{"id":178948,"date":"2024-04-23T02:34:42","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T02:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/?p=178948"},"modified":"2024-04-24T04:39:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T04:39:44","slug":"shifting-educational-idealism-in-the-age-of-globalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/?p=178948","title":{"rendered":"Shifting educational idealism in the age of globalization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><strong>By<\/strong> <strong>Mohd Abbas Abdul Razak and Mohd Mumtaz Ali<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past centuries,&nbsp;education was regarded as a medium&nbsp;for&nbsp;creating a good individual and citizen. The philosophy of education is designed to guide&nbsp;in producing&nbsp;the kind&nbsp;of individualsthe state&nbsp;intends&nbsp;to create.&nbsp;The analogy of the&nbsp;educator&nbsp;is&nbsp;like that of&nbsp;a blacksmith who moulds the iron&nbsp;into his desired shape while it is still red-hot.&nbsp;Likewise,&nbsp;the learner can be moulded into&nbsp;character by the&nbsp;parents,&nbsp;teachers and school system during his or her tender age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Compared to&nbsp;most contemporary educational systems, in the olden days,&nbsp;all&nbsp;forms of education, regardless&nbsp;of&nbsp;formal, informal and non-formal&nbsp;were&nbsp;all directed towards&nbsp;the&nbsp;transference of&nbsp;knowledge, values, skills,&nbsp;culture, language, religious teachings, etc. from the old to the new and upcoming generation.&nbsp;Education during&nbsp;the bygone centuries&nbsp;had a more holistic and comprehensive&nbsp;concept&nbsp;of&nbsp;bringing up an integrated personality.&nbsp;Modern-dayeducation with its&nbsp;technology-mediated&nbsp;learning has deprived the learner&nbsp;of&nbsp;many&nbsp;real-life experiences. The learner has been confined to the four walls of the classroom, even though the natural world has a lot to offer. Ancient philosophers have&nbsp;always emphasised the fact that&nbsp;any&nbsp;good and ethical&nbsp;activity&nbsp;under the sun can be&nbsp;a&nbsp;learning experience and&nbsp;a soul-enriching process&nbsp;for&nbsp;the learner.&nbsp;Furthermore, many&nbsp;education experts&nbsp;have highlighted that if an individual learns to remember,&nbsp;he or she will forget,&nbsp;and at the same time if&nbsp;theindividual learns to understand, he or she will remember.&nbsp;This&nbsp;philosophy&nbsp;explains to us education is not a mere exercise of memorization of facts and figures but the understanding of what life is all about and&nbsp;that life&nbsp;is a process of developing ones personality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Diametrically opposite to the conventional system of education, todays&nbsp;scientific and innovative way of learning has&nbsp;enabled&nbsp;modern man&nbsp;to&nbsp;get access to knowledge and information&nbsp;quickly&nbsp;and efficiently.&nbsp;Besides the fast connectivity with the broader world, there is a downside to this new technology.&nbsp;This new&nbsp;means of&nbsp;communication&nbsp;has made people learn in a more personalized way which cuts off much of their interaction with the community or society.&nbsp;Learning in isolation using gadgets deprives learners of real-life experiences in life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This quote by a well-reputed social psychologist and analyst, Erich Fromm, explains candidly some of the things&nbsp;missed by an individual when he studies in isolation: \u0153Modern man is alienated from himself, from his fellow men, and from nature. He has been transformed into a commodity, experiences his life forces as an investment which must bring him the maximum profit obtainable under existing market conditions\u009d.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another aspect that is missing in the personalized form of learning is the interaction with the tutor or teacher. The proponents of teacher and student face-to-face interaction believe that it is very important for the learner to get acquainted with the teacher by physically being present in front of him. Besides that, raw information and data can be more meaningful when they are properly explained by the teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We live within a human space where proximity between teachers and students makes tangible communication possible. Body language, tone of voice, personality and emotion are all indispensable elements in the formal activity of instruction. More than the facts, we need the elusive intimation of how they are being received, comprehended and evaluated. Teachers convey more than the subject matter under discussion. No matter what the topic they also embody something of what it means to be a human being,&#8221; mentions David Walsh in his 1999 article, \u0153Plato Meets Technology\u009d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The above is very true with the teaching of Islam, especially in the learning of the holy Quran and other&nbsp;auxiliary subjects that demand a&nbsp;serious understanding of the faith and practical aspects of Islam for those who are new to the religion and for those practicing Muslims who are still at their basic level of understanding the religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Challenges Posed by Globalization&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the West, long before the era of industrialization, education was seen as&nbsp;a&nbsp;means to produce&nbsp;a&nbsp;good citizen.&nbsp;However,&nbsp;after&nbsp;the&nbsp;modernization of Europe, there was&nbsp;a&nbsp;change in the&nbsp;mindset of the state and&nbsp;the&nbsp;masses.&nbsp;As a result of that, modern Europes&nbsp;aim&nbsp;of educating its subjects was&nbsp;to produce&nbsp;skilled&nbsp;workers and professionals to cater&nbsp;for&nbsp;the&nbsp;industries and other&nbsp;job markets.&nbsp;Not&nbsp;only that,&nbsp;the shifting&nbsp;of&nbsp;paradigms&nbsp;in education&nbsp;in some ways&nbsp;has made&nbsp;religious values&nbsp;marginalized,&nbsp;and in some cases,&nbsp;obsolete. Conversely, in the Muslim world, the primary aim&nbsp;of education is to know oneself,&nbsp;and&nbsp;God and&nbsp;to produce&nbsp;the good man \u0153<em>Insan Kamil<\/em>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<em>Insan Soleh<\/em>\u009d.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Islamic&nbsp;concept&nbsp;of&nbsp;education&nbsp;also emphasizes&nbsp;that the well-educated man&nbsp;should&nbsp;be&nbsp;an ethical and God-conscious&nbsp;individual. Such a man should be able to bind&nbsp;a good&nbsp;relationship with God,&nbsp;the Self,&nbsp;the&nbsp;environment; flora and fauna and others (Muslims and non-Muslims).&nbsp;Education from the Islamic perspective&nbsp;is viewed as a process that&nbsp;leads the learner towards his&nbsp;intellectual, moral, social, physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual&nbsp;development. The laxity in developing any one of these&nbsp;areas will cause an imbalance in the personality of the learner.&nbsp;The&nbsp;end product of an Islamic system of education&nbsp;is to&nbsp;produce&nbsp;the type of man called the \u02dcuniversal man. Simply put, the \u02dcuniversal man&nbsp;in Islam should be a&nbsp;peace-loving&nbsp;and caring personality.&nbsp;He should&nbsp;rightly&nbsp;position himself as a \u0153messenger of peace\u009d.&nbsp;His existence should bring peace and harmony to nature and humanity.&nbsp;Education should inculcate&nbsp;in him&nbsp;the values&nbsp;and feeling of cohesiveness with the rest&nbsp;of&nbsp;humanity.&nbsp;His philosophy should&nbsp;say, \u0153Never say my home is my world, but&nbsp;say&nbsp;the world is my home\u009d. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In todays globalized world, education is seen&nbsp;as&nbsp;more of a passport&nbsp;to&nbsp;being&nbsp;affluent&nbsp;and successful&nbsp;in the future. Education at all levels is directed towards producing paper&nbsp;qualifications&nbsp;that can generate&nbsp;good&nbsp;income,&nbsp;better living&nbsp;standards,&nbsp;fame,&nbsp;glory, etc.&nbsp;With the rise in the cost of living&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;mechanization of&nbsp;human&nbsp;life, the role&nbsp;of&nbsp;education has been narrowed down&nbsp;to the level of&nbsp;producing&nbsp;a&nbsp;qualified workforce for the market demand. Educated individuals are deemed successful only if they have a higher capacity to earn.&nbsp;The inculcation of&nbsp;human&nbsp;qualities through education is no longer the main concern of education. Science and mathematics get much&nbsp;more&nbsp;preference than&nbsp;all other&nbsp;human science subjects.Instead of educating&nbsp;the&nbsp;students&nbsp;into&nbsp;creativity&nbsp;and critical thinking, in some parts of the world,&nbsp;they&nbsp;are&nbsp;educated out of the two. Such&nbsp;a&nbsp;school system gives the idea that creativity&nbsp;is a&nbsp;God-given&nbsp;quality that is bestowed&nbsp;upon some selected individuals.&nbsp;Contrary&nbsp;to&nbsp;this narrow view&nbsp;of&nbsp;creativity,&nbsp;the&nbsp;latest&nbsp;research on human brain capacity&nbsp;provides a different revelation, whereby&nbsp;psychologists believe that creativity is not only inborn but also can be acquired through the process of learning.&nbsp;By&nbsp;explaining&nbsp;the true concept of&nbsp;creativity&nbsp;and creating&nbsp;aconducive environment,&nbsp;teachers can bring&nbsp;out&nbsp;what is latent in the human psyche to the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the last few decades, humanity has observed the tidal wave of globalization at work in trying to change the world into a single global village.&nbsp;Globalization&nbsp;is a multi-faceted phenomenon that affects major sectors of human lives.&nbsp;Since globalization comes from the&nbsp;affluent&nbsp;countries of the West, it tries to influence people living in the third and developing countries&nbsp;of&nbsp;the world.&nbsp;Many studies have indicated that globalization has&nbsp;many positive and negative influences&nbsp;on people&nbsp;who&nbsp;embrace it.&nbsp;In the field of education, globalization has made it a commodity like any other sales product. Globalization of education has resulted in the mushrooming of foreign universities in developing countries.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The establishment of foreign universities in&nbsp;third-world&nbsp;countries has caused the vanishing of lofty&nbsp;ideals of&nbsp;education&nbsp;in those countries.&nbsp;Moreover, one can see in many developing countries, globalization has caused the marginalization of local cultures&nbsp;and languages.&nbsp;Since modern&nbsp;education&nbsp;offered by&nbsp;globalization pays less attention to religious and traditional values, it has failed to bring the best out of man.&nbsp;Due to this shortcoming in modern education,&nbsp;man is missing many of the&nbsp;human&nbsp;qualities&nbsp;which are latent in him.&nbsp;Missing values in man&nbsp;have&nbsp;also caused an increase in crime rate, white-colour&nbsp;corruption, pollution of all kinds on land and&nbsp;sea, fraudulent banking system, etc. To overcome all&nbsp;these&nbsp;human shortcomings, the educational system in the East and West should give preference to the creation of the good individual over the creation of the intelligent man.&nbsp;After all, education should not&nbsp;only&nbsp;be reduced to making&nbsp;the learner&nbsp;intelligent. Before&nbsp;education can create a genius, let it create&nbsp;a good individual and&nbsp;all&nbsp;other things can fall into&nbsp;perspectiveaccordingly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Muslim Scholars Response to Globalization<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Muslim world, scholars can generally be classified into two main groups concerning the issue of globalization. The first group claims that globalization is not a bad idea as it has some positive contributions in terms of trade and direct foreign investment creating plentiful job opportunities in underdeveloped and developing nations. The second group deems globalization as bad because it is a Western idea or ideology that works well to their benefit. According to this group, globalization is a form of colonization in disguise. They further believe that the West has not changed in their mindset in their ambition like in the past which brought them ploughing the waves to subjugate the East in greed of power, riches and dominance over the weak and downtrodden. Through their direct subjugation of the East and Africa, they have managed to plunder the wealth of the underprivileged countries. Globalization as seen by these scholars is nothing new than the old colonization, except it is done more subtly, from a distance by using sophisticated media like cable and satellite TV, the&nbsp;Internet and other modern means of communication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In describing the nature and contents of globalization designed by the West, Mohd Kamal has candidly explained in these words: &#8220;Facing the challenges of globalization with all the negative impacts of Americanization, secularization, materialism, neo-imperialism, debt-bondage to World Bank and IMF, unilateralism, militant liberal capitalism, global media conglomerates manipulation and deception, impoverishment and homogenization of culture, bullying by the powerful, imposed liberalization, dominance of the global market, international and regional competition, commodification of education, environmental degradation, moral decadence, high tech crime, violence and war-all these and more at a time when the Muslim world is divided, weak and poor.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Going deep into contemplation and analysis of what has been stated by Mohd Kamal will reveal that globalization has brought Western culture and way of life to the East and the rest of the world. Many times, these values are atheistic and do not regard the Supremacy of God Almighty. Through globalization, secularism practised by the West is also transported to the homes and minds of the people in the East, disrupting their Islamic and Eastern family core values that are already there in existence. Secularism is a way of life that separates things and actions into all that belongs to God and all that belongs to the state. The two states of affairs cannot mix. The dichotomy that is prevalent in their everyday life gives people in the West to think of God only when they are in the places of worship and when they are elsewhere, they can behave and do anything and everything that suits their selfish desires. Such a philosophy of life is very opposed and contradictory to the Islamic and Eastern lifestyles where people live very much attached to their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another important thing about globalization that is contradictory to the religion of Islam is the Western idea that states education should be value-free. Knowledge and education are sought for knowledge and it does not link the individual with God almighty. In Islam, knowledge is sought for self-improvement that humbles man in the presence of his Creator. Knowledge is sought for the enlightenment of the human soul that brings man closer to God. In contrast to the Islamic concept of seeking knowledge, most people in the West believe that knowledge is value-free. Other than this, the Western attitude of&nbsp;being&nbsp;non-judgmental in the things they see, acquire, experience and assess is not applicable in the context of Muslim society. Islam calls on Muslims to take a stand by being judgmental. One has to be clear in his mind as to what are the things that have been approved and shunned by the Quran and the Sunnah concerning the human relationship. By referring to the religious guidelines, one can easily distinguish between what is good and permissible and what is bad and should be avoided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Final Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Islam has no problem&nbsp;with any new approach brought by&nbsp;a globalized&nbsp;educational system&nbsp;aslong&nbsp;as&nbsp;it makes the integration between&nbsp;science and spirituality.&nbsp;The integration of the two has been stated in the Holy Scripture of the Muslims. The Quran uses the term \u02dc<em>Zikr<\/em> for spirituality and \u02dc<em>Fik<\/em>r for science, thinking and contemplation.&nbsp;Seeking scientific knowledge devoid of spirituality can lead the learner to&nbsp;an&nbsp;undesired result in education. It is interesting to note that Islam does not forbid the seeking of knowledge&nbsp;to improve&nbsp;ones economic status and in seeking a good life in this world.&nbsp;The only thing Islam demands&nbsp;from&nbsp;the learner is that such an intention should not be the first aim of seeking knowledge. It should rather come after the primary aim of seeking knowledge, which is to know oneself and&nbsp;ones&nbsp;Creator. Education in Islam is also sought to well equip the learner to carry out the duties as a vicegerent of God on this earth. Globalization which is intended for the homogenization of culture is not an ideal concept that can bring humanity together. Metaphorically speaking, humanity exists like a rainbow. What makes the rainbow interesting are the different shades of colour. Likewise, what makes humanity interesting are the different colours,&nbsp;cultures,&nbsp;ethnicities,&nbsp;languages, etc.&nbsp;Homogenisation&nbsp;of culture will make the world a boring place for humanity.***<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(Dr. Mohd. Abbas Abdul Razak<\/em> <em>is Assistant Professor in the Department of Fundamental &amp; Inter-Disciplinary Studies, AHAS KIRKHS and Dr. Mohd Mumtaz Ali is Professor in the Department of Usul al-Din and Comparative Religion, AHAS KIRKHS, IIUM.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mohd Abbas Abdul Razak and Mohd Mumtaz Ali In the past centuries,&nbsp;education was regarded as a medium&nbsp;for&nbsp;creating a good individual and citizen. The philosophy&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"nelio_content":{"isAutoShareEnabled":true,"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"followers":[265,237,239],"suggestedReferences":[],"efiUrl":"","efiAlt":"","highlights":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178948"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179087,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178948\/revisions\/179087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}