Improving the pedagogy of Islamic religious education through an application of critical religious education,variation theory and the learning study model

This study presents a new theoretical and pedagogical framework based on the theories of Critical Religious Education (CRE), Variation Theory (VT) and the Learning Study model with the purpose of improving teaching and learning in Islamic Religious Education (IRE). It reports a Learning Study conducted in a secondary girls Muslim school in London on the topic of ‘Islam and being Muslim’. The aim of this research study is to examine if and how the proposed framework can be applied to IRE lessons, and how it affects the students’ learning. Thirty students of two seventh grade classes and their religious education teacher participated in the study. The data was collected through interviews and written tasks with the students before and after their participation in the study, video-recordings of the research lessons, and meetings with the teacher. Phenomenography and VT were utilised in the analysis of the data. The results suggest that the use of CRE, VT and Learning Study in teaching Islam contributes to students’ learning outcomes by means of helping teacher consider students’ diverse perspectives on religious phenomena when planning and implementing the curricular content, increasing students’ awareness of the ontological and epistemological dimensions of their faith as well as allowing them to make informed judgments about religious phenomena.     

新疆库车县教育的历史与现状调查

章探讨了库车县教育的历史，在此基础上，用人类学的方法对库车县教育的现状进行分析，与历史不同时期加以比较，为了能更清地说明问题，本还附了一个乡的实地调查资料，从中发现问题，并分析了原因，以期以期他他研究和教育工作提供一点参考。     

试论中国文化的未来之路——基于中华文化与伊斯兰文化的比较

中华文化与伊斯兰文化同为人类历史上悠久的传统文化,中华文化与伊斯兰文化有一些类似的优缺点,在当代都面临着强势的西方文化的挑战,同时也都有各自文化面向未来如何做出抉择的相似困境,然而,二者也有诸多不同之处。在多元文化并存的今天,比较中华文化与伊斯兰文化的异同,吸收伊斯兰文化有利于社会发展的积极因素,以伊斯兰文化发展中暴露出的一系列问题为鉴,对展望中国文化的未来之路有很多有益的启迪。     

中东伊斯兰城市起源初探

随着阿拉伯帝国的建立,中东地区出现了新的文明———伊斯兰文明。在该文明中,伊斯兰城市文明扮演着无可替代的角色。伊斯兰城市文明的诞生是伊斯兰教的基本需要。军事要塞、已存城市的伊斯兰化、哈里发及随后统治者建立首都与行政中心是中东伊斯兰城市的三个重要来源。其中军事要塞不仅是阿拉伯人征服的产物和进一步扩张的跳板,而且其城市布局为后世的伊斯兰城市奠定了基础。伊斯兰城市文明的创设为阿拉伯人提供了一种新的生活模式,为促进各民族交往、各种文明融合、阿拉伯———伊斯兰文化的兴起奠定了基础,曾一度执世界城市文明之牛耳,是世界城市文明史中的一枝奇葩。     

伊本·盖伊姆经济思想初探

中世纪,阿拉伯—伊斯兰学者众多,其关涉经济学的议题频出,伊本·盖伊姆不外其例,对贫富观、禁息、市场机制与公职部门干预等均有犀锐的阐释,这不仅是对＂18世纪前几无经济学议题＂论断的回应,也对其后经济学理论的发展多有惠益。     

当代土耳其伊斯兰政治的变迁——从救国党到繁荣党

随着伊斯兰复兴运动的广泛发展 ,70年代以来 ,伊斯兰主义作为一种重要的意识形态进入土耳其的政治生活之中。从那时起 ,在多种力量推动下 ,土耳其的伊斯兰政治经历了许多变化 ,这从繁荣党和救国党之间的差异方面可以反映出来。 90年代土耳其的伊斯兰主义政党在世俗主义势力的压力下被迫在许多方面与世俗主义妥协 ,但这并没有促进土耳其的民主。道德党的出现将会给土耳其的伊斯兰政治带来新变化     

Under the gaze of the state: policing literature and the case of Taslima Nasrin

Abstract

This article situates Taslima Nasrin, the controversial writer from Bangladesh, in a particular political and religious moment in the history of Bangladesh, to analyse the difficult relationship the postcolonial state shares with a writer whose work deliberately unsettles the issues of minority and of women and/in religion. The complex mosaic of Nasrin’s work, comprising as varied genres as newspaper columns, poetry and popular novels, has engendered, in the last ten years, unprecedented responses both for and against her writing. This has brought the issue of literature and its uneasy negotiation with state politics to the forefront of national debate. Despised by Islamists and fundamentalists, equally loved and loathed by the reading public, considered with caution by secular intelligentsia and fellow feminists, and ultimately banned by the state, Nasrin is a unique case in point. Her work, written under the gaze of the state defying the fundamentalist fatwa demanding her death, hence invites discussions on state censorship invoked using religious sensibility as a marker of literary judgement and the associated perils of women writing on women in a postcolony like Bangladesh.     

Religion and the global middle class: towards a new research agenda

ABSTRACT

This essay discusses the role of religion as a central facet when researching the emerging social group – the global middle class (GMC). It is argued here that religion is a particularly relevant feature for the constitution of this social group because of the GMC’s transnational and cosmopolitan character. In this essay, I will draw on several examples focused on Islamic education provision in Western, pre-dominantly Christian societies to illustrate why and how religion should become critical to our study of the GMC. The essay’s central argument is that there remains a gap in research related to the role of religion in the making and practising of the GMC as a social group. I conclude by proposing a future research agenda that addresses the intersections of religion, education, and the GMC on an individual, national, and global level.     

Education for multicultural citizens in Indonesia: policies and practices

Abstract

This paper examines how education in Indonesia can help create tolerant and multicultural citizens through the analysis of policies and practices. After the political shift in 1998, Indonesia issued education law No. 20 in 2003 which contains, though vague, a couple of articles that can underpin the development and implementation of multicultural education. This is a ‘spirit’ of multicultural education, which has been interpreted in subsequent regulations and decrees. In this paper, the author explores how these policies and school curricula have been translated into practices. The author conducted a series of ethnographic fieldwork in two provinces, Yogyakarta and Central Kalimantan, visiting six different schools: four religious (three Islamic and one Catholic), one state secular and one state vocational. The findings suggest that there were inconsistencies between policies and practices of multicultural education due to a lack of explicit policies and incapable education decision-makers and teachers.     

阿拉伯-伊斯兰语境下的网络用语研究

网络用语是一种新型的媒体语言,在文化因素的干涉下,不同语言的网络用语逐渐形成自己鲜明的个性,其应用范围也正在向社会的其他领域辐射,对语言的发展产生潜移默化的影响。阿拉伯-伊斯兰语境下的网络用语,在一定意义上颠覆了阿拉伯人现有的文字体系,并呈现出鲜明的民族宗教特色。