Culture and Classroom Communication: A Pilot Study in the Post-Soviet Republic of Armenia

Using participant observations and informal interviews, the study examined whether and how classroom communication in Armenia reflects Armenian culture and history, including the Soviet influence for close to seven decades and Armenia’s transition from one socio-politico-economic system to another, followed by internationalization of education and globalization. Findings of the study revealed three major themes that have impacted the classroom communication style: courtesy, immediacy, solidarity. While consistent in some ways with Soviet communism, these themes may have also been influenced by Armenia’s traditional and family-centered culture and history which predate Soviet communism, as well as by internationalization of education and globalization.     

French-Muslims and the Hijab: An Analysis of Identity and the Islamic Veil in France

This article examines how Muslims living in France construct, and negotiate their identities in the wake of Law 2004–228, a French law banning the wearing of the Islamic veil in French public schools. This research finds that Muslims deem the Islamic veil or hijab to be a fundamental part of their identity. Muslims describe the hijab as being an important and salient symbol of Islam that runs counter to France's concept of secularism or laïcité. Moreover, French-Muslims assert regulations like Law 2004–228 represent France attempting to control Muslim identity and forcefully integrate this population.     

“Everything Has Beauty but Not Everyone Sees It”: An Islamic Alternative to Assessing Beauty

ABSTRACT

The constant reference to beauty ideals in all facets of contemporary culture, including work, sex, and religion as well as the constant exposure to images of “beautiful” women, which are ubiquitous in the mass media as the ideal, make a search for a categorical view a necessity. Through qualitative research approach, in which critical, content, and discourse analysis were applied on classical, as well as relevant contemporary materials on beauty, this study contributes an Islamic perspective to the discourse, and hinges its discussions on the primary sources in Islam (Qur’an and Hadith). The paper examines what the Qur’an and Hadith view as beauty and physical attractiveness. It was discovered that in Islam, beauty has five primary emphases: virtue, divine, nature, order, and proportion.     

An investigation of the Iranians' attitudes towards goals of education

This study investigated the attitudes of the Iranian people towards educational goals. The Ss were twelfth grade students, their parents and teachers (93, 58 and 85, respectively) from the middle class school districts of Tehran, Iran. The measure was an adaptation of the semantic differential consisting of 14 items representing educational goals of the new system of education in Iran. Thirteen bipolar adjectives were used for rating the goals.ANOVAS produced significant differences among the attitudes of the three groups against more than 6 of the 13 adjectival measures for the goals of training creative individuals, broadening people's minds, and the acquisition of knowledge, and significant differences against 12 of the 13 adjectival measures the goal of preparing the individuals for the acquisition of wealth. The Scheffe Multiple Comparison Procedure Technique showed that on most of the measures there is a close convergence between the attitudes of the students and teachers, and these two groups seem to be more idealistic in their educational views than the Iranian parents.     

Solomon,his Demons and Jongleurs: the Meeting of Islamic,Judaic and Christian Culture

The legend of Solomon's special ability to control demons originated in Jewish-Hellenistic circles and became widespread in later Judaic, Islamic and Christian culture. In the Qur’ān, as well as in the earlier Babylonian Talmud and other rabbinic sources, the legend was adopted with a clear tendency to avoid the pragmatic demonic aspects of the story. In a similar vein, Qur’ānic commentators presented the relations between Solomon and the demons as an expression of the supernatural rule of the king over the cosmos and ignored his shameful end. The inclusion of the legend in the most sacred canonical text of Islam, and its connotation of eternity may explain the frequent representation in Muslim art. On the other hand, the avoidance by the Christian establishment authorities and the relegation to profane literature mocking the king may account for its absence in western official art. A combination between the high and low aspects of Solomon is seen in an illuminated medieval Hebrew Mahzor from South Germany. The divine aspect of Solomon as he appears in the Mahzor is paralleled in the Muslim examples. These similarities are the result of close textual traditions deriving from the same sources. Yet a possible pictorial testimony linking East and West may be discerned in the Ottoman illuminated Book of Suleiman, possibly based on a western tradition.