What Role of God and National Curriculum in School life? A Comparative Study of Schools with a Muslim Profile in England and Sweden

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of principles and ethics that dominate four schools with a Muslim profile, two in Sweden and two in England.The specific objectives of the study are:  to examine educational policies with regard to primary schools with a confessional orientation in Sweden and England; to compare two primary schools with a Muslim profile in Sweden with two such schools in England; and in these four schools to describe and examine the manner in which school heads, teachers and other staff deal with the encounters between the values found in the national curriculum of Sweden and England respectively and the principles and ethics embodied in their private philosophy of life; to describe and examine the views of school heads, teachers and other staff on school leadership and any educational, ideological or personal role model they emulate; to describe and examine the expectations and views of parents with regard to the school with a Muslim profile; and describe the views of the pupils regarding their schools and the norms and values in school and; finally, to examine the attitudes of some local authority politicians in Sweden to MP schools.The findings indicate great difference between the two schools with a Muslim profile in Sweden, on the one hand, and the two schools in England, on the other. The fundamental reason for that lies in the parameters which had been established in these countries as the conditions for being permitted to establish and run a school with a confessional orientation. Since the schools in both countries had conformed to the relevant legislation and framework in their respective countries with regard to such schools, they had therefore consequently developed in different directions.