Mary M. Juzwik, Robert Jean LeBlanc, Denise Davila, Eric D. Rackley and Loukia K. Sarroub
In an editorial introduction essay for the special issue on Religion, Literacies, and English Education in Global Dialogue, the editors frame papers in the special issue in…
Abstract
Purpose
In an editorial introduction essay for the special issue on Religion, Literacies, and English Education in Global Dialogue, the editors frame papers in the special issue in dialogue with previous scholarly literature around three central lines of inquiry: How do children, youth and families navigate relationships among religion, spirituality, language and literacy? What challenges are faced by language and literacy teachers and teacher educators around the globe who seek to respond to diverse religious and spiritual perspectives in their work? And what opportunities do teachers seize or create toward this end? How are developments of language and literacy theory, policy, curriculum and ritual entangled with race and religion?
Design/methodology/approach
Taking an essayist, humanistic approach, this paper summarizes, interprets and comments on previous scholarly works to frame the articles published in the special issue “Religion, Literacies, and English Education in Global Dialogue” in relation to the field and in relation to one another.
Findings
Denise Dávila, Matthew Deroo and Ilhan Mohamud reveal the relationships young people and families forge and navigate among spiritual literacies and literatures, digital technologies and ethnic identities. Heidi Hadley, Jennifer Wargo and Erin McNeill illuminate how teachers’ vocations, as well as their pedagogical goals and curricular artifacts, can become deeply entangled with religious and spiritual sense-making. Kasun Gajasinghe and Priyanka Jayakodi expand perspectives on both the ritualization and racialization of religion through nationalist policies surrounding national anthem performances in Sri Lanka. Anne Whitney and Suresh Canagarajah discuss how spiritual commitments, communities and experiences interact with their scholarly trajectories.
Research limitations/implications
The essay concludes with a discussion of scholarly capacity building that may be needed for conducting research on religion and spirituality in relation to languages, literacies and English education on a global scale.
Practical implications
The second section of the essay discusses challenges faced by language and literacy teachers and teacher educators around the globe who seek to integrate diverse religious and spiritual perspectives into their work. It foregrounds how many teachers and teacher educators work within contexts where ethnoreligious nationalism is on the rise. It highlights the need for language and literacy educators to develop curiosity and basic knowledge about diverse religions. Further it calls for teacher educators to engage with teacher candidates’ religious identities and sense-making.
Social implications
Because it considers religious and spiritual sense-making in relation to language and literacy education, the social implications of this work are significant and wide-reaching. For examples, the paper questions the conceit of secularism within education, pushing readers to consider their own spiritual and religious identifications and influences when they work across religious differences.
Originality/value
This paper identifies, interprets and assesses current threads of work on religious and spiritual sense-making within scholarship on languages, literacies and English education.
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Seonaid Stevenson-McCabe and Sarai Chisala-Tempelhoff
Technology-facilitated violence and abuse including image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is a phenomenon affecting women and girls around the world. Abusers misuse technology to attack…
Abstract
Technology-facilitated violence and abuse including image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is a phenomenon affecting women and girls around the world. Abusers misuse technology to attack victims and threaten their safety, privacy, and dignity. This abuse is gendered and a form of domestic and sexual violence. In this article, the authors compare criminal law approaches to tackling IBSA in Scotland and Malawi. We critically analyze the legislative landscape in both countries, with a view to assessing the potential for victims to seek and obtain redress for IBSA. We assess the role criminal law has to play in each jurisdiction while acknowledging the limits of criminal law alone in terms of providing redress.
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Olusesan Ayodeji Makinde, Emmanuel Olamijuwon, Nchelem Kokomma Ichegbo, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe and Michael Gboyega Ilesanmi
Incidents of violence perpetrated through digital technology platforms or facilitated by these means have been reported, often in high-income countries. Very little scholarly…
Abstract
Incidents of violence perpetrated through digital technology platforms or facilitated by these means have been reported, often in high-income countries. Very little scholarly attention has been given to the nature of technology-facilitated violence and abuse (TFVA) across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) despite an explosion in the use of various technologies. We conducted a literature review to identify and harmonize available data relating to the types of TFVA taking place in SSA. This was followed by an online survey of young adults through the SHYad.NET forum to understand the nature of TFVA among young adults in SSA. Our literature review revealed various types of TFVA to be happening across SSA, including cyberbullying, cyberstalking, trolling, dating abuse, image-based sexual violence, sextortion, and revenge porn. The results of our online survey revealed that both young men and women experience TFVA, with the most commonly reported TFVA being receiving unwanted sexually explicit images, comments, emails, or text messages. Female respondents more often reported repeated and/or unwanted sexual requests online via email or text message while male respondents more often reported experiencing violent threats. Respondents used various means to cope with TFVA including blocking the abuser or deleting the abused profile on social media.
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Muhammad Usman and Asmak Ab Rahman
This paper aims to highlight the importance of waqf in financing higher educational institutions (HEIs) and its potential as an alternative source of generating additional funds…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight the importance of waqf in financing higher educational institutions (HEIs) and its potential as an alternative source of generating additional funds for the HEIs, and discourses on waqf practice, fundraising, waqf management and utilisation of waqf income for the development of higher education in Malaysia.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on the information gathered through interviews with 12 participants who are actively engaged in waqf in different capacities. The participants can easily be classified into three expert groups; personnel of waqf-based universities, personnel of the respective State Islamic Religious Councils (SIRCs) and waqf practitioners. In addition, archival records, relevant documents and library sources have been used in the research.
Findings
The study learnt that waqf in Malaysia is centralised and exclusively controlled by the SIRCs, which are, as a rule, sole trustees of all categories of awqaf in the respective states; hence, any form of private trusteeship is considered illegal. It is a prerequisite for the establishment of a waqf fund to obtain permission from the respective SIRCs, and bring it under the purview of the council prior to setting up a waqf. The ministry of higher education has taken some initiatives to encourage HEIs to use waqf as an alternative source of generating funds. Subsequently, numerous public universities have set up waqf funds and developed a comprehensive mechanism for raising the fund through traditional and modern methods and technologies. A major chunk of the waqf funds is collected in the form of cash, but the amount falls short of reaching critical mass to enable the waqf to become self-sustaining. The study found that the universities also involved themselves in various social welfare programmes, especially in health care, and some income-generating projects besides seeking support from the waqf fund for their academic and educational activities.
Practical implications
The paper brings out the fact that waqf offers the best features as an alternative fiscal instrument to finance projects of public good, including higher education at three selected waqf-based universities in Malaysia.
Social implications
The study’s findings will be helpful to the ummah in general and Malaysia in particular. It can help policymakers, legislators and academicians in formulating new strategies for the common good and sensitize the countries facing a huge fiscal deficit and lack of development to the viability and potential of waqf as a catalyst for progress and economic activity.
Originality/value
The paper shares the experience of Malaysia’s waqf-based universities, waqf fundraising, management and income utilisation. It accentuates the fact that waqf can help finance academic activities at universities and sheds light on some useful examples of waqf-based universities founded in earlier periods of Islamic civilisation.
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Sookweon Min, Marsha E. Modeste, Jason Salisbury and Peter T. Goff
The purpose of this paper is to examine what school leadership practices are associated with a school’s level of instructional collaboration among school professionals and also…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine what school leadership practices are associated with a school’s level of instructional collaboration among school professionals and also investigates what school characteristics are linked to the level of instructional collaboration in a school.
Design/methodology/approach
This study drew data from the Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) survey. CALL is a multi-source measure of distributed leadership, comprised of five domains of school leadership practices. Responses from 3,767 teachers and 167 administrators working at 129 schools were analyzed using ordinary least squares regression analysis.
Findings
The findings show that there are significant relationships between school leadership practices and the extent of instructional collaboration taking place within schools, both in terms of quantity and quality. In particular, school leadership practices that are closely related to facilitating instruction and allocating resources are associated with a school’s instructional collaboration, whereas a leadership practice related to environmental factors tends not to be significantly correlated with a school’s collaborative culture. This study also found that leadership perspectives on instructional collaboration are an important predictor of both quantity and quality of collaboration among school professionals.
Originality/value
This study clarifies the importance of school leadership in a collaborative culture and also provides empirical evidence of what specific practices of school leadership predict the frequencies of professional collaborative activities in school as well as their quality. In addition, this study demonstrates how schools’ contextual factors are related to the level of instructional collaboration among professionals.