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موجز عن البحث:
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This paper investigates whether a group of
university teachers and students was enthusiastic about engaging in dialogue
in their classrooms and whether they had varied responses to the idea of
applying the concepts of dialogue to a Saudi university textbook. Like many
other universities, King Abdulaziz University adopted an “Islamic Culture”
textbook for courses taught by academic staff. In this study, the sample
consisted of students who were taught it and who agreed to take part in
semi-structured interviews. The findings showed that the concepts of dialogue
could be integrated in a university textbook and that teachers and students
were enthusiastic enough to take active roles in the dialogue which ensued in
their classes. However, while all the participants agreed that some of their
concepts of dialogue could be endorsed by the textbook and thus integrated,
they had different views on what should take priority among these concepts
and their relative importance. These differences may relate to the level of
experience and knowledge available to each respondent.
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موجز عن البحث:
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This project investigates how the culture
of dialogue among university students might be improved by developing the
university textbook of their course in religious education. Dialogue in Saudi
Arabia has in the last decade become more important as an issue and the
regime is seeking to improve the culture of the people through dialogue. This
study seeks to contribute to this plan. From the huge number of university
courses in Saudi Arabia, this study has chosen one as a case study with its
textbook. The first step in doing so is to understand the present culture of
dialogue within Saudi society by adopting the methodology of an ethnographic
instrumental case study. To this end, teachers and students within the
university were contacted as well as others outside who are interested in
dialogue. At the same time, various documents relating to the culture of
dialogue in Saudi Arabia were analysed, in order to discover the teachers’
and students’ behaviours vis-à-vis dialogue and the meaning behind these
behaviours by classroom observations of male and female classes
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ملخص المشاركة:
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Different perspectives have made the concept of
dialogue varied and complex, as are its forms in practice. The major image of
dialogue is that of conversation, but some see it as a synonym for debate,
discussion and argumentation; however, even in Arabic literature, the
converse does not hold good; all these synonyms, instead, are aspects of dialogue
[4].
Some theoretical views hold that dialogue can take a
philosophical pattern. Bakhtin’s was that of a philosopher whose vision of
dialogue was philosophical. He theorised that dialogue depends on its
component linguistics, phonetics and semantics and that it is important to
understand the whole context of dialogue and the factors which affect it. He
believed that these factors are the irreducible social and historical events
that relate to human beings, together with their ideology, culture and
cognitive understanding of the meanings of words in the process of
communication [3][5][6].
Dialogue, for Muslims, depends on innate
dispositions, social interactions, interfaith connections and respect for
diversity. Dialogue in Islam is not undertaken simply to help resolve
conflicts between groups; this is only one of its expected results. However,
dialogue is a major part of Islamic culture, so Muslims look upon it as a
human interaction, one of the natural proclivities of everyday life [2].
Despite these different perspectives on the meaning
of dialogue, we can agree that dialogue is a concept which sometimes involves
interaction between people of different religions, ideologies, cultures
and/or languages. By its means the people in one society or even in different
societies can exchange knowledge and experiences in order to integrate more
deeply with one another on the basis of the principles of free thinking, peace
and the preservation of the signs of civilisation. Dialogue is an educational
pillar in the thinking of Bakhtin and Islam and education itself can play a
leading role in spreading dialogue in the culture of Saudi Arabia.
Within the Saudi Government project of spreading the
culture of dialogue and to promote national unity and the public interest in
light of the Islamic faith [1], the world of education has much to
contribute. In this project, the principal aim is how the core ideas from
theories of dialogue can be reflected in order to develop religious education
textbooks in Saudi universities so as to promote the culture of dialogue
between students. Then this project must discover how to transfer these
theories into practice through the university textbooks.
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ملخص المشاركة:
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The concept of
dialogue is often mobilised in pluralistic contexts where interactions take
place between people who may have different religious, ideological, cultural
and/or language commitments and practices. Through enacting key principles of
dialogue, such as openness and free speech, people in one society – or across
multiple societies – can exchange knowledge and experiences in order to
enrich and extend their understanding. However, the situation in the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia is somewhat different. This is because in Saudi Arabia the
dominant culture might be characterised as a ‘mono-cultural society’ in which
most of the population follows one religion, uses one language, and has one
government. Within this context, University courses tend to be focussed upon
the analysis and memorisation of a single textbook, with little scope for
entertaining different perspectives or for engaging in dialogical practice.
Recent policy initiatives have sought to promote dialogue as a desirable
cultural outcome. The principal aim of this project is to discover how
Religious Education textbooks might be developed in Saudi Universities so as
to promote the capacity for dialogue among students, within the more general
policy context of the promotion of dialogue as a cultural element in the
country. Therefore, this study investigates how Saudi people in general, and
University teachers and students in particular, understand dialogue at the
present time within the University and within the broader society as well. To
understand present constructions of dialogue we ask: ‘What kinds of
activities do university teachers and students associate with dialogue?’
Having then given students opportunities to experience a range of educational
activities and ideas associated with dialogical practice, we then ask: ‘How
do University teachers and students evaluate these?’ While a key element in
doing so is to understand the present culture of dialogue, the experiential
dimension to the study draws upon the methodology of an ethnographic
instrumental case study. This study process is supplemented by: (i) semi
structured interviews with some interested governmental officials, academic
staff and university students (male and female) (ii) document analysis
including Islamic Culture textbooks, policies, and different documents (iii)
field notes from observations of University classes. Having considered what
pluralism might mean within a Saudi context through inquiring into students’
and tutors’ present views vis-à-vis plurality and difference, we then
consider some of the implications of such dialogical approaches for
theorising the University. To conclude, the implementations of dialogcal
practices within different traditions of the University within western and
Islamic contexts are here explored.
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