New Book

Muslims and Islam in U.S. Education: Reconsidering Multiculturalism

By Dr Liz Jackson,

Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Policy Studies, Faculty of Education, HKU

Muslims and Islam in U.S. Education explores the complex interface that exists between the U.S. school curriculum, teaching practice about religion in public schools, societal and teacher attitudes toward Islam and Muslims, and multiculturalism as a framework for meeting the needs of minority group students. It presents multiculturalism as a concept that needs to be rethought and reformulated in the interest of creating a more democratic, inclusive, and informed society.

Islam is an under-considered religion in American education, due in part to the fact that Muslims represent a very small minority of the population today (less than 1%). However, this group faces a crucial challenge of representation in United States society as a whole, as well as in its schools. Muslims in the United States are impacted by ignorance that news and opinion polls have demonstrated is widespread among the public in the last few decades. U.S. citizens who do not have a balanced, fair and accurate view of Islam can make a variety of decisions in the voting booth, in job hiring, and within their small-scale but important personal networks and spheres of influence, that make a very negative impact on Muslims in the United States.

This book presents new information that has implications for curricula, religious education, and multicultural education today, examining the unique case of Islam in U.S. education over the last 20 years.

This book is an essential resource for professors, researchers, and teachers of social studies, particularly those involved with multicultural issues, critical and sociocultural analysis of education and schools; as well as interdisciplinary scholars and students in anthropology and education.

Date: September 19, 2014, Friday
Time: 12:30 – 14:00
Venue: Rooms 408A – 410A, Meng Wah Complex, HKU

All are welcome!
Light refreshments will be served.

2:30pm – 4:00pm
Thursday, April 24h
Runme Shaw 204
Chair: Trey Menefee

How has gender inequality re-emerged in China’s post-socialist era of rapid economic growth, in spite of the sweeping expansion of educational opportunities for urban women over the past decade and a half? Urban Chinese women today are arguably the most highly educated in Chinese history. The increased educational accomplishments of urban women have led some scholars to refer to trends such as the “empowerment of urban daughters” under China’s one-child policy, which suggested that urban women no longer had to compete with brothers for parental investment in education. However, expectations about women’s empowerment in China have proven to be overly optimistic. This talk examines some major obstacles to gender equality among urban residents that have emerged in recent years of market reforms, which have created stark new gender inequalities in wealth and a decrease in many urban women’s bargaining power within marriage. In spite of women’s significant educational gains, this talk argues that other developments have contributed to a fall in the socioeconomic status of urban, Chinese women relative to men.

Leta Hong-Fincher is the first American doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at Tsinghua University in Beijing. She has a master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University.

CERC Monograph Series 10, Regulating Private Tutoring for Public Good: Policy Options for Supplementary Education in Asia, is now available for download and order. The book was authored by Mark Bray and Ora Kwo and is the outcome of the UNESCO, CERC, and Asian Development Bank (ADB) Shadow Education Policy Forum.

Recent years have brought global expansion of private supplementary tutoring alongside regular school systems. This expansion has far-reaching implications for the nurturing of new generations, for social and economic development, and for the operation of school systems. Some dimensions are positive while other dimensions are problematic.

Supplementary tutoring is especially visible in Asia. The formats of tutoring range from one-to-one provision to large classes. Some tutoring is provided by teachers and by specialist companies, while other tutoring is provided informally by university students and others.

Using a comparative lens, this book examines possible government responses to the expansion of private supplementary tutoring. In general, the book suggests, the sector should be given more attention. The work shows wide diversity in the regulations introduced by governments in the Asian region. It notes not only that these governments can learn much from each other, but also that policy makers in other parts of the world can usefully look at patterns in Asia. The book also stresses the value of partnerships between governments, tutoring providers, schools, teachers’ unions, and other bodies.

Mark BRAY is UNESCO Chair Professor in Comparative Education at the University of Hong Kong, and is a former Director of UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning.

Ora KWO is an Associate Professor and a member of the Comparative Education Research Centre in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong.

Mark Bray and Ora Kwo visited Tehran for a lecture on shadow education and the launch of a Farsi translation of the Comparative Education Research: Approaches and Methods and the UNESCO IIEP book Confronting the shadow education system. What government policies for what private tutoring?

حضور در نشست‌هایی كه بر دانش و نگرش كار معلمی‌مان می افزاید، پویایی و طراوت و انگیزه‌ای زایدالوصف را ایجاد می‌كند. سازمان پژوهش و برنامه ریزی آموزشی وزارت آموزش و پرورش از این دست نشست‌ها را ترتیب می‌دهد. امروز فرصتی دست داد تا در نشستی با حضور استادی بین‌المللی و خیل گسترده ای از معلمان و متخصصان تعلیم و تربیت شركت كنم. این نشست حول موضوعی كه مبتلا به مدارس و خانواده‌های زیادی است و كمتر هم در مورد آن مداقه شده است تشكیل گردید. برای من جالب بود كه در موضوع تدریس خصوصی و اثرات اجتماعی آن مطالعات گسترده‌ای در سطح بین الملل صورت گرفته كه دكتر مارك بری از پیشگامان این امر بوده است.

او كه برای نخستین بار به ایران آمده بود، در روز دوم حضور خود، با هماهنگی‌های صورت گرفته در چنین نشستی حضور یافت. ایشان كه متولد لندن است به همراه همسرش هر دو از استادان دانشگاه هنگ كنگ بوده و به كشورهای زیادی سفر كرده است از جمله اینكه در كنیا و نیجریه معلم دبیرستان نیز بود. او به مدت شش سال ریاست موسسه بین المللی برنامه ریزی آموزشی یونسكو را نیز عهده دار بود و تا هفته آینده میهمان جمهوری اسلامی است. در صفحه شخصی ایشان در سایت دانشگاه هنگ كنگ چنین آمده است:

موضوع تدریس خصوصی و به تعبیر پروفسور، آموزش و پرورش در سایه (Shadow Education)، موضوعی مغفول و مجهول در آموزش و پرورش ماست. بنا بر اظهار نظر خانم دكتر آرین، برخلاف حساسیت زیاد آموزش و پرورش كه به جنبه‌های مختلف جریان تعلیم و تربیت می‌پردازد، این نوع آموزش كه به زعم وی محیط سوم آموزش بعد از مدارس معمولی و مدارس خاص (استعدادهای درخشان و استثنایی) است، كمتر حساسیت و حتی اطلاعاتی نسبت به آن هست.

خانم دكتر آرین كه از سخنرانان كوتاه این نشست بودند، مترجم كتاب آموزش و پرورش در سایه: تدریس خصوصی و آثار آن نیز می‌باشند. كتابی كه در كنار دو كتاب دیگر پروفسور مارك بری ترجمه شده و در انتهای نشست از آنها رونمایی شد.

در معرفی این كتاب می‌توان گفت:‌ نظام سایة تدریس خصوصی تكمیلی بسیار گسترده و در برخی نقاط جهان در حال رشد است. تدریس خصوصی اگرچه در بهبود وضعیت تحصیلی دانش‌آموزان موثر است، ولی از طرف دیگر بر كیفیت آموزشی، عدالت و آموزش خلاق تاثیر منفی دارد. به عقیدة نگارنده گسترش تدریس خصوصی تكمیلی را می‌توان در چارچوب گرایش جهانی به بازاری كردن آموزش و پرورش و كاهش كنترل دولت، مشاهده كرد. برخی از اهداف تهیة كتاب حاضر عبارت‌اند از: نظارت بر ارزشیابی و تغییر در سیاست‌های آموزشی و تاثیر آنها بر نیازهای برنامه‌ریزی آموزشی؛ و تاكید بر موضوعات جاری برنامه‌ریزی آموزشی و تحلیل آنها در زمینه‌های تاریخی و شرایط اجتماعی. نگارنده ضمن بیان اصول اساسی برنامه‌ریزی آموزشی، مباحثی مانند ویژگی‌های تدریس خصوصی؛ تولیدكنندگان و مصرف‌كنندگان آن؛ تاثیرات آموزشی، اجتماعی و اقتصادی تدریس خصوصی؛ و تنوع و تحول نظام‌های آموزشی را بررسی كرده است.

در ادامه مطلب به شرحی از محتوای مطالب مطروحه در این نشست می‌پردازم.

ادامه مطلب

نوع مطلب : پراكنده

برچسب ها: دكتر مارك بری تدریس خصوصی آموزش و پرورش در سایه سازمان پژوهش

Approaches and methods in comparative education are of obvious importance, but do not always receive adequate attention. This second edition of a well-received book, containing thoroughly updated and additional material, contributes new insights within the long-standing traditions of the field.

A particular feature is the focus on different units of analysis. Individual chapters compare places, systems, times, cultures, values, policies, curricula and other units. These chapters are contextualised within broader analytical frameworks which identify the purposes and strengths of the field. The book includes a focus on intra-national as well as cross-national comparisons, and highlights the value of approaching themes from different angles. As already demonstrated by the first edition of the book, the work will be of great value not only to producers of comparative education research but also to users who wish to understand more thoroughly the parameters and value of the field.

The editors:

Mark Bray is UNESCO Chair Professor of Comparative Education at the University of Hong Kong. Bob Adamson is Professor and Head of the Department of International Education and Lifelong Learning at the Hong Kong Institute of Education; and Mark Mason is Professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and a Senior Programme Specialist at the UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) in Geneva. They have all been Presidents of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK), and Directors of the Comparative Education Research Centre (CERC) at the University of Hong Kong. They have also written extensively in the field of comparative education with reference to multiple domains and cultures.