generating ideas for good practice in teaching islamic studies gary r. bunt ...
TRANSCRIPT
Generating ideas for good practice in teaching Islamic Studies
Gary R. Bunt
www.heacademy.ac.uk/[email protected]
Objectives of session
Insight and advice on developing an Islamic studies student handbook
Primarily for religious studies perspectives, but also transferable information and advice
Designed for postgraduates and undergraduatesBuilds on a book in preparation on Islamic
studies in UK higher education
Key concerns
What are the key subject specific issues for a study guide?
• Good practice (generic)• Subject specific concerns • Motivation• Outcomes• Undergraduate specific• Postgraduate specific• Resource availability
Why choose IS?
• Motivation• Outcomes – personal• Academic interest• Career• Significant and relevant subject• Transferability • Planning: subject choice
Study skills development
• Terminology• Transliteration• Formatting • Bibliographical standards • Data recording• Resources• Languages
Study skills development II
• Fieldwork, approaches, security• Interviewing • Networking concerns• Relationships with supervisors• Structure of work • Feedback from diverse sources• Textual, archive, digital
Computer Resource use
• Use of internet resources for IS (including contemporary materials, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Google)
• Subject matter dictated by contemporary events
• Catalogues: library resources and availability of other materials
• Wikileaks, political interference
Approaches to subject matter
• Symbolism, leadership, source material access and application (QSH), reliability of translations, use of Qur’an databases: fatwa databases, use of sources, library work
• Personal worldviews: impact, concepts of academic ‘neutrality’ and their validity (if any).
• Academic language v. belief issues (i.e. Islamic terminology and sensitivities)
Approaches to subject matter II
• Traditional approaches? Defining ‘Islamic’ perspectives through a spectrum of understanding
• Terminology isues: what is ‘authentic’, ‘traditional’, ‘Deobandi’, ‘Salafi’, ‘Barelwi’, ‘Wahhabi’, ‘Sufi’, ‘progressive’, ‘liberal’, ‘modernist’ etc.?
Subject sensitivities
• Access to data and individuals• Insider : outsider considerations (are they
valid?): pressures of community, family, etc.• How IS disciplines are perceived: a serious
subject? Relevant? Working in RS and other contexts
Will examiners get it?
Generational gaps:• technology, • worldviews, • political-religious perspectives• Methodological differences• Source conflicts
Controversial subjects • interpretation issues and theories i.e. fatwa
authorities, concepts, legal frameworks, political concerns, philosophical approaches, critical commentaries representing particular worldviews
• underrepresented subjects under the framework of IS (minority perspectives?)
• Gender issues/sexuality• Multiculturalism debate and identity(-ies)• Jihadi discourse [how is this negotiated, for
example online]
Controversial subjects
• How do academics dialogue in sensitive areas?
• Security concerns: fieldwork access and sensitivities, i.e. community access, international travel, fear of publication [can we get an accurate picture of concerns?]
• Country subjects• Military subjects
‘Controversial’ subjects • Censorship: personal, implicit, subtexts for study• Sponsored institutions and chairs: ideas/ideals of
neutrality/objectivity – being closely monitored by departments, universities, external agencies [free speech], home countries
• Orientalism/post-orientalist debates• Opening up other areas for study, i.e. regions,
issues, access• IS in European/N. American/’western’ contexts
Presenting your ideas to others
• Timing• Conferences• Workshops• Exposure to criticism/networking v. giving
away source code and being plagiarised
www.heacademy.ac.uk/[email protected]