Identity, Diversity and Cohesion:
knowing/knowledge and leading/leadership through cross-cultural co-inquiry
“The burning of books in Bradford brought into open the present encounter between Islam and Western civilisation, as it exposed the vast gaps in understanding between them, the violent passion on one side, the wall of incomprehension on the other. The encounter involves not only questions of religious belief and practice but also of power and politics.”
(Ahmed 1992, p95)
“The word ‘textualism’ has been used by Richard Rorty to characterise a general orientation in philosophy that may be stated as follows: there are only texts, and one text can only refer to another text.
If… hermeneutic textualism does not say that “there are only texts,” it does say, at least, that “everything that is is analogous to a text,” or that all interpretation is analogous to textual interpretation.”
(Gallagher 1992, p8)
“You can read a text for pleasure and sense… but you’re finally left with a sense of enigma, a FINAL sense which the text doesn’t express or refuses to surrender – a sort of unyielding THOUGHTFULNESS. It is like the thoughtfulness of a face which tempts one to ask… “What are you thinking?”
(Appignanesi and Garratt 1995, p75 – quoting Barthes)
“Our preparatory Interpretation of the fundamental structures of Dasein with regard to the average kind of Being which is closest to it… will make manifest, however, not only that Dasein is inclined to fall back upon its world (the world in which it is) and to interpret itself in terms of that world by its reflected light, but also that Dasein simultaneously falls prey to the tradition of which it has more or less explicitly taken hold. This tradition keeps it from providing its own guidance, whether in inquiring or in choosing. This holds true – and by no means least – for that understanding which is rooted in Dasein’s ownmost Being, and for the possibility of developing it – namely for ontological understanding. When tradition thus becomes master, it does so in such a way that what it ‘transmits’ is made so inaccessible… that it rather becomes concealed.”
(Heidegger 1962, p42-43)
"Phenomenology is a response to crisis, a response that breaks all ties with historical relativism surrounding the crisis and through which it is interpreted. This characteristic of the phenomenological attitude is co-present with another one, namely that the phenomenological attitude is the proper attitude of human consciousness, an attitude returned to only in times of crisis. When the human being is cast back upon himself through some personal or cultural crisis and when he responds by giving himself up, what is given up or brought forth is the authentic being of the person involved, i.e. himself. This authentic being, when it is manifested as an attitude of perception, is the phenomenological attitude and, as such, is the most genuine attitude of the human being because it is in closest proximity to his source, i.e. to his being (as ‘Dasein’). Heidegger states, “Homecoming is the return into the proximity of the source.” (Existence and Being, p258). The phenomenological attitude is home, it is who we are within our ownmost historicity,”
(Brenneman et al 1982, p27-8; my brackets)
“Fundamentally, the phenomenological attitude requires attention to the awareness of experience and a reflection upon the experience. What is different for the phenomenologist is his way of attending to the world.”
(Ibid. p21)
I was born in London in 1954 to Scots Presbyterian parents. In 1975, 1978 and finally in 1982 I became a convert to Islam. It was the culmination of a 20 year inquiry into the reality of my own existence, and the beginning of a new journey. Over the last 21 years, and parallel to my own research into the meaning of Islam, the West has found itself increasingly challenged by events emanating from the world of Islam; a world which is no longer ‘over there’ but fully intermingled, if not integrated, within its own boundaries. Precisely this challenge holds conversely for the Muslims.
Since becoming a Muslim, I have attended five universities studying philosophy, language, religion, education and action research. During all of this time I have worked as a teacher, and since 1999, as a Head Teacher in Islamic schools in the Midlands and London.
The threefold question which has therefore occupied my attention during this time has been:
‘What is the meaning of Islam on a personal level, for the Muslim community and for the world?’
Methodologically, we can further ask how this question is to be answered in personal, social and global terms.
Whatever methodology is employed, it should reflect the fact that this is not a ‘merely theoretical’ question, but that there are practical issues to be resolved at every level:
· What meaning and value can I find in my own existence such that I can say “my life is worth living”?
· How can the Muslim community today re-create itself authentically, particularly through education, according to its fundamental traditions?
· How can the world community resolve its internal conflicts such that peace and justice become more than just the privilege of the few?
I express all of this in the words of my title: “Identity, Diversity and Cohesion: knowing/knowledge and leading/leadership through cross-cultural co-inquiry”
Key tensions, contradictions and paradoxes
I have sought to illustrate these through the quotations which preface this account.
‘The West’ and ‘Islam’ do not understand each other; this is not just a religious issue but one of power, and hence leadership. This mutual incomprehension is critical at every level – for the individual who seeks to interpret her personal identity, for example as a Muslim growing up in the UK, for the communities who feel their identity threatened, for example by ethnic minority immigration, and for the world, which is increasingly polarised into a ‘clash of civilisations’, at least in the minds of some. This calls for the development of new knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes – in short, education.
Many have come to suspect that, in this post-modern era, the answers do not lie in some authoritative meta-narrative, since all knowledge and understanding is in within language and interpretation. This brings to the fore the importance of hermeneutics as both science of understanding in particular contexts and of the understanding of understanding in itself. There is a need, in our now global village, to understand how people of widely different belief systems and cultures can nevertheless co-exist productively. Methodologies which may have worked in smaller contexts in the past, and become ‘traditions’, may not only fail to apply in our new situation, but may militate against both the evolution of new solutions and the possibility of a more profound self-understanding. Can we create new forms of knowing which work for all of us?
At times of personal and/or cultural crisis, there is a need for, and the possibility of, a distinctive form of thinking that is reflexive, hermeneutic and phenomenological. This may constitute a way of ‘practical knowing’ describable as an epistemology of practice or ‘action inquiry’. Through such inquiry, we may come to be ourselves and know the world better. How can we learn to practise inquiry successfully?- especially in the context of a society which is traditionally committed to structuralist methodologies?
‘Inquiry’ is empowering for individuals, communities and society but it is not a skill which is widely understood, valued, taught or practised. Rather our education system seems designed to produce a ‘proletariat of the intellect’ in Stenhouse’s memorable phrase. In these challenging times, how can we begin to respond to the opportunity to ‘go beyond’ what is known and familiar (if increasingly problematic), to embrace the possibility of déprise, both in order to discover new ideas and to recover a more ‘authentic’ understanding of ourselves?- a reprise all the more interesting for it being the second time that an encounter with Islam has challenged the West to reclaim its own original genius (the first time being known, significantly, as the ‘renaissance’).
Starting block elements and direction of travel
In order for me to pursue an inquiry into the issues raised above - Islam and the West, post-modernism as a challenge to tradition, education and action inquiry – it is necessary to define a group of participants within a specific context. All of these issues are critical within the field of education and schooling in the UK, especially for the evolving Islamic schools community.
I am in the process of establishing a project designed to pursue 4 connected inquiries among the staff and pupils of 6 schools in Leicester – three state primary school and one state secondary school with large numbers of Muslim pupils, and 2 independent Islamic primary and secondary schools. The inquiries involve the Heads of these schools, the staff – both within and between schools – and the pupils. The focus of the inquiries will be the attainment of Muslim pupils, specifically the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within current practice. The proposed methodology is inquiry based.
My intention is to use this project as a case study for my PhD and to track its development as the system or network connects to itself in new and diverse ways to produce new knowledge and practice. Over time, it is expected that new partners will be drawn into the project as powerful questions begin to evolve and grow beyond initial boundaries.
Bibliography
Ahmed, A.S. (1992) Postmodernism and Islam, London: Routledge
Gallagher, S. (1992) Hermeneutics and Education, Albany: State University of New York
Appignanesi, R. and Garrett, C. (1995) Postmodernism for Beginners, Cambridge: Icon Books
Heidegger, M. (1962) Being and Time, Oxford: Blackwell
Brenneman, W.L. et al (1982) The Seeing Eye: Hermeneutical Phenomenology in the Study of Religion, Pennsylvania: State University Press
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