Contested womanhood: women’s education and (re)production of gendered norms in rural Pakistani Muslim communities

In a world marred by the fears of religious extremism, Muslim women have become subjects of various global projects that aim to modernize ‘traditional’ Muslim societies through women’s education and empowerment. Embedded in these discourses is an assumption that all educated Muslim women will empower themselves through challenging the ‘oppressive’ structures of their families and communities. This paper challenges these homogeneous narratives of education and empowerment through highlighting the complexities of educated women’s daily lives in rural Pakistan. We situate the lived experiences of rural educated Pakistani women in global mainstream as well as in local historical narratives regarding the role and purpose of education for women. Our analysis reveals how the educated women participants’ lives were shaped by a complex gendered hierarchy that facilitated educated women to take on new roles while simultaneously requiring them to maintain harmonious relationships with family and community members.     

Are Muslim women in need of Islamic feminism? In consideration of a re-imagined Islamic educational discourse

In its remonstrations against male patriarchy, common understandings of Islamic feminism have, on the one hand, claimed attachment to other forms of feminism. On the other hand, because of its location within the structures of Qur’anic exegesis and prophetic traditions, it has claimed a detachment from what has been understood as the largely secular base of other forms of feminism. Inasmuch, however, as there continues to be disagreement about feminism in its conceptions of the identity of women, gender recognition and inclusion, Islamic feminism has remained unproblematised. In this article, I wish to address two questions. Firstly, to what extent is Islamic feminism based on a bifurcationist or divergent understanding of Islamic education? And secondly, to what extent should Islamic feminism be reconsidered as a discourse of Islamic education? In addressing these questions, I argue that there are two possible solutions to the prevalence of social inequality experienced by Muslim women. One is a reformation of Islamic education. And secondly, that Muslim women need to engage and deliberate with the discourse of the Qur’an, so that they can begin to bring into contestation the privilege of male interpretation.     

Supporting minority students through a reflexive approach to empowerment

Referring to the experiences of three Muslim refugee girls recently settled in Australia, this paper examines issues of schooling and empowerment. The paper draws on teacher and student interview data from a study that investigated inclusive approaches to addressing issues of cultural diversity in a secondary state high school in Queensland. The paper foregrounds the girls’ highly positive views of their experiences at the school; views that reflect the girls’ access to spaces of empowerment but belie the complexity and tensions involved in how empowerment was understood and approached by educators at the school. Theorising empowerment through poststructural understandings of agency, the paper examines conditions and ways of understanding that make possible spaces of empowerment for the girls. In particular, the paper argues for a reflexive approach to empowerment that is informed by an understanding of the framing discourses shaping minority student identity and a critical reflection on educator and school positionality.     

“I am a young immigrant woman doing physics and on top of that I am Muslim”: Identities,intersections, and negotiations

Framed within intersectionality and using science identity as a unit of analysis, in this single case study I explore the barriers, difficulties, and conflicts that Amina, a young Muslim woman, immigrant in Western Europe confronted throughout her trajectory in physics and the ways in which her multiple identities intersected. The main sources of data consisted of three long biographical interviews, which were analyzed through a constant comparative method. The analysis of the data provided insights into how intrapersonal, interpersonal, sociocultural factors, alongside a myriad of experiences nurtured Amina's intersectional identities and what this may mean for Muslim women's participation in physics. The findings are summarized in two main assertions: (a) Amina was confronted with various barriers across her journey in physics with the intersection of religion and gender being the major barrier to her perceived recognition due to cultural expectations, sociopolitical factors, and negative stereotypes and (b) Amina's social class, religion, gender performance, and ethnic status positioned her as Other in various places throughout her trajectory in physics, and consequently hindered her sense of belonging. These findings suggest the urgency and importance of: (a) examining the intersection of science identity with other identities, especially, religion, gender, and ethnicity for the purpose of extrapolating a more comprehensive understanding of how minoritized groups participate in science; (b) rethinking recognition through an explicit intersectionality lens across various geographical and sociopolitical contexts; and (c) transforming physics into a diverse world where multiple ways of being are recognized, where minoritized groups will not have to compartmentalize parts of their identities to exist, and where they can perform their authentic and intersectional identities.     

在孤独中追寻自我——以1920年代冯至的诗歌创作为例

20世纪20年代,深受中国古典文学和德国浪漫主义文学影响的冯至开始了他的诗歌创作。年少的不幸经历。使他过早地体味到命运和人生的无常,因此,在其早期的创作中,孤寂的情绪占据主导地位,在孤独中追寻浪漫．又在浪漫中坚守自我．是其诗作的显著特色．也是诗人前期创作的主要风格。     

Being ‘religious and cultural rebels’ or being ‘cultural hybrids’? The role of identity capital in Muslim female university students’ self-construction

ABSTRACT

Research on university-educated Muslim women in different cultural contexts has displayed an intricate and paradoxical connection between experiences of higher education and identity mediation. A traditional model conceptualizes Muslim female university students as ‘rebels’ against their heritage religion and culture. Recent developments in the context of poststructural feminism highlight the configuration of a hybrid self-image embracing the target and heritage cultures in an additive and empowering manner. To enhance our understanding of the potential impact of higher education on identity negotiation, this study employs the notion of identity capital in an analysis of two South Asian Muslim female university students in Hong Kong over a two-year period. Participants’ life histories reveal that personal capacity to invest in identity capital (a contextually-dependent hybrid self) relies on an individual’s unique possession of various forms of capital. This study thus cautions against generalizations about Muslim women’s university experiences, and suggests that Muslim minorities as multicultural students and that their multilingual/multicultural skills, as forms of ‘intercultural capital,’ should be valued by all societal institutions.     

培养积极自我概念，促进心理健康

自我概念是人格心理学的核心,对人的心理健康的影响是直接的。文中阐述了自我概念的本质、自我概念与心理健康的关系;提出要客观地认识和接受自我,树立积极的自我概念,以促进个体心理健康发展。     

英语自我概念及其与英语学业成绩的关系——一项英语专业与非英语专业大学生的对比研究

本文通过比较某大学英语专业和非英语专业二年级321名学生英语自我概念的特点及其与英语学业成绩之间的关系,考察了英语自我概念各子维度对整体英语自我概念及英语学业成绩的影响。结果表明：英语自我概念各子维度与整体英语自我概念及英语学业成绩之间均存在显著正相关。     

Mapping changes in students’ English and math self-concepts: a latent growth model study

The aims of this study were to examine changes in students’ English and math self-concepts and to investigate the effects of gender and school ability level on these changes. Self-concept in English and math were measured thrice across three years among a sample of 2618 secondary school students from Hong Kong. Gender and school ability level were included as time-invariant predictors. Results indicated that students’ English self-concept slightly increased across time, while math self-concept marginally declined. Gender influenced both the initial levels and rates of change for English and math self-concepts, while school ability level predicted initial levels of self-concept. Implications are discussed.     

Native Language Self-Concept and Reading Self-Concept: Same or Different?

In assessing verbal academic self-concept with preadolescents, researchers have used scales for students’ self-concepts in reading and in their native language interchangeably. The authors conducted 3 studies with German students to test whether reading and German (i.e., native language) self-concepts can be treated as the same or different constructs. Compared with other facets of academic self-concept, reading self-concept was more highly related to reading test scores (Study 1) and German self-concept to German grades (Study 2). In Study 3, reading and general school self-concepts demonstrated similar relations to German grades. The findings of the 3 studies, albeit indirect, supported the specificity matching principle and caution researchers against applying reading and native language self-concept scales uncritically to infer verbal self-concept.     

论良好的自我概念的评价标准及其促进途径

认为良好自我概念评价标准的问题是一个十分重要的理论问题，提出了良好自我概念的四个评价标准：自我概念的积极程度、自我复杂性、自我概念的协调性、自我概念的清晰确定性。又认为良好自我概念的促进问题是一个十分重要的应用问题，并在良好自我概念的评价标准的基础上提出了促进良好自我概念的8条措施。     

西方心理学中关于自我概念的研究进展

自我概念是人格心理学中的一个重要概念。许多心理学家对这一问题展开了广泛和深入的研究,并取得了大量成果。本文对西方心理学中自我概念的研究从涵义、结构和主要研究领域方面做一回顾和分析。