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 indigenous science curriculum

The recent development of a national science curriculum in Māori opened up space to contest whose knowledge and whose ways of knowing are included. This paper outlines the background to the curriculum development work in Aotearoa New Zealand with respect to the indigenous Māori people and science education. Concern is expressed about the fitting of one cultural framework into another and questions are raised about the approach used in the development of the science curriculum. Further research in the area of language, culture and science education is discussed along with how Māori might move forward in the endeavour of developing a curriculum that reflects Māori culture and language. This paper forms part of an MEd thesis. For a fuller analysis of the development of “Te Tauākī Marautanga Pūtaiao: He Tauira” (Draft National Science Curriculum in Māori) see McKinley (1995) in the references. See alsoSAMEpapers 1995 (Hamilton, New Zealand: Centre for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, University of Waikato).     

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。     

Towards an adolescent friendly methodology: accessing the authentic through collective reflection

The re-emergence of student voice presents a challenge to schools and researchers to become more responsive to the voice of adolescents in education and in research. However, the poor articulation of the nature of student voice to date is confirmation of the complex and important nature of the personal advocacy and human agency that is involved in all student voice activities. This lack of clarity leads to interpretations of student voice that range in authenticity from token to active and meaningful (Hart, R. 1997. Children's Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care. Earthscan Publications. London: UNICEF). Researchers who are guided by more traditional methodologies may implement methods that are appropriate for adults yet are not sensitive to the needs and interests of the young person whose perspectives are usually the focus of the research. This research found that while an advocacy and empowerment worldview supports student voice research, adolescents also prefer a methodology that is agentic, socially based, reflective and embodied (Dempster, N., A. Lizzio, M. Keeffe, J. Skinner, and D. Andrews. 2010. “The Contributions of Research Design and Process Facilitation in Accessing Adolescent views of Leadership.” Leading and Managing 16 [2]: 77–89). Adolescent perspectives on research processes and methods are valuable in helping researchers to choose more responsive approaches to sharing understandings with adolescents, so that research designs may be challenging, meaningful and rewarding for all participants.     

Towards a reflection repertoire: using a thinking tool to understand tensions in an action research project

Most action researchers agree that action research consists of cycles of planning, acting, reflecting, and taking further action. However, in action research literature, there is something missing. The nature of reflection in the action research process, including its relationship with the tensions that arise while discussing purposes, processes, and outcomes, has not been well explored. As a contribution to an expanded reflection repertoire, this article presents a thinking tool: the expansive learning circle. This model, or thinking tool, draws on the theoretical framework of cultural–historical activity theory and the idea that contradictions and tensions are driving forces for development. The central thesis of the article is that there is a need for a reflection repertoire that can highlight tension in an action research project and help people cope with this type of complex reflective work.     

The educational (im)possibility for dietetics: a poststructural discourse analysis

Inquiring into the theoretical underpinnings of dietetic curriculum provides a means for further understanding who dietitians are (identity) and what dietitians do (performativity). Since dietetic curriculum exists as a structural influence on the dietetic student identity, it is worth inquiring into how such a structure is theoretically informed, especially considering that until now, this process has not be undertaken. This research attempts to illuminate how dietetic knowledge is generated and how various institutional structures reinforce this knowledge. Since dietetic education in Canada is standardized by a means of national accreditation, the accreditation texts were analyzed following a poststructural discourse analysis method. Those aspects of the Accreditation Manual concerning dietetic education were scrutinized to illuminate the presence/absence of curricular theory, knowledge assumptions, and educational values. Findings of the discourse analysis indicate that there is no explicit curricular theory framing dietetic education, learning processes are sequential and apolitical, and dietetic knowledge is decontextualized from the social world. These findings have implications for dietetic education, the scholarship of teaching and learning within the profession, and dietetic epistemology. With further attention to these issues it is hoped that dietetic educators will be encouraged to reflect on the historical and theoretical foundations of their curricula and will consider how teaching and learning, and ultimately dietetic knowledge could be enhanced through a socially integrated feminist science of food and nutrition.     

Creating class-B: using a key symbol to become literate in educational discourse

This article addresses teacher training as a process of becoming literate in educational discourse. Through ethnographic research of a project for training science and math lecturers in educational practice, I follow how participants created a concept they called ‘Class-B’ to symbolise progressive educational discourse. Bringing the concept of key symbol and a New Literacy Studies approach to the analysis, I show how literacy in educational discourse is worked out and elaborated around the symbol of Class-B. The ethnography teaches us that key symbols can be keys to literacy, and perhaps be considered as a useful tool for teacher trainers.     

Countering deficit discourse: Preservice teacher experiences of core reflection

In these pages, I describe a twelve-week qualitative study which explored how three student teachers experienced core reflection as a counter-discourse to the various “deficit discourses” they encountered and enacted during this time of their teacher education program. The results of this study suggest that core reflection may play a role in how student teachers experience the process of surfacing, interrogating, countering, and expanding beyond “deficit discourses.”     

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     

Talking of Quality: The educational discourse of Registered Inspectors

This paper draws on interview data with Registered Inspectors, collected as part of a large research project examining the role of Registered Inspectors. The professional biographies of three Registered Inspectors are used to hypothesise the educational values that they hold and these values are then compared with those revealed during the interviews. The analysis shows that these Registered Inspectors have totally accepted the managerial discourse of Ofsted. It is finally suggested that this discourse has 'written' not merely the mode of inspection but the professional subjectivity of the inspectors.     

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。     

Towards a postcolonial and decolonising educational administration history

This article examines the increasing postcolonial and decolonising literature as it relates to non-Western countries and the history of their educational systems undergoing internationalisation and globalisation. The first section reviews a number of historiographical developments in the twentieth century that laid a foundation for a more cultural and global view and to include marginalised populations. The second section examines the critiques of educational history from postcolonial and decolonising perspectives, and the colonisation of mind critiques, including the recent indigenous research methodology movement. The third section explores two main challenges for the field of educational administration history are discussed: developing ways of understanding countries that operate under very different paradigms than Western states, and which are undergoing societal changes and stresses that Western states are not experiencing; and a revised research and methodology that captures problems of recolonisation/neoimperialism, the subaltern personality, and struggles to maintain indigenous cultures and roles. In order to respond to these conditions, educational administration, like other fields has to generate new models, theories, and modes of practice that derive from the conditions that postcolonial developing states face including identity formation, values, role construction and institutional arrangements.