Unpaving the Road to Hell: Disrupting Good Intentions and Bad Science About Islam and the Middle East

Teachers across all subject areas engage students, in some way, in the study of  otherness —other societies, other cultures, other practices. Often teachers and teacher educators attend to teaching about others with strong desires toward social justice as they seek to make a difference and do good. However, with insufficient tools to interrogate their practices and beliefs to think critically what good actually entails, they can unwittingly pave the road to hell. When good intentions are additionally coupled with the bad science of incomplete knowledge, misinformation, and weak arguments, the road can get treacherous. In this article, we examine the road to hell as it winds through teaching about a specific  other , Muslims. We examine how good intentions and bad science about Muslims and Islam have worked to cement stereotypes, promote intolerance, shut down learning, and in doing so thwart education for social justice. Peering closely, we examine commonly voiced student conceptions of Muslims/Islam/The East and highlight the good intentions and bad science behind many of the popular discourses that students advance. We then offer strategies for building a different path, by problematizing good intentions and repairing bad science.