Professor Dato’ Dr Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid
INTI University College, Malaysia

Making Sense of a Life with Language[s], Culture and Literature in a Globalised Age of Unreason:  Fathoming the Imagination and Futures Perspectives of the Noble Savages and the Digital Natives

The paper revisits the idea of how the complex web of culture, literature , language[s] and media, mirrors the multidimensional aspects of Life, and how Life itself provides the substance and content for the various forms of human expressions and communication. Within the context of constructed realities, the paper critically discusses the anatomy of sociological facts, and, cultural, as well as individual fiction transmitted to societal members. The metaphor of the learning, education and socialization of the Noble Savage and Digital Native [as the anthropological ‘other’] is used to examine the life of intellect, imagination and arrival of meanings, reconstructed by Man within particular societies across/through the epochs of human history. A Framework of Knowledge which encompasses Revealed Knowledge, Empirical Knowledge, Forbidden Knowledge and Imaginative Knowledge applied and managed by Man in creative and innovative ways in the March of civilization is presented. The way in which the contents of the Knowledge are disseminated through formal, non formal and informal learning within specific contexts and time span, in mainstream and subcultures is analysed. The paper essentially questions how individuals know what they know, and, not know what they do not know as they journey through life with the tools of a particular language [or with several languages] in any particular culture. In the context of Globalization, Liberalization and Internationalization, the paper also raises the question as to whose languages, literatures, cultures, an individual is to learn and own, and, how such decisions affect behaviours and identities. The roles of international and national languages in the education of a person are critically analyzed in terms of individual, family and societal identities, in the context of the overt and covert agenda of linguistic and ethic communities. The paper then explores human potentialities and societal decision-making regarding the content and procedural knowledge worth knowing, and, the tools as well as strategies used to transmit such knowledge to individuals and communities. In conclusion, the paper proposes how individuals can enhance personal development optimally by designing a personalized, customized, and individualized curriculum of lifelong, life wide and perpetual learning as  "a way of being,"  through mindfully and consciously mastering languages, cultures, and relevant knowledge of the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences.

Biodata

Professor Dato’ Dr. Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid is Deputy President / Deputy Vice Chancellor INTI-UC Laureate International Universities and Professor of Management, Education and the Social Sciences. Dr. Ibrahim is the First Director of the Regional Center for Educational Planning (UNESCO-RCEP), Al Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.  Dr. Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid was Professor of Management, Leadership and Policy Studies and the Founding Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at University Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) for seven years before taking the post of Director, RCEP.  He is the former Director of Institut Aminuddin Baki (IAB) - The National Institute of Educational Management and Leadership.  He was a member of the Task Force that established Institute Aminuddin Baki in 1979.  For more than two and a half decades he has been the key figure in the Field of Educational Management and Leadership in Malaysia. He is Editor and Editorial Advisor for several educational journals, locally and internationally.  He has presented keynote addresses at various national and international conferences in Malaysia and abroad.   Dr. Ibrahim Bajunid exercises many leadership roles and has provided services as consultant in policy-making governmental Committees, private sector and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).  He was President of the Senior Educators’ Association, Fellow of the Council of Education Management in Commonwealth Countries, Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, Fellow Emeritus of the National Institute of Educational Management and Leadership (IAB), Fellow of the National Research Institute on Youth, Senior Fellow of the Malaysian Social Institute, Consultant Fellow of the International Institute of Educational Planning (IIEP). Member of the Advisory Board of Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change (APCLC), Hong Kong Institute of Education, and, Honorary Life Member of the Malaysian Association for Music Education (MAME). He was actively involved as a Trade Union leader and is currently leading professional associations, including, as President of the Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management (MIHRM), Malaysian Association for Education (MAE), and, the Malaysian Educational Management and Leadership Association, and Board Member and President Elect of the Asia–Pacific Educational Research Association (APERA). He has been a consultant in Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Botswana, and Cambodia and had the opportunity of contributing in the activities of UNESCO, UNDP, ASEAN Council of Teachers (ACT), and Education International (EI).  He was a regular columnist in the New Straits/Sunday Times with a weekly column every Sunday, entitled, “As I Wonder”.  He was the National Advisor/Consultant for Asia–Europe Initiative on Lifelong Learning   in Malaysia, and, is currently engaged in several research projects and is supervising several Masters and Doctoral scholars. Dr. Ibrahim is in the Academic Advisory Boards in several national universities. He has written over five hundred articles and academic papers covering significant issues in national development relating to education, social and intellectual capital  creation, the strengthening of families and communities, and the enhancement of human potentialities. He has been a Panelist in many public media fora discussing issues on education, human resources development, and societal change.

His latest publication is Bajunid, I. A (2008) (ed.). Malaysia - From Traditional to Smart Schools - The Malaysian Educational Odyssey. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford Fajar Sdn. Bhd. Dr. Ibrahim Bajunid has also been recognized by the Malaysian Historical Society and the Malaysian Library Association for his contributions to the promotion of historical literacy and knowledge culture respectively. He has been recognized for contributions to the Teachers Trade Union Movement by the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP), as well as by the Malaysian Association of Music Educators (MAME) for his support of their works. He is Member of the National Committee on the Study, Review and Reform of Higher Education in Malaysia. He is Adjunct/Visiting Professor at several universities. He has exercised several key roles pertaining to the National Quality Agenda in Education in the Educational Quality Journey over the last two and a half decades particularly in initiating Training  Programmes, in Quality Control Circles, Quality Control, Quality Assurance, and in Total Quality Management in Education. He has been involved in the National Accreditation Board and Malaysian Qualifications Agency Processes both as practitioner and as member of the wider policy making community [in the education bureaucracy, in private sector education leadership and as contributor from the Non Governmental Organization Stakeholder – the Professional Association Sector]

Associate Professor Dr. Michelle M. Lazar
National University of Singapore

Abstract

Gender and Power: Challenges to Critique in Late Modernity

Since the 1990s, scholars have argued for the importance of Critical Language Awareness (CLA) in language pedagogy (Fairclough 1992).  Drawing impetus from studies in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), CLA with its conscious attention given to the social aspects of language use, and especially relationships between language and power, is considered to play a significant role in enabling learners to participate effectively in democratic citizenship within and beyond the classroom. 

Biodata

Michelle M. Lazar is Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Academic Convenor of the Gender Studies Minor Programme at the National University of Singapore. She researches and teaches in the areas of critical discourse analysis, feminist and gender studies, media and political discourse, and multimodal discourse analysis. She has published numerous journal articles and book chapters in these areas, and is the editor of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, Power and Ideology in Discourse (Palgrave 2005/2007).  She currently serves on the editorial boards of seven international journals. 

Web Link

Weblink: http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/ellmml/

Associate Professor Dr Kirpal Singh
Singapore Management University

Negotiating Conflict: The Role of Literature in Plural Nations.

9/11 changed the world. It changed the way we look at each other. From that date began a new sense of anxiety, worry and suspicion. Having travelled extensively since I am convinced that 9/11 marks a paradigm shift in the way/s we relate to each other. And this is critical for all of us. But it is especially crucial for those of us who live in proximity to others with different faiths and therefore very different perspectives on life and its values. I believe that if we do not handle this difference sensitively we will see the beginning of a conflict worldwide which might prove catastrophic and perhaps even apocalyptic.
I believe LITERATURE provides a very valuable platform for us to educate ourselves in terms of handling this potential conflict. I am convinced that if we pay heed to what writers tell us we might still be able to realise some measure of understanding across religious cultures. But we need to be honest and open. We need all mature individuals to be on board. The end, as I see it, if we do not negotiate carefully around this vast potential conflict, is literally very near. It IS now or never.

Biodata

Dr Kirpal Singh is currently the director of the Wee Kim Wee Centre at the singapore Management University, where he has been since its inception in 2000. Prior to being invited to join the founding faculty of this exciting new university, Kirpal taught, for many years, at the NUS(National University of Singapore) and at the NTU(Nanyang Technological University). Kirpal is an internationally known writer and scholar and has been invited to give Keynotes at some of the world's best universities, including Yale, Columbia, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, Georgetown, College of William & Mary, UPenn, NYU, Warwick, Barcelona, Bonn, Muenster, UCLA, Madrid, Sydney, Melbourne, Delhi. In recent years Kirpal has become internationally recognised as a Creativity guru(follwing the very successful publication of his book THINKING HATS & COLOURED TURBANS: Creativity Across Cultures, 2004)as well as a futurist, having governments and MNCs invite him to share his visions of the future with them. He is now completing a book on Leadership.