This research is underpinned by the constructivist premise that reality is “historically and socially constructed and there are multiple possible realities”.1 In Oman, such variation is often attributed to differences related to social stratification and contrasting lifestyles depending on whether one is from the coast or the interior, the North or
South of the country or from a rural or urban community.2 From this
researcher’s perspective, when a constructivist paradigm is applied, one must “strive to be aware of and control his/her values”, as well as
become immersed in the lives of the participants in order to recognise
and understand a range of perspectives.3 This understanding
embodies the Bourdeauian methodological concept of ‘reflexivity’, based
on a “phenomenological4 questioning of knowledge creation” 5. Thus,
data collection becomes “doubly mediated, first by the [researcher’s] presence and then by the second-order self-reflection [demanded] from
informants”.6 As a consequence, encounters with the Other require the
capacity to exceed one’s own “hegemonic protocols of intelligibility”.7 In order to satisfy these requirements, this researcher lived in Muscat for nearly six months, between September 2015 and February 2016, which roughly coincided with an academic semester at Sultan Qaboos University. For an outsider, one who is a non-Muslim, Western
1 Marguerite G. Lodico, Dean T. Spaulding and Katherine H Voegtle, Methods in Educational Research:
From Theory to Practice, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010), 17. 2 Wippel, “Conceptual Considerations”, 34-35.
3 Lodico, Spaulding and Voegtle, Methods, 17.
4 Phenomenology focuses on the way in which meaning is made through individual experiences 5 Cécile Deer, “Reflexivity,” in Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts, ed. Michael Grenfell (Durham, NC: Acumen, 2008), 200.
6 Paul Rabinow, Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 119.
7 Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), 199.
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female, to establish her credentials is virtually impossible without developing a network of Omani references and recommendations. Abdullah Sahin warned of the likelihood of failure.
“You will remain an outsider. These societies, over three or four decades have learned to deal with expats or Westerners. It is very difficult to penetrate into how the culture operates. You could be
entertained but could be left aloof”.8
It is not just non-Muslim, Western women who are confronted with walls of silence and opaque masks. Camillia Fawzi El-Solh writes of
similar challenges when, as an Egyptian, she was ‘othered’ in Iraq.9 The
danger too, is that the “outsider’s representation is often mistaken for the insider’s experience of social life”,10 resulting in what Bourdieu warns, is akin to a “predetermined set of discourses and actions appropriate to a stage-part”.11
The process of building bridges began in 2014, after meeting two Omani families based in Brisbane at the University of Queensland (UQ). A teacher educator from the College of Education at SQU was on
sabbatical leave, working on a project through UQ, and another
colleague, was completing doctoral studies in educational policy. Both these Omani academics and their families provided invaluable initial feedback about the survey design, questions and offered key cultural insights. Even with such contacts, it was not until this researcher arrived in Muscat that the process of gaining approvals from the Office
8 Interview with Abdullah Sahin, 30 August 2015.
9 Camillia Fawzi El-Solh, “Gender, Class and Origin: Aspects of Role During Fieldwork in Arab Society”, in Arab Women in the Field: Studying Your Own Society, ed. Soraya Altorki and Camillia Fawzi El-Solh, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1988), 91-114.
10 Lila Abu-Lughod, “Fieldwork of a Dutiful Daughter”, In Arab Women in the Field: Studying Your Own
Society, ed. Soraya Altorki and Camillia Fawzi El-Solh, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1988),
159-160.
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of International Cooperation at SQU, security clearances, and the subsequent authorization for an extended visa and resident’s card, could begin. Ordinarily this process would take months, but in this instance, approval was granted after only six weeks, expedited by an SQU academic who also offered accommodation with her family in al- Mawahla, a district of Muscat. This afforded the development of a strong friendship between this most generous Omani woman and her
Australian house guest. As a result, there were opportunities to meet women and girls in the extended families, attend weddings, henna parties and dowry presentations and celebrate Eid al-Ahda (Festival of Sacrifice), which occurs at the end of the month of holy pilgrimage, Hajj.
Celebrated from Wednesday, the sixteenth, to Saturday, the nineteenth of September in 2015, this researcher’s active participation during Eid al-Ahda is a good example of her cultural immersion. The family, accompanied by their Sri Lankan maid and this researcher, travelled from Muscat to Sohar, arriving late on Tuesday evening.
Advised earlier that her hostess’ mother-in-law (Um Ali) was very pious, this researcher decided to observe the final day of a voluntary fasting period, prior to Eid, despite protestations that Omanis were very
tolerant and that this was not expected of non-Muslim visitors. Late on the Wednesday afternoon, but before the fast was broken at maghreb (sunset) prayers, this researcher joined Um Ali, her hostess and her oldest daughter (11), who were seated on the gravel outside the detached kitchen. They were peeling what appeared to be about one hundred heads of garlic, in readiness for the shūwa, the lamb, which had been sacrificed and would be cooked over 24 hours in a pit,
supervised by the men and boys of the family. Taking her place beside the women and working for nearly an hour, this researcher engendered much comment, because traditionally as a guest, she would wait to be served; instead, she was contributing as if a family member.
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The capacity to set aside Australian cultural values and embrace life as it was for Omani women, also involved developing an interest and fondness for wearing an ‘abaya or the full length cloak. Traditionally these are plain black, but this researcher’s Omani hostess, as a
modern, professional, working woman, refused to wear black; instead spending considerable time designing and shopping for suitable fabrics with many and varied colours, textures and patterns. Whilst at SQU, a loose scarf, securely pinned satisfied cultural norms for covering this researcher’s hair; however, when visiting Um Ali in Sohar during Eid, the decision to don hijab and demonstrate prowess at tying the scarf, was very much appreciated, causing considerable excitement and extended hands of friendship. Exposure to a number of families in Suwaiq, Sohar, al-Khaboura and Muscat provided substantial and prolonged observation of family dynamics and social gatherings. Such authentic insights enabled this researcher to cast aside her Western perspectives and appreciate alternative Omani realities.
Theoretical Framework
To regard knowledge, meaning making and education as a construct, which recognises that individuals build knowledge and understand their worlds based on the various ways that people
“acquire, select, interpret and organise information,” is the embodiment
of constructivist learning theories.12 John Dewey recognised the
confluence of social and psychological factors in the learning process and regarded learners as those who could go beyond the egocentric perspective and see themselves as part of a wider community or
12 Paul Adams, “Exploring social constructivism: theories and practicalities”, Education 3-13, 34:3, (2006), 245, doi:10.1080/03004270600898893.
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society.13 This view differs from traditional educational philosophy which is rigidly teacher-centred and assumes a fixed body of knowledge. From the Vygotskian position, social constructivism posits that learning
is the product of social interaction, interpretation and understanding14;
thereby necessitating a deeper understanding of how “cultural forces interactively shape individual epistemologies and epistemological
dispositions”.15 Fleury and Garrison acknowledge the Foucauldian
basis of power in the way that hegemonic players construct the cultural
norms that in turn shape and control one’s personal identity.16
Similarly, cultural theorists reflecting the Bourdieuian premise, argue that social practices are a source of knowledge production, reproduction and identity, determining the way in which individuals
relate to their world.17 Vygotsky regarded culture as the product of
social life and interaction. In the context of Omani women, this life, from the beginning, is centred on their immediate and extended family. Formal schooling and teachers are the most influential when it comes to determining how students learn to use knowledge and whether that
application is creative and conscious, or reactive and perfunctory.18
Results from a study by Giancarlo and Facione suggest that the propensity for critical thinking; that is the “consistent internal motivation to engage with problems and make decisions by using
thinking”, develops with age and female participants scored significantly
13 Jeannine St Pierre Hirtle, “Coming to Terms: Social Constructivism”, English Journal, 85:1 (1996), 91 Proquest:doc 9204261.
14 Lev Vygotsky, Thought and Language, trans. Eugenia Hanfmann, Gertrude Vakar and Alex Kozulin (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 2012).
15 Stephen Fleury and Jim Garrison, “Toward a New Philosophical Anthropology of Education: Fuller Considerations of Social Constructivism”, Interchange, 45:19 (2014), 20, doi:10.1007/s10780-014-9216- 4.
16 Ibid, 21.
17 Anna Stetsenko, “Teaching-learning and the development as activist projects of historical Becoming: expanding Vygotsky’s approach to pedagogy”, Pedagogies: An International Journal, 5:1 (2009), 7, doi:10.1080/15544800903406266.
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higher than males for comparative maturity of judgement and open- mindedness.19
From a critical constructivist perspective, “mind, reason and rights do not exist before the social-cultural-linguistic transactions that
construct them”.20 Critical pedagogue, Henri Giroux, suggests that an
emancipated classroom is one that offers a language of critique,
possibilities and human empowerment and where presuppositions are challenged.21 On this basis, the rationale for this research about teaching and learning amongst female students in the College of Education at SQU is grounded in the recognition of the dynamic
relationship between power, culture and the beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing.
Linking Culture, Epistemology and Pedagogy
Personal epistemologies reflect the ways in which individuals
“view reality, draw conclusions about truth, knowledge and authority”.22
Embodied in this understanding is the way that knowledge is defined, constructed and evaluated; “where it resides and how knowing
occurs”.23 The development of such perceptions by students, whether
they be in schools or institutions of higher education, is mediated by
19 Carol Ann Giancarlo and Peter A. Facione, “A Look across Four Years at the Disposition Toward Critical Thinking Among Undergraduate Students”, The Journal of General Education, 50:1 (2001), 31,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/27797861.
20 Fleury and Garrison, “Toward a New Philosophical Anthropology”, 32.
21 Henry A. Giroux, Border Crossings: Cultural Workers and the Politics of Education (New York: Routledge, 1992), 10-11.
22 Mary F. Belenky, Blythe M. Clinchy, Nancy R.Goldberger & Jill M. Tarule, Women’s Ways of Knowing
(New York: Basic Books, 1986), 3.
23 Hofer “Personal Epistemology as an Educational and Psychological Construct,” in Personal
Epistemology: The Psychology of Beliefs about Knowledge and Knowing, ed. B.K. Hofer and Paul R.
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culturally specific environments and interactions,24 which raises the
question: how do young Omani women make meaning in the fields of teaching and learning?
In the introduction to this thesis, culture is defined as a system of symbols, which capture and clarify explicit and implicit meanings and values that enable description, organisation and structure of a
particular field or social space. When Hofstede refers to culture as
“mental programming” that is learned rather than innate,25 he is
indirectly drawing upon Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, an
understanding that seeks to reconcile the structure of society with an individual’s agency.26 One’s habitus is a product of history, structured by family, experience and education, producing a “correctness of
practices”.27 These “transcend determinism and freedom, conditioning
and creativity, consciousness and unconsciousness, or the individual and society”.28 Williams calls this product of the socio-cultural
experience, “permanent education”.29
Taking Hofstede’s linkage between values and practices as a starting point, this research aims to identify the influence of religious beliefs and practices (personal values), on the receptivity to critical thinking and critical pedagogy among female teacher candidates in Oman.
24 May M.H. Cheng, Kwok-Wai Chan, Sylvia Y.F. Tang, Annie Y.N. Cheng, “Pre-Service Teacher Education Students’ Epistemological Beliefs and their Conceptions of Teaching”, Teaching and Teacher Education, 25 (2009), doi:10.1016/jtate.2008.09.018.
Kwok-Wai Chan and Robert G. Elliott, “Relational analysis of personal epistemology and conceptions about teaching and learning” Teaching and Teacher Education, 20 (2004), 817-831,
doi:10.1016/j.tate.2004.09.
25 Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov, Cultures and Organisations, 4. 26 Maton, “Habitus”, 50.
27 Pierre Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice, (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 1980), 54-55 28 Ibid.
29 Raymond Williams, Preface to the Second Edition of Communications, (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1967), 15-16.
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Figure 3-130 encapsulates Hofstede’s view that a person is influenced
by the social environment. Whilst genetic factors initially determine one’s “core self”, it is through the exposure to the prevailing culture, that one’s psycho-social identity, or social self, is formed.31 Figure 3-232 seeks to insert symbols, heroes/exemplars/role models, rituals and
values into the representation of culture33, embodied in the practices,
generated by dispositions, inclinations and tendencies.34 Based on this
model, it can be inferred that the general epistemological position of Omanis, centres, at least in part, on their knowledge and
understanding of Islam. This point must be tempered by the heterogenous demographic profile of Omanis and the associated diversity of symbols, heroes and rituals situated the various Sunni, Shia and Ibādhī groups within Oman.
Figure 3-2: Relationship between habitus and behaviour
30 Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov, Cultures and Organisations, 6.
31 Gary S. Gregg, The Middle East: A Cultural Psychology, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 139- 141.
32 Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov, Cultures and Organisations, 8. 33 Ibid., 7-8.
34 Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 214.
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The discernment of dominant cultural structures and the
interplay between forms of capital that are both visible and invisible, is an important feature of this study’s survey design. Cultural capital
“exists as symbolically and materially active,
effective capital only insofar as it is appropriated by agents and implemented and invested as a weapon and a stake in the struggles which go on in the fields of cultural production … and beyond them in the field of social classes.”35
In this way, meaning, which is “deeply contextual36, is situated in the
field of teacher education, with specific reference to personal learning style, teaching philosophy, classroom practice, expectations of students and each respondent’s understanding and attitudes to critical
pedagogy, critical thinking and the construction of a knowledge society. The link between culture, personal epistemology and pedagogy is
epitomized by Bourdieu’s equation: [(Habitus)(Capital)] + Field = Practice.37
Figure 3-3: The influence of history and structures on culture and habitus38
35 Schwartz, Symbolic Power, 56-57.
36 Charles Travis, Unshadowed Thought (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000). 37 Maton, “Habitus”, 51.
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In Figure 3-3, Hofstede illustrates the interplay between the
visible manifestations of religion, language, identities (personal, familial, national), and institutional norms with the invisible ways in which
individuals make meaning. This model, however, does not accommodate the holistic nature of Islamic epistemology, which embodies the
certainty of the truth, existence, omniscience and authority of Allah (God). Constructivists and critical theorists acknowledge multiple truths which arise from informed consensus, based on what is observed and perceived. From the perspective of some Islamic educators however, this multiplicity is a “manifestation of the ultimate truth, the truth which remains elusive and remains to be fully comprehended by human beings.39 In contrast, Sahin argues that inquiry, diversity and
empathetic understanding of others are inherent in traditional Islamic
scholarship.40 Drawing on phenomenology, Sahin asserts that critical
thinking and a critical pedagogy are not alien concepts to Islam.
Irrespective of the position of influential Muslim educators, Hofstede’s model does not reflect the way in which religion transcends every facet of an Islamic society, in that it informs the government, laws, history, language, public and private discourses as well as the invisible realms of the mind.
Husserlian phenomenology seeks to enable the recognition and understanding of individual experiences, which according to Sahin facilitates the examination of accepted personal beliefs and attitudes, resulting in the capacity to be “open to the other”.41 Such reflexivity is the province not only of this researcher, but also of the survey
participants as they respond to questions which encompass the
39 Al-Zeera, Wholeness and Holiness in Education, 44
40 Abdullah Sahin, New Directions in Islamic Education: Pedagogy and Identity Formation, (Markfield, LEC: Kube Academic, 2013.
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cognitive, affective and behavioural domains. Lea and Griggs cite a growing body of evidence suggesting that teachers tend to privilege or favour students who reflect their social, cultural and/or symbolic capital.42 Without reflection or awareness, inequities and differential outcomes continue to be perpetuated. The experiential quality of this survey is exemplified by comments such as: “the students will never
have seen anything like this”43 and “you ask such deep questions, I
thought you were a spy”.44 Korthagen uses the analogy of an “onion” to
illustrate the complex layers that underpin attitudes, behaviours and understandings and which subsequently inform the structure of the survey, because of their influence on a teacher’s pedagogy and philosophy (see Figure 3-4).
Figure 3-4: The Onion - a model of the levels of influence on a teacher and one's personal epistemology45
42 Virginia Lea & Tom Griggs, “Behind the mask and beneath the story: enabling students-teachers to reflect critically on the socially-constructed nature of their "normal" practice”, Teacher Education
Quarterly, 32:1 (2005), 94.
43 Aisha al-Harthi during survey development in Brisbane, March 2015. 44 Interview with Dr N, 8 October, 2015.
45 Fred A. J. Korthagen, “In Search of the Essence of a Good Teacher: Towards a More Holistic Approach in Teacher Education”, Teaching and Teacher Education, 20 (2004), 80, doi:10.1016/j.tate.2003.10.002.
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Aligned with the work of Freire, Korthagen recognises that learning to teach is a “socio-cultural process relying on discursive
resources”46 and as highlighted by the two way arrow in Figure 4,
teaching for learning is also about the way in which the surrounding environment is internalized to shape behaviour, skills and attitudes, personal epistemology (beliefs), personal and professional identities and an awareness of the teacher’s role in relation to his/her fellow human beings.47 Korthagen’s concept of ‘mission’ aligns with the notion of ‘subjectivity’ or the way in which we know ourselves and takes into account the social and historical formation of such ‘knowingness’. Foucault uses the term ‘genealogy’ to describe the historical
investigation into the formation of our subjectivities; which is either the “manifestation of a stable mechanism of the State, [an] exercise to restore stability” or a contest between forces seeking to dominate and those resisting subjection.48
This position is echoed in a comparative study of Egyptian science teachers’ interpretations and attitudes to science education