Social Harmony and Diversity: The Affordances and Constraints of Harmony as an Educational Goal

2017 ◽  
Vol 119 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Li-Ching Ho
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Educational Goal ◽  
Asian Countries

Background/Context There is a pressing need to consider how citizens should live together, especially in societies that are increasingly ethnically and politically diverse. Even though multicultural education is constructed very differently and serves very different purposes in different national contexts, relatively little attention has been paid to how education systems of countries such as China, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates give greater emphasis to the concepts of harmony and social cohesion. Purpose/Objective This study explores some of the ways in which multicultural education is defined and conceptualized in East Asian countries. This paper draws on the case study of Singapore to interrogate the concept of harmony, investigate the implications of the state incorporating this concept as an educational goal for the public education system, and examine teachers’ understandings of multicultural education. Research Design The study adhered to the qualitative case study design. The data consisted primarily of semistructured individual interviews with 24 Singapore secondary social studies teachers, as well as relevant curricular and political documents such as the national Social Studies curriculum, political speeches, and official government publications. Guided by the literature, the interviewers asked questions to surface the participants’ understandings of the definition, purposes, and practices of multicultural education. Subsequently, the interviewers used follow-up questions to probe further and elicit additional description of how the teachers arrived at these understandings. The data analysis, shaped largely by the constant comparative method, was data-driven and inductive. Conclusions/Recommendations By illustrating some of the affordances and constraints of incorporating harmony as an educational goal, this study offers multicultural education scholars and teacher educators an opportunity to better understand some of the ways in which multicultural education is conceptualized in East Asian countries with strong Confucian traditions. The findings from this study suggest that a focus on harmony as an educational goal may help facilitate a move away from programs that emphasize the development of individual students’ social and political competencies towards programs and policies designed to promote communal trust and social cohesion. Finally, this study illustrates some of the challenges teachers face when balancing the goals of building trust and harmony within society and interrogating entrenched interests, institutional inequality, and unequal power relations.

scholarly journals orporate governance in a transition economy: A case study of Russia

2004 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 61-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Galina G. Preobragenskaya ◽  
Robert W. McGee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Transition Economies ◽  
Transition Economy ◽  
East Asian ◽  
The United States ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Recent Developments

Corporate governance has become a popular topic in recent years. Although much attention has been given to corporate governance in the United States and other Western countries as a result of recent scandals, and in Japan and other East Asian countries because of the financial crisis that occurred there a few years ago, much has also been going on in Russia and other transition economies in the area of corporate governance. This paper discusses recent developments in corporate governance in Russia and includes information gathered during interviews conducted in Russia during the summer of 2003.

scholarly journals Urban regeneration and building retrofit. A strategy towards instilling a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship

2021 ◽  
Vol 1203 (2) ◽  
pp. 022057
Author(s):  
Vittorino Belpoliti ◽  
Reema A. AlMheiri ◽  
Zanira A. Ali ◽  
Lujain T. AlAtiq
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Urban Regeneration ◽  
Building Retrofit ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
The Government ◽  
Innovation And Entrepreneurship

Abstract The United Arab Emirates’ economy is transitioning to a knowledge-based economy by promoting innovation and research development. Supporting the UAE’s Vision at becoming among the best and most innovative nation in the world by 2071, the Government has developed frameworks that recognize the importance of innovation to an economy’s growth and development. This paper presents the results of a design research where the domain of architecture and engineering blend with economics and social studies to the serve the UAE’s vision, proposing urban solutions to launch the country in its ‘next 50’ years, with an eye for the preservation and revitalization of the exiting and valuable resources. The research project proposes a different geography of innovation and introduces urban regeneration strategies to stimulate innovative policies for the built environment of the entire UAE territory. With the intent of forming an intangible connection between the seven Emirates, the proposed intervention can be situated in every state. The study especially looks into the three neighboring Emirates or Dubai, Sharjah, and Ajman, and finally select the latter to test the introduction of strategically designed spaces in degraded (and disconnected) locations to encourage the community to innovate while at the same time reusing/refurbishing the existing resources/buildings/facilities. The specific case study involves the design of an incubator facility in an obsolete villa community in Ajman, formerly hosting locals (therefore luxurious) that now have left for better locations and cannot manage to resell their properties due to the decadence of the neighbourhood. The incubator, a building articulated in the interstitial spaces in between the villas, would reactivate the district by attracting young and innovative entrepreneurs, who settle there for both working and living, exploiting the incubator complex as a parasite of the existing villas. If successful, the project will revive the district, provide it a new brand, and create a new financial stream to self-support its gradual regeneration.

scholarly journals Impact Multicultural Education: Case study in Social Studies Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amin Miftakhul ◽  
Harmanto Harmanto ◽  
Sunarto Sunarto
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
God's Grace ◽  
The Impact

This study intends to describe the impact of multicultural education in Social Studies Learning of junior high school. This type of research is qualitative with the method descriptive. The subject of this research is the component (Teacher and students) Middle-School 6 Sidoarjo. Based on the results of data analysis and discussion shows that Multicultural education in practice for social studies education learning in the classroom runs smoothly and students can be carefully conditioned to have an effect and have an impact, among others: Be tolerant in accepting all differences, because the difference is God's grace, does not discriminate (discriminate) friends who different beliefs, do not force others in terms of beliefs (religion), give freedom to others to choose beliefs (religion), do not interfere with other people with different beliefs when they worship, keep on interacting and behaving well with people who have different beliefs in worldly matters, respect others who are worshiping, do not hate and hurt the feelings of someone who has different beliefs or opinions from us. It is hoped that these forms of tolerance will bring positive energy which will not trigger disputes or quarrels between students.

scholarly journals Case Study of Ruqyah Therapy On Muslim Patient with Eczema

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-43
Author(s):  
Hamidi Abdul Rahman ◽  
Supyan Hussin
Keyword(s):  
East Asian ◽  
Skin Condition ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Rapid Improvement ◽  
Remarkable Improvement ◽  
Hospital Beds ◽  
Skin Conditions ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Muslim Patient

A case study on a female Malay living in the UK with serious eczema was presented. Her parents believed that it was a condition called santau, a common cultural belief in South East Asian countries. Santau is believed as the insertion of poisonous materials into the victim’s body with the help of jinn. Santau is normally differentiated from other medical skin conditions by the rapid deterioration of the condition and rapid improvement after successful treatment. Her skin condition was intolerable after a trip to Malaysia. Unable to be admitted to hospital because of the pressure on hospital beds during the Covid-19 pandemic, she resorted to intensive multiple-day ruqyah therapy, a therapy based on the incantation of verses from the Quran. Remarkable improvement was observed after three days. Apart from delivering therapeutic outcome, ruqyah therapy as a Traditional and Complementary Medicine has its role in relieving the pressure on the mainstream health system especially in time of pandemic.

Creativity in East Asian Countries

Asia Review ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Cheong-Tag Kim
Keyword(s):  
East Asian ◽  
Asian Countries

When Culturally Significant Songs are Decontextualised: The Initiation Song Somagwaza, A Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
T Dowling ◽  
Somikazi Deyi ◽  
Anele Gobodwana
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Ritual Music ◽  
Constant Comparative Method ◽  
Small Focus ◽  
Over Time

While there have been a number of studies on the decontextualisation and secularisation of traditional ritual music in America, Taiwan and other parts of the globe, very little has been written on the processes and transformations that South Africa’s indigenous ceremonial songs go through over time. This study was prompted by the authors’ interest in, and engagement with the Xhosa initiation song Somagwaza, which has been re-imagined as a popular song, but has also purportedly found its way into other religious spaces. In this article, we attempted to investigate the extent to which the song Somagwaza is still associated with the Xhosa initiation ritual and to analyse evidence of it being decontextualised and secularised in contemporary South Africa. Our methodology included an examination of the various academic treatments of the song, an analysis of the lyrics of a popular song, bearing the same name, holding small focus group discussions, and distributing questionnaires to speakers of isiXhosa on the topic of the song. The data gathered were analysed using the constant comparative method of analysing qualitative research.

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