Intercultural encounters, in the eye of the beholder Said M. Faiq, FRSA American University of Sharjah (UAE) & Exeter University (UK)

IAFOR 2015

Integrated Practices in/of language learning  Assessment  Cross-cultural communication  literacy  Phonetics  Teacher training  Translation and interpreting  --- etc--- IICLL 2015

Education  Transnational or international? Developing new spaces of learning  Education, power and globalisation  Challenges of literacy and communication in transnational spaces  Education and transnational spaces: power and Disempowerment IICE 2015

 Information  Communication  Culture  Language TOGETHER … IICLL2015 and IICE2015

Information = knowledge = power Information

 Intra  Inter  Production  Reception  Message  Medium  Context Communication

Macro (mental) Micro (material) Culture

Macro Culture ReligionValues Language ??? Social Structure History

 … includes the knowledge that people need to have to function effectively in their social environment.  … is shared and learned behaviour that is transmitted from one generation to another for purposes of promoting individual and social (group) survival, adaptation Macro Culture

 Food  Clothes  Sleeping habits  Marriages / divorces  Fish  Rice  Cars  … Micro Culture

Where is it? What is it? Language

…culguage, any one! … altogether # 1… Culture Language

 Representation  Transmission  Transculturation – hopefully  or … altogether #2…

of (Inter) cultural Communication are based on a master discourse … Spaces …

[Receivers of intercultural mediation or communication] have at their disposal established systems of representation, with norms and conventions for the production and consumption of meanings vis-à-vis people, objects and events. These systems ultimately yield a master discourse through which identity and difference are marked and within which [representation]is carried out. (Faiq, 2006). … master discourse …

Where is it? What is it? Why?  Reading  Literacy  Numeracy Global citizens? Complaints from/by all  IICE2015 … Education

State and status of Arabic in AW (when Arabic ruled   )  English language ‘seducing’ UAE pupils  Solid bilingual system would bolster Arabic in the UAE  Law planned to preserve Arabic language in the UAE  UAE schools must improve Arabic lessons  UAE students being not fluent in Arabic ‘a worry’  Creativity needed when teaching Arabic Education … Arab World - AW

“We have a generation of students from an Arab background who are not fluent in their mother tongue,” said Mazen Al Sheikh, director of Arabic at the American School of Dubai. “Actually it’s English that’s their mother tongue. Arabic is becoming a second or third language.” …Arabic in AW …

Higher Education … Dubai, for example …

دعا المشاركون في المنتدى الإقليمي لقيادة التعليم العالي إلى ضمان الجودة والاعتماد الأكاديمي، والتدويل والعولمة، وإدماج التكنولوجيا ، والتعلم والتعليم والبحث العلمي في التعليم العالي. و استقطب المنتدى الذي نظمه مركز الابتكارات التعليميّة وحلول المعرفة المتخصصة ، بالتعاون مع اتحاد الجامعات العربية والمجلس الدولي للتعليم المفتوح والتعلم عن بعد، ومبادرة يوتي العالمية بجامعة تكساس في أوستن والذي اختتمت فعالياته أمس ، أكثر من 180 من قادة التعليم العالي وصناع القرار والخبراء المتمرسين القادمين من داخل المنطقة وخارجها لمناقشة مواضيع تتعلق بتطوير القيادات وضمان الجودة والاعتماد الأكاديمي، والتدويل والعولمة، وإدماج التكنولوجيا في التعليم العالي، والتعلم والتعليم والبحث العلمي في التعليم العالي. Higher Education in AW

... كما اوصى بالعمل على إبعاد مؤسسات التعليم العالي عن الصراعات السياسية التي تؤثر على رسالتها التعليمية وعلى مستقبل الطلبة من أجل الارتقاء بالتعليم العالي والبحث العلمي، ودعوة المنظمة العربية للتربية والثقافة والعلوم ( أليكسو ) إلى وضع برنامج حوكمة مؤسسات التعليم العالي والبحث العلمي في الوطن العربي وذلك بالتعاون مع المنظمات الإقليمية والدولية و مؤسسات التمويل، ووضع آلية للتنسيق بين المؤسسات و الهيئات الوطنية المسؤولة عن البحث العلمي في الوطن العربي  …more …

 Mastery vs. mystery (!)  Triad of ---- … E & HE in AW …

educationarabicizationtranslation

So, answers please … E & HE in AW

Where is it? What is it? IICLL2015 … translation …

…translation does not happen in a vacuum, but in a continuum; it is not an isolated act, it is part of an ongoing process of intercultural transfer. Moreover, translation is a highly manipulative activity that involves all kinds of stages in the process of transfer across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Translation is not an innocent, transparent activity but is highly charged with signification at every stage; it rarely, if ever, involves a relationship of equality between texts, authors or systems. Bassnett & Trivedi (1999: 2) … translation …

[Translation] wields enormous power in constructing representations of foreign cultures. The selection of foreign texts and the development translation strategies can establish peculiarly domestic cannons for foreign literatures, cannons that conform to domestic aesthetic values and therefore reveal exclusions and admissions, centres and peripheries that deviate from those current in the foreign language. Venuti, 1998)

Appeals to the past are among the commonest of strategies in interpretations of the present. What animates such appeals is not only disagreement about what happened in the past and what the past was, but uncertainty about whether the past really is past, over and concluded, or whether it continues, albeit in different forms, perhaps. This problem animates all sorts of discussions - about influence, about blame and judgement, about present actualities and future priorities. (Edward Said, 1993) … 1 …

I wanted... to translate a volume of contemporary Syrian literature. I... thought the work of ‘Abd al-Salam al-‘Ujaili was very good and well worth putting into English. ‘Ujaili is a doctor in his seventies who has written poetry, criticism, novels and short stories. In particular his short stories are outstanding. Many are located in the Euphrates valley and depict the tensions of individuals coping with politicisation and the omnipotent state..... I proposed to my British publisher a volume of ‘Ujaili’s short stories. The editor said, “There are three things wrong with the idea. He’s male. He’s old and he writes short stories. Can you find a young female novelist?” Well, I looked into women’s literature and did translate a novel by a woman writer even though she was and is in her eighties. (Peter Clark, 1997)... 2 …

That Women of Sand and Myrrh was written specifically for English-speaking audiences is clear in the opening chapter. References specific to Western culture which would be unfamiliar to Arabs go unexplained, whereas references to customs or practices specific to Arab contexts are consistently accompanied by explanations. … “Barbie dolls and Snoopies and Woodstocks” would not be recognized by most in the Arab world, and yet are left without explanation. (Dallal, 1998) … 3 …

… 4 … Büchler & Guthrie (2011) -for UK and Ireland.

XY betwixt & between animated/controlled/guided … by Master Discourses Spaces

 Calls for cultural plurality may create uniformitarian biases.  The “holy” mating of self and other (to be global) often seems to touch on fantasy.  Cultures come to terms with their “others” through master discourses that are primarily “monocultural” within which “others” need to fit to belong … … SO #1…

An understanding of the issues of  identity (self and other),  representation enterprise (patronage, agencies, mediation), and  the master discourse. … SO #2…

Local -----vs----- global Soft knowledge economy Knowledge society Civic society HOW? … Perhaps... glocal – wishful thinking  … not really sure, are you? … SO #3…

... Difficult … it is a matter of … … why …