phone, but this is how she looked like.