Appel à communications : Panel “Islamic education in Africa : continuities, changes and contestations”, African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) biennial conference, University of Sussex, Brighton (Royaume-Uni), 09-11/2014 — LIMITE : 01/04/2014

We welcome participants for a panel titled /Islamic Education in Africa:
Continuities, Changes and Contestations /as part of the upcoming African
Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) biennial conferenceto be held at
the University of Sussex, Brighton UK, from the 9^th -11^th September,
2014.

For any queries about the panel please contact Anneke Newman at
a.newman(AT)sussex.ac.uk, but please use the ASAUK online system via
http://www.asauk.net/conferences/asauk14.shtmlto submit your 250 word
abstract. The deadline for abstracts is the 1st April 2014, submissions
will be considered shortly thereafter. Decisions about the exact day on
which the panel will be held will not be made by conference organisers
until after abstracts are submitted; we apologise for any inconvenience
this might cause. 15 minute presentations should be supported by a 3000
word paper, to be circulated to convenors, discussant and other
participants by the 15^th August 2015. The language of the conference is
English.

Please find the detailed panel description below.

We hope to hear from you soon,

Anneke Newman (University of Sussex) and Hannah Hoechner (University of
Oxford)

Panel 3988 – Islamic Education in Africa: Continuities, Changes and  Contestations

Contemporary African societies are characterised by plural educational
landscapes, with a variety of actors alongside the state providing
schooling services and scholarships. Education has been the site of
competing powers where players reflecting different world views have
confronted each other. In countries with significant Muslim populations,
this dynamic is reflected in a diverse landscape of educational
institutions, spanning both formal and informal schools, private as well
as public actors, and varying degrees of integration between religious
and secular subjects.

For much of the last century this educational context has been
characterised by mutual antagonism, with Islamic schools often created
in an act of explicit opposition to colonial and postcolonial government
education policy, and enjoying popularity among families who perceive
inadequacies in the secular state school system. In turn, indigenous
Islamic reformers have sought to adapt older models of Quranic schools
by introducing Western pedagogies and subjects into religious education.

Furthermore, facing international donor pressure to meet ‘Education For
All’ goals, in the last decade some Sahelian countries have begun
ambitious state policies of educational reform including unprecedented
rapprochement with the Islamic school sector. Similarly, faith-based
organisations from the Arab world and Western international development
actors have also begun to engage with the Islamic school sector for
various ends. Under these circumstances, diverse models of Islamic
education have emerged, at times in competition with each another as
well as with state schooling.

Yet, despite the importance of Islamic education in people’s everyday
lives, and its influence on the social, political and cultural landscape
of contemporary Africa, it has suffered relative scholarly neglect. To
address this deficit, participants are invited to share original
research on this topic. Disciplinary approaches could include, but are
by no means limited to: political economy; history; literature, film and
media studies; anthropology and sociology; international development and
area studies; comparative and international education. Presenters are
invited to consider the relevance of their scholarship to wider current
academic debates such as engagement with faith in international
development; the implications of globalising forces including migration
and new media on education; the intersections between axes of social
difference like gender, with knowledge and authority; links (genuine or
perceived) between Islamic education and Islamist radicalisation; the
power struggles which arise when contrasting pedagogies and cosmologies
collide; and the methodological challenges of researching such processes.

Convenors:

Anneke Newman (University of Sussex)
Hannah Hoechner (University of Oxford)