Islamization of Disciplines: Towards an indigenous educational system

The past two decades has witnessed the mushrooming of Islamic schools in Europe, the United States and South Africa. Initially these schools were concerned essentially with providing an Islamic ethos for learners. More recently, however, they have begun to focus on the process of Islamization. The Islamization project was initiated in the United States by Muslim academics including Isma’il al‐Faruqi, Syed Husain Nasr and Fazlur Rahman as a response to the secularisation of Muslim society, including its educational insitutions. In essence Islamization means including Islamic disciplines in the curriculum, providing an Islamic perspective on issues in the syllabi and locating, where possible, secularized disciplines within the Islamic weltanschauung. Six international conferences have been held to date at different locations in the Muslim World. The first five generated conceptual papers on the Islamic approach to knowledge and education and inspired academics to write research papers on their disciplines from an Islamic perspective. Most of these have been published in the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences. The three universities which were established to drive the process have had varying degrees of success. The sixth conference which was held in South Africa took the form of workshops where South African teachers and international academics were brought together to generate Islamised syllabi for the major school disciplines. This article attempts to explain the rationale for Islamic schools and their attempts at Islamization of disciplines. In my view, this is an important development in the context of demands for the revival of indigenous knowledge systems.     

从科学之是到精神之在--对目前教学艺术的哲学反思

二十世纪二三十年代,渊源于柏拉图和亚里士多德逻辑学并在十八九世纪迅猛发展的科学技术促动下成型的逻辑经验主义(又称逻辑实证主义),以科学理性的对象化思维方式为武器,第一次从学理层面彻底消解了不合逻辑、不可实证的精神现象的存在价值。于是,逻辑经验世界变成了人类意义世界的全部。这即逻辑经验世界对精神世界的遮蔽,     

Towards an assessment of educational theory: An historical perspective

Throughout the last twenty-five years all areas of educational thought have been preoccupied with the continuing conflict between conservative middle-class dominance of the schools and a liberal movement determined to provide a theory of equality and provisions for access. The radical extreme of this movement has gone further and demanded the total reconceptualization and reconstruction of education. This movement has attacked the standard histories of education which have their origins in the late nineteenth century. At that time, it is now argued, education was dominated by anarriviste bourgeoisie embracing a version of late-Hegelian philosophy with a doctrine of Eurocentric progress. Seeking legitimacy, the middle class supported the classical revival which stressed liberal education, expressed aspaideia, and mediated through the limited access to grammar school and university. Traditional educational historiography is now seen as reflecting these assumptions through “grand histories” written around “great educators” and “noble ideals”. As educational thought expanded throughout the twentieth century with the emergence of the contributing disciplines, this tradition was challenged as critical historians had a wider data-base from which to draw. By the 1930s and 1940s in the seminal work of R. H. Tawney and Lloyd Warner a literature of dissent began to appear, which, by the late 1960s had increased to a torrent, issuing in violently provocative criticisms of educational assumptions and practices, accompanied by an equally strident literature of historical interpretation, which, drawing from revisionist work in the contributing disciplines, chiefly sociology, began to re-interpret the past twenty-five years of frenetic activity as the legitimate aspirations of the world's masses. Yet the methodology of both positions is itself being reinterpreted in the present post-empiricist stage, which is characterised by phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches. Both history as the events of the past (data-base) and as interpretation (historiography), are now being seen as facets of the one activity, and, with education considered as part of a wider social process, both traditional and radical positions are themselves becoming criticised for their inadequate positivist assumptions and methodology.     

价值转向:对教育以人为本的哲学反思

当代哲学的价值转向提供了新的视角,帮助我们从哲学层面深入领悟“以人为本”的内在吁求,理解教育领域内“以人为本”的哲学基础,并思考现阶段教育如何创造性地践行“以人为本”,以提升教育“以人为本”理论与实践的品质。     

The mediation of experience and educational technology: A philosophical analysis

This philosophical excursion into the foundations of educational technology begins by considering the nature of knowing and learning from the media, as well as stating the assumptions of the paper. The foundations of educational technology — the systems approach, systems theory, and behaviorism - are explicated. Then, I state and discuss four philosophical propositions for considering the mediation of experience and educational technology: a) Learning is a constructive activity so technologies should liberate, not constrain learners; b) media produce an event ontology separate from personal experience; c) mediation is a phenomenological process; and d) media provide existential access to the world’s knowledge and to internal aspects of the self. I am especially indebted to Professor Robert Heinich (Indiana University) for his repeated and insightful analysis of this paper. Significant contributions were also made by the late Professor James Macdonald, to whom the paper is dedicated, and Professor Arnold Levin (University of North Carolina at Greensboro). This paper was completed while I was a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Keele, Staffordshire, U.K. I should like to gratefully acknowledge the support of the department and its head, James Hartley, and especially the assistance of Mrs. M. Woodward.     

Extending educational planning discourse: A new strategic planning model

To academic visionaries the new century appears to have an emerging environment characterized by increased complexity, uncertainty, unpredictability which, some have argued, render traditional notions of planning and management irrelevant. The expectations of management and planning scholars carry the implicit assumption that somehow individual capability and organizational capacities will rise to meet the enormous challenges of this new environment. In the light of this situation the purposes of this paper are: (1) to briefly examine the limitations and criticisms of traditional educational planning; (2) to outline the emerging concepts and processes which collectively form a new paradigm for strategic planning; (3) to discuss the new model within the context of changing national policy and planning environments and increased localization; (4) to review the limited results of empirical research related to more participatory planning models; and (5) to offer a critique of the assumptions and practicality of the new model in the process of planning and sustaining educational change in developing countries     

Towards a collaborative methodology: An ethnography of widening educational participation

This paper examines my attempts to develop a collaborative methodology, and critically considers the limitations and possibilities of this approach. It draws on a small-scale ethnography of widening educational participation undertaken for my doctoral degree. I worked with a group of access students in a UK further education college to develop the methods and methodology, to identify research questions and key areas of focus and, to a lesser extent, to analyse the data. Post/structural analytical tools enabled co-participants to deconstruct hegemonic neo-liberal discourses of widening participation. Feminist theory enabled the refashioning of radical discourses that are concerned with destabilising unequal relations of power in research and in education. In the paper I consider issues of power, research relationships, author-ity, reflexivity and ethics in collaborative methodology.     

论默隐证据——关于哲学思辨研究方法论的一种思考

实证主义研究范式兴起后,哲学思辨研究常因其主观性问题而遭受人们诟病。实证主义研究本质就是利用收集到的信息与数据去探究与发现新的事物或事物间的相互关系,对于哲学思辨研究而言亦应如此。在哲学思辨研究中很多信息与数据都是默隐的,默隐证据是哲学思辨研究一种重要的证据方式。默隐证据的应用是哲学思辨研究表达的需要,它包括需要表达但无法给予表达与能够表达但不需要表达两种类型。默隐证据的适用有利于提升抽象一般性问题的研究价值,使价值问题的论证具有了可能以及人文社会科学话语表达更为经济,也有利于进一步提升人类思维的理性化水平。但是,默隐证据适用过程中容易使得人们产生文本意义理解上的障碍,让人们在文本阅读中产生理解上的偏见与歧义,容易造成研究者主观随意以及空疏论辩之风的形成。默隐证据在哲学思辨研究中的价值是不可否认的,同时应谨防与杜绝其在人文社会科学研究中的误用与滥用。     

Insights beyond neo-liberal educational practices: the value of discourse analysis

This article discusses the nature, power and effects of neo-liberal rationale in educational settings. By introducing discourse analysis of two cases, the influence of neo-liberal ideology on contemporary curricula and school programs were examined. The analysis showed that dominant discourses based on neo-liberal rationale presented themselves as “unquestionable truths” that influenced how educators interacted with others and went about their profession. The dominant discourses relied upon assertions by consensus or common conception and understanding to create an “officially” sanctioned way of thinking about education. Proponents of a particular dominant discourse argued that such sanctions were a necessary feature of an initiative or innovation, and provided a focus for energy and activism, winning teachers’ support, and conveying to the wider community a sense of purpose, action and rational planning; a clear path to salvation. On the other hand, these dominant discourses had a necessary effect in obscuring other perspectives and disallowing critique from taking place. This article argues that discourse analysis provides a platform to interrogate the dominant discourses to reveal alternative or previously unseen perspectives.     

Argumentation and indigenous knowledge: socio-historical influences in contextualizing an argumentation model in South African schools

This forum considers argumentation as a means of science teaching in South African schools, through the integration of indigenous knowledge (IK). It addresses issues raised in Mariana G. Hewson and Meshach B. Ogunniyi’s paper entitled: Argumentation-teaching as a method to introduce indigenous knowledge into science classrooms: opportunities and challenges. As well as Peter Easton’s: Hawks and baby chickens: cultivating the sources of indigenous science education; and, Femi S. Otulaja, Ann Cameron and Audrey Msimanga’s: Rethinking argumentation-teaching strategies and indigenous knowledge in South African science classrooms. The first topic addressed is that implementation of argumentation in the science classroom becomes a complex endeavor when the tensions between students’ IK, the educational infrastructure (allowance for teacher professional development, etc.) and local belief systems are made explicit. Secondly, western styles of debate become mitigating factors because they do not always adequately translate to South African culture. For example, in many instances it is more culturally acceptable in South Africa to build consensus than to be confrontational. Thirdly, the tension between what is “authentic science” and what is not becomes an influencing factor when a tension is created between IK and western science. Finally, I argue that the thrust of argumentation is to set students up as “scientist-students” who will be considered through a deficit model by judging their habitus and cultural capital. Explicitly, a “scientist-student” is a student who has “learned,” modeled and thoroughly assimilated the habits of western scientists, evidently—and who will be judged by and held accountable for their demonstration of explicit related behaviors in the science classroom. I propose that science teaching, to include argumentation, should consist of “listening carefully” (radical listening) to students and valuing their language, culture, and learning as a model for “science for all”.     

Pedagogising poverty alleviation: a discourse analysis of educational and social policies in Argentina and Chile

For the past decades international organisations and governments have promoted and implemented analogous education policies on the grounds that education is the key factor to foster development and fight poverty. This article sets the context of these educational programmes and analyses their discourse on poverty in Argentina and Chile. Then, it shows how they institutionalise strict surveillance, institutional denigration of the poor and professional scepticism. In general, the conclusions underpin one hypothesis that leads the analysis: eventually, these targeted education policies ‘pedagogise’ poverty alleviation in that they aim to ‘instil flexible identities’ into the poor rather than open channels for social inclusion.     

Towards a Language of Possibility: critical reflection and mentorship in initial teacher education

Abstract

This paper examines a programme which aimed at creating alternative school‐based experiences for postgraduate students following a 1‐year higher diploma of education course at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. The programme was premised on the belief that critical reflection is necessary for educational transformation, and that teacher educators increasingly will be expected to raise the quality of teaching in schools. The background to the Mentor Programme is described and the underlying rationale is discussed. Whilst the evidence from the study reflects mentor satisfaction at the quality and range of teaching skills developed by students during the programme, the investigators express disappointment at their lack of success in attaining critical reflection by their students. Students generally did not look critically, as they had been encouraged to do, at the institutional or societal context of their teaching. The discussion identifies three possible reasons for this, but concludes that any approach to teacher education which does not encourage teachers to reflect critically on their own educational views and on the nature of education as it is realised in the institutional setting of schools will be inherently flawed.     

文学史:作为想象的话语实践--对一种思路的清理

本文以新历史主义等西方当代文论为参照,讨论了文学史写作中的种种方法和理论问题。通过梳理当代理论对“文学”、“历史”和“文学史”等概念内涵的辨析,本文试图论证,任何文学史写作都是在特定社会、历史语境下的一种想象性的话语实践活动。     

批判反思:教育管理学的当务之急

教育管理学通常被认为是一门纯粹应用性和技术性的学科。这种认识遮蔽了教育管理学弥显珍贵的批判反思属性。教育管理学中的批判反思大致有两种不同的类型 :常规型批判反思与创新型批判反思。无论是何种类型的批判反思 ,我国目前的教育管理学都亟待加强。教育管理学的批判反思属性 ,既要求理论研究者在整个探索过程中确立起教育管理的“批判观”和实践意识 ,也要求实际工作者对支配自身思想言行的内隐观念展开反思。     

关于策略管理：电大教育管理实践的理性反思

策略管理是旨在促进组织效能和机构长远发展的综合决策过程,对决定组织的发展方向,协调和整合多项不同的管理与变革,以实现发展目标至关重要。本文运用策略管理的有关理论和观点,反思了电大教育管理实践的成功之处和需要改进的方面,并提出了相应的对策与建议。