Collet, Bruce2011-10-242011-10-242007Bruce Collet, "Islam, national identity, and public secondary education: Perspectives from the Somali Diaspora in Toronto, Canada," Race, Ethnicity and Education 10.2 (2007): 131-153.http://hdl.handle.net/10315/10037Public schools have historically been key sites where children learn of and adopt a common national identity. In states where multiculturalism plays a central role in the articulation of a national identity, schools actively recognize and support the diverse cultures of their students in fulfilling this function. Canada is a state where, via federal policy, multiculturalism has been identified as a fundamental element of the national ethos. Formal education has been a key area in which the government has implemented this policy. However, public education in Canada is also committed to secularism, and this has been a cause for resistance by diverse immigrant groups. This paper examines resistance among traditional Muslim groups to Toronto school policies and practices that reflect an avowedly secular orientation. It focuses on the experiences of one Muslim group in particular, Somali immigrants, and their encounters with school policies and practices that both supported and challenged their identities. In doing so, the paper exposes the schools as sites of countervailing policies and practices within which students must nonetheless forge new and meaningful identities.enThis is an electronic version of an article published in Race, Ethnicity and Education [Bruce Collet, "Islam, national identity, and public secondary education: Perspectives from the Somali Diaspora in Toronto, Canada," Race, Ethnicity and Education 10.2 (2007): 131-153.]. Race, Ethnicity and Education is available online at: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/cree This article is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13613320701330668Articlehttp://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/creehttp://www.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13613320701330668