Fairness Perceptions and Experiences of Muslim University Students in Canada


  •  Serdar Erkan    
  •  Keith Walker    

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the perceptions and experiences of fairness amongst Muslim post-secondary students based on our gathering of data using a web-based survey. The participants, 189 Muslim students, were reached via student organizations, national and local Muslim organizations, and Muslim student groups organized on Facebook. Following these initial contact points, snowball sampling was used to invite prospective participants to respond to the quantitative items in the survey instrument (which also included qualitative inquiries). These quantitative responses were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis techniques. For Muslim students, their university was perceived as the most fair amongst their experience of settings, followed by Canada in general, and the country that these Muslim students culturally most identified with. The World, at large, was perceived as the most unfair setting for responding Muslims. Except for the country that Muslim students culturally identified with, all settings were perceived to be fairer for non-Muslims than for Muslims. The majority of Muslim students reported that they had encountered, observed, or experienced unfairness at least once in their university settings during the previous academic year and that they had been impacted by that experience of unfairness.



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