Hannah Smith

Barriers for Moral Development in Value Based Education

Moral decline both within and outside the Muslim community is a concern to both Muslims and non-Muslims living in the UK. Observations of contemporary Muslim lifestyles including observance of Islamic belief, praxis and criminality suggest that the character and morality of many contemporary Muslims does not match the traditional expectations of Muslims and that successive generations of Muslims living in the UK are becoming increasingly less religious. Such moral decline and its negative impacts for society has led Muslims as well as secular policy makers to introduce different forms of formal “character education” and “values-based” educational initiatives in British state-secular and Islamic-faith schools respectively. A horizontally-broad and vertically-deep interdisciplinary literature review offers potential evidence that underlying factors contributing to current and increasing trends of moral and spiritual disease mirror those anecdotally put forward by concerned Muslim social commentators and parents including: pressure from media, advertising and school peers to adopt un-Islamic lifestyles; family breakdown; economic pressures upon families; early childcare; nutrition; leisure and entertainment; political-economy; and dominant cultural values. The effectiveness of school-based character curriculums is questioned in light of the external societal barriers to moral development and even more crucially an attempt is made to explore whether British Muslims are able to fully realise good character and spiritual perfection in light of prevailing lifestyle choices and current socio-cultural-political-economic realities.

 

Ali Azam

Metaphysics and Character Education; Towards a New Model Based on Primordial Morality 

In the 21st century the world has been embraced by most as a global community. Although humanism has had a long journey, many people would think that perhaps the 1948 declaration of human rights has been the best contribution that can promote equality, fairness and human dignity, and they would consider liberal democracy to be the best system. The above claims are made regardless of the disparity and economic divide which is continuing to grow in the world. More than two thirds of the world’s population suffers from poverty and illiteracy.  Whether in theocracy, dictatorship, democracy or any other governmental systems, the unprivileged are neither treated with fairness nor dignity.

Retrospectively, Humanism has made a long journey. In this great journey we have had great thinkers like Socrates, Plato and in particular, Aristotle, with his theory of virtue ethics, who have taught us novel ideas about how to enrich humanism. Further modern contributions include Kant, in particular, with his Deontic Ethics. But man have evidently moved on from the ideals provided by such ethical theories: perhaps he conceives of himself as evolved. Many other ethical theories have been produced since the time of those thinkers including utilitarianism and consequentialism. Such moral theories were developed in the wake of intellectual ideas such scientism, enlightenment, romanticism, evolutionism and existentialism. As a result we witnessed the emergence of radical literalist religious interpretations, militant secularist humanism and various forms of rampant relativism. The question is what we should do as decent human beings with regards to the state of the world at present. Can and should we all live together? Is the coexistence of all such extreme polarities possible, and if so, would it be desirable? My aim in this paper is to try to provide some answers to the above questions. I approach these questions from a particular point of view which I call a non relative primordial morality and non relative humanism. This approach heavily relies on Aristotle's virtue ethics. The upshot of the arguments of my dissertation is that to make the present world a better place for all, we need to instil an appreciation of moral virtues in all individuals specifically children. 

پرسش‌ و پاسخ

 در انتهای پنل اول که با مدیریت دکتر عباسعلی شاملی برگزار شد، حاضرین سوالات خود را مطرح کردند و ارائه‌ دهندگان نیز به پاسخ‌گویی سؤالات پرداختند.

سرکار خانم علاسوند

Two Important Foundations for Religious Upbringing/Education for Coaching an Active Individual/Agent

Religious education is based on creating the psychological groundwork in the pupils. It appears that a major part of failures* are rooted in the lack of psychological foundation and using unsuitable methods for internalisation of religious values. The important question here is this: On the basis of which educational foundation in his or her life and which character trait can a human being lead a life based on his beliefs? The cultural world in our era is the world of numerous choices in which liberalism has imposed its foundational value, i.e. freedom, on human beings either explicitly and structurally* or implicitly. It can be said that people are not free in their search for freedom because they live their lives while [constantly] faced with the mammoth task of choosing from a plethora of choices.

The presence of a plurality of choices coupled with effective educational and psychological prejudgments based on individualism, perceived inappropriateness of the family intervention, and the lack of belief in such categories as good or bad prevents the transmission of ideas based on religious good* and happiness. Hence, it appears that for any religious and human education, we first need to create the foundation for religious and ethical education for which religious and ethical values will serve as the foundation of its edifice.

For this reason, we will explore two things which appear to be very important:

1.     Avoiding a life based on fun

2.     Focus on coaching/creating a person who has self-control.

 

حجت‌الاسلام والمسلمین دکتر رهنمایی

Moral Character Development; ‘Allama Tabatabaei’s Perspective

                                                                                                      

This study presents an analytical investigation of the role of moral development and human character in self-realization from the point of view of `Allama Tabataba’i a renowned Muslim philosopher, (from now on ‘Allama). The research toches upon an Islamic perception of self-realization represented by `Allama. The latter is seen as typical of Islamic Shi`i thinking. The intention in this study is to focus on moral development as a significant aspect of the human self, to rediscover and determine the wisdom behind self-realization from `Allama’s perspective.

The term “moral” is an adjective comparable to “ethical, virtuous, righteous, noble” that means “conforming to a standard of what is right and good”. Within the range of terms, “moral” is “the most comprehensive term ... in all of its pertinent senses it implies a relationship to character or conduct viewed as good or bad or as right or wrong.” The sense of human character and its conformity “to the accepted standard” is strongly implied in all features and applications of morality. This standard determines the rightness or goodness of human conduct. With this in the mind, I embark on my studies of morality in order to survey the extent to which one could place emphasis on its instrumentality for self-realization.

From ‘Allama’s perspective, morality is a crucial vehicle if it is not the most refined means of self-realization. In one respect, self-realization has to do with human conduct and implies a relationship to human moral character. In fact, self-realization is a twin process that on the one hand, deals with the theoretical or ideological accept of human life and, on the other, concerns moral practice and practical conduct. Morality may be the most direct and closest avenue to the actualization of the self. It will be pointed out that a concept such as self-actualization can be a subject matter of the moral and ethical domain or applicable therein. This study is to elaborate the essential elements and principles of moral character development in the way that could lead to self-realization. This conceptualization of morality and its relation to self-realization on its part could work as the closest way for moral character development.

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Mohammad Zakaria

Mohammad Zakaria

Locating and Implementing Values in Religious Education: The Place of Ethics & Morality in GCSE Religious Education Resources.

This article addresses Religious education in Britain and the significant changes which It has undergone, which have mirrored the changing religious landscape and nature of British society. Although the change has not been simultaneous it has been significant and meaningful, to the extent that all the major world faiths are represented in the teaching content within University based Religious Education Teacher Training qualification, the five main Examination boards and a broad range of resources for the study and teaching of Religious Education at the GCSE and GCE levels are now readily available. What is of further interest for contemporary British society is that increasing numbers of children of secondary school age (entered for GCSE Religious Education qualifications) per research data (Bullivant, 2015) are growing up in a society whose population increasingly describes themselves as non-religious or lacking a faith in a supreme deity. A figure of 48.6% identifies as having ‘No Religion’ referred to in the research as ‘Nones’, equating to 24.3 million people (Bullivant, 2015). With the increase of secularism within British society and a negation of deity in the public and private the spheres the role religion (established church) once played in defining and regulating values. Has been replaced by an ever increasing, socially relevant and confident secularism, which has successfully entered all aspects of contemporary post sacred faith British society. This article’s central focus is on locating the source of ‘values’, in Religious Education and the shape and form of the ethics and morality which emerge from it within a variety of Religious Education resources.

افتتاحیه‌ی همایش

بعد از قرائت قرآن کریم توسط قاری‌ نوجوان دبیر علمی همایش حجت الاسلام و المسلمین دکتر محمد جواد زارعان ضمن خوش آمدگویی به میهمانان، به معرفی موسسه آموزش عالی امام خمینی ره و همایش تعلمی و تربیت مبتنی بر ارزش‌ها پرداختند.

سخنران دوم جلسه، حجت الاسلام و المسلمین دکتر عیسی جهانگیر ریاست کالج لندن سخنان خود را درباره‌ی همایش ارائه نمودند. ایشان ضمن معرفی هدف همایش توضیح اجمالی درباره‌ی چکیده‌ی مقالات و سخنرانی‌هایی که قرار است در همایش ارائه شود پرداختند.

 

جدول زمان بندی همایش

برنامه های روز اول همایش تعلیم و تربیت مبتنی بر ارزشها (شنبه 22/2/97):

سخنران افتتاحیه: دکتر زارعان و دکتر جهانگیر

نشست علمی و ارائه مقاله توسط: دکتر رهنمایی، محمد زکریا (از انگلستان)، خانم علاسوند، علی اعظم (از انگلستان)، هانا اسمیت (از انگلستان)