Archives and Feelings

Thank you all for your great comments.

Dear Lauren, what I meant by saying that, “A political movement against issues like capitalism, sexism, and racism can possibly help, but professors have a unique position within society”, is the way people protest in the street  against such issues. However, the Arab Spring proved that such protests may not solve the problematic to these issues and people end up being killed because they are asking for their rights.

I believe that my job and my position at the university is to help my society to have their voices heard without being harmed. Today technological devices  provides several softwares, such as Twitter and Facebook, that can help as channels that may librate people’s minds and creates the change among the society. Using these devices in the academia can help the organic intellectuals to have a chance through which they can deliver their message.

 
Evidently, there is much in common between my thoughts and yours Menia. This springs from the fact that we come from the same environment, i.e. the Arab world.  This makes the situation in Libya, my home country, similar to that in your country as far as the educational system is concerned. Education in Arab world, in all its levels, suffers from the dominance of the banking system. Instructors are viewed as authorities whose ideas cannot be negotiated. That is why the basic role of the teacher is represented in dictating and conveying information that students have to memorize and reproduce in exams.
This situation becomes more tragic in teaching literature. Literary studies, which are essentially considered as a rich arena for creating and exchanging ideas, have become a discipline where there is a dominance of only one vantage point; that of the teacher. Students expect the instructor to come to class explaining the plot, setting, theme and structure of the literary work. The students’ role within this paradigm is to memorize what the teacher dictates and then give it back in the exam, which essentially tests the student’s ability to memorize rather than encourage him to show his personal critical thinking.
         Despite all these challenges, I believe that the philosophy of critical pedagogy is the best methodology I can use in teaching literature for students in my home country.  The democratic atmosphere that critical pedagogy creates is in line with the philosophy of teaching literature that essentially focuses on personal appreciation of the text rather than memorizing historical and personal information imposed by the teacher. The implementation of critical pedagogy in teaching literature should take into consideration all the assumptions and principles perpetuated by its theorists.

I love your word choice in the second to last sentence:  “[the professor’s] task in the society is more RISKY than ever.”  It’s absolutely risky!  The way you position yourself is clearly political and subversive, maintaining your identity with working class issues in Saudi Arabia.  Risk involves an emotional investment, as Gramsci knew personally doing so much of his writing while imprisoned.  While incarceration may be a legitimate threat or not to you, another risk, and this might be just as serious to you, is to assimilate into the group of traditional intellectuals.

On some level it’s impossible to avoid it, right?  Everyday in the classroom and in our research pursuits we risk recreating the very structure we want to reform.  The pressure is certainly on new professors to conform (or be “radical,” but in the right way.)  I was struck by how adamantly you call for a social revolution in your country beginning in the university.  You wrote, “A political movement against these issues [capitalism, sexism, racism] can possibly help, but professors at the university have a better chance to solve these issues.” While I agree that professors have a unique position within society, I’d like to hear more about what plans and practices you’ve encountered that could help your mission at the university.  Like Freire’s work that we encountered in class last year, there’s always a great deal of risk!

You paint this beautiful and noble picture of an intellectual – one that has a duty and responsibility and as I noted earlier, a burden as well. In addition, there is this hope which you communication. The hope that it will come from the university, maybe instead of the government or even the streets.

Your description conveys the intellectual’s burden…it might be different for each person, each country, each time in history. At the same time your “burden” as an intellectual also ties with many others throughout history.

Yes, Menia, I full-heartedly agree with what you say here when there are serious challenges that face higher ed today.  I am currently working on a second Master’s degree in higher education, and what I have learned so far in this program has really helped me come to terms with my current place as an educator working in the field of higher ed.  One of the most glaring areas of concern, not only for myself, but for others in higher ed as well, is the decreased value of intellectual freedom as faculty members.  I also think you are correct in that as a faculty member, I have a responsibility to fight for our intellectual freedoms!  I am still learning, however, how to accomplish this.  Thanks for sharing your insights!