Abstracts of Keynote Talks & Paper Session

Keynote Talks

Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Knowledge

By

Sondra Hale, Research Professor

 University of California, Los Angeles

ABSTRACT        

In this paper I discuss (1) forms and sources of knowledge, especially unrecognized forms of knowledge, subversive  knowledge, subjugated knowledge, and knowledge as resistance; (2) the ways in which we can innovate with that knowledge; and (3) the ways in which we can transmit that knowledge, i.e., referring to pedagogy—how we teach.  By “critical pedagogy,” we refer to a method for figuring out how to bring the specific context to life.  I argue, like Paulo Freire, that pedagogy is a form of resistance and insurrection, and a generator, not only a purveyor, of knowledge.  Because much knowledge comes from within, the task of the teacher, the mentor, and the community activist is to facilitate that process of bringing knowledge to the surface and then putting that knowledge into action. 

            We can transmit knowledge in very diverse ways:  for example, through our technologies, our arts, media, and culture, through hermeneutics (interpretation of texts), academic writings, propaganda, modelling, silence and body language and other unspoken messages.  We most conventionally think of the transmission of knowledge as a process of teacher-to-student.  However, pedagogy is not only a linear way in which we pass on knowledge, or receive it.  Something can happen to the knowledge in the process of the transmission; innovation can occur, and thus, changing knowledge in the process.  Therefore, we have to consider the ways in which we change not only the listener/viewer/student, but ourselves in the process because of what the listener/viewer/student might be giving back, but also because the context might be changing. 

Pedagogy, Technology and Culture - Using Service Learning and Appropriate Technologies for Capacity Building*

By

John Tharakan

Department of Chemical Engineering, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

ABSTRACT

                        Pedagogies underpinned by service and experiential learning (SL), and incorporating appropriate technologies for community development, lend themselves to incorporation into engineering curricula to be made part of regular degree programs. This provides a mechanism to grow and expand human capital that can enhance capabilities and leverage engineering education for capacity building. SL involves students in course based service activities that combine service efforts with academic experience. Students can be provided the opportunity to reflect on the service, formalizing the service learning.  It appears that the lack of engagement of educational curricula and institutions by governments, especially and most particularly in developing countries, to leverage national and private educational efforts to enhance capacity building activities has had unfortunate consequences, resulting in brain drain, underdevelopment and reduction in sustainable development capacity.  Pedagogies based on service can build capacity in rural communities, as the Engineers Without Borders Chapter of Howard University has demonstrated with the Choimim community in the Nandi Hills of northwestern Kenya. The service project focused on providing sufficient and clean water to the community, while also building community capacity to expand appropriate technologies for water sourcing and treatment.  Such projects can be implemented within the framework of SL courses focused on water resources, storage, treatments and conservation technologies. The presentation will argue for integration of community-based SL courses into engineering curricula, showing how this has built capacity in a poor developing community. We suggest broad implementation of such a model across engineering programs in developing countries can lead to substantial increases in capacity building capabilities.

*An earlier version of this paper was originally presented at:

International Engineering and Technology Education Conference, 2013 (IETEC 2013)

Ho Chi Minh City, November 3 – 6, 2013, and published in the Proceedings of IETEC 2013

Education, innovation and development in Sudan

By

Mohamed El Amin Ahmed El Tom

Garden City College for Science & Technology, Khartoum, Sudan

ABSTRACT

Education plays a key role in the development of individuals and society. Sudan’s educational system is characterized by low access rates, significant regional and urban-rural disparities in educational provision and poor quality. The implied challenges cannot be addressed effectively using traditional approaches. Two innovative models that address similar challenges are presented.

Sudanese Medicine: An Alternative Educational Model

By

Professor Ahmad Al Safi

Sudan Medical Heritage Foundation, Khartoum, Sudan

ABSTRACT

Medical education in Sudan is passing through several and profound changes that weakened patient care, disturbed public trust, and downgraded the country’s reputation. The educational institutions have increased in number in an unprecedented rate, and the number of biomedical students increased proportionately. Physicians emigrated in large numbers, and those who stayed behind drifted to the private sector. Institutions lost teachers, trainers, and mentors. The generation gap widened. The demography of students changed and so were the ways of acquiring and exchanging knowledge.

National expenditure on medical services, medical research, teaching and training is the lowest in the world. The network of medical services, preventive medicine, environmental and community health almost collapsed. The public grew more informed of their right to health; they demanded better care, and litigations increased.

Paradoxically, the system of medical education is still callous to these changes, and is not relating medical practice to its historical beginnings or social realities. Biomedicine is enhanced by gaining knowledge of the social history of its ideas. Without belittling the importance of acquiring ample amount of biomedical knowledge, the model takes students into a different path. Students are provided with new material that helps them develop deeper insight of the community they live in, and stimulate them to develop critical awareness of indigenous knowledge.  They are encouraged to appreciate the riches of their indigenous (traditional) medical knowledge, and be open-minded and tolerant to the non-conventional medical systems. There is a lot to learn from the local heritage and the heritage of other nations if scrutinized rationally, objectively, and critically, and if the objective is to look for what is useful and appropriate.

This model hopes that medical curricula would be liberated from subordination to the systems that look down upon indigenous knowledge. To realize these goals, medical institutions are asked to open up dialogue with the social sciences that study people in their communities in health and disease. We need physicians who are culturally and socially competent, physician-philosophers who rise above the obsolete medical approaches, and who are capable of dealing with cosmic issues in illness and who relate patients to their cosmos.

The model stresses that physicians should be more sensitive to the syndrome of backwardness (disease, poverty, and ignorance), and aware of its political, social and economic implications. This model asks physicians to appreciate the fact that the conditions they and their patients live in are not inevitable and unavoidable. On the contrary, these conditions are destined to change and to the better, and physicians are capable of achieving this if they liberate themselves from bookishness and if they work in and with the communities they serve. To change these communities, physicians need to know these communities first.

We expounded this theme over the last forty years in different platforms and through different initiatives. We established Traditional Medicine Research Institute in 1981 and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Research in Traditional Medicine in 1984. We founded the Sudan Medical Heritage Foundation in 2005, and currently laying down the foundation of a Medical Archive and Documentation Centre. We contributed to the documentation of the Sudanese indigenous medical knowledge by publishing three seminal books: Native Medicine in Sudan, sources, concepts and methods (1970), Traditional Sudanese Medicine (1999), and Al Hakeem (2013). We wrote two prima fasciae in 1985. One asked universities to introduce medical anthropology as a discipline in Sudan, and the second requested the state to establish a national museum of health. And our published series on the lives and legacies of the notable Sudanese medical pioneers is building up steadily.

The impact of these initiatives and those of other workers, on the medical profession is evident. The fight for introducing indigenous medical knowledge to the academia as a field worthy of study is gradually gaining grounds. The Sudan Medical Council has defied all biomedical traditions and established Non-Conventional Medicine Directorate with a mandate to oversee the fields of traditional and alternative medicines. Ahfad University for Women is establishing the first department of Medical Anthropology in Sudan. More candidates are enrolling in MSc and PhD programmes in Medical Anthropology. Students and graduates of medicine and social sciences are visiting indigenous knowledge more than ever. Traditional Medicine Research Institute and Sudan Medical Heritage Foundation have started nuclei of museums of Sudanese medicine and health. Medical schools and specialist medical societies are taking studies in history of medicine and indigenous knowledge more seriously. They started to talk more about the milestones of their specialties.

To conclude, in this model, we do not assume that indigenous medical knowledge is superior to biomedicine, neither biomedicine superior to traditional knowledge. Instead, we believe that both systems have strengths that can help each other when they are invited to work together.

It has been said: “If we open a quarrel between the past and the present we shall find that we have lost the future.” I think we have enough quarrels, indeed, wars. We shouldn’t ask for more.

Mini-Sudan – a project for multiculturalism

By

Dr. Osman Elkeir

NewTech Consulting

ABSTRACT

There is a shear need for educating Sudanese about historic, geographic and cultural facts of their land, of arousing a sense of belonging and demonstrating the possibility of co-existence.

With the help of a surveyor, two industrial designers, a sculptor and a painter, in addition to civil and electric engineers and architects, work is proceeding in building a 3D model of Sudan. Two things became crucial in the realization of this dream: Google Earth and Video Mapping and Projection.

On a plot of nearly two acres, and with a modest budget and simple means, a true representation of the terrain, as much as the scale permits, is molded in concrete and color. On this model the rich history of one of the most ancient civilizations on earth, the diversity of the cultural context and the natural setting will be revived. Visitors take a tour or may be seated within the model among screens and speakers for a thrilling edutainment experience. School kids return home with jigsaw puzzles of the model, interactive CDs and published illustrated material. It is also hoped that future expansions will incorporate a data centre for digitally networking universities and research institutions, and a mobile version of the model that will reach out to remote areas.

Not completely finished, the model is already attracting an interest among experts who contemplate using it for producing scenarios such as birds in the Sudan, epidemics, climate change and water harvesting.

Paper Session

An Educational Reform Model for Sudanese Universities: From Instructor to Facilitator

By

Dr. Adil Yousif

University of Science & Technology, Sudan

Garden City College for Science & Technology

The traditional pedagogical learning approaches at Sudanese universities emphasize the task of the lecturer or the instructor as the holder of knowledge.  The instructors are content experts; they stand in front of the classroom and deliver their knowledge in form of lectures. The students passively observe that knowledge. However, in most cases if the instructor tests the students understanding with a conceptual problem, the students will not answer the problem or at least they will struggle tremendously. In fact, in many cases students memorize the subject but do not understand the knowledge.

There is a need for a change in how students learn and how they gain knowledge, and accordingly in how lecturers conduct their classrooms. In this presentation we propose the use of facilitating learning model in which lecturers serve as facilitators of the learning process rather than classroom instructors. The facilitator model substitutes learning by telling with learning by questioning. The facilitator is process manager rather than content manager. His job is to facilitate and enable the process where the students in the classroom actively engage in the knowledge sharing and learning process. The facilitator constructs an environment so that learners are able to transform raw data and information into knowledge. The aim of this model is to develop student’s capabilities of creative and collaborative knowledge work.

The critical and the essential objectives of the use of this model are to develop a “knowledge-creating” environment for the students and to engage them into a culture devoted to life-long learning.

Paving the Road to Sustainable Innovation Life Cycle

By

Engineer Marwan Adam,

Research Student

Innovation stems from the needs, inspires by creativity and imagination and furnishes by art, economic, and science; but a few ideas from thousands will be transformed in to innovative products, services, approaches or processes the phenomena similar to funnel. In some environment the firm for a long time be stagnant and continue to tackle problems using the same old tools in dynamic environment failing to secure creative and vibrant workspace, while other although can develop creative environment but failed in the business validation and engineering transformation or to catch market opportunity. The presentation will discuss the sustainability of Innovation Life cycle; it examined how the problems and needs are carefully observed, studied, quantified and their requirement are captured, how to build creativity and imagination culture to fuel the hardest step in the innovation the creativity, how to hold a team and network that examine the business validity of the Ideas, product development and fulfilling market need all these in integrated Value (creation) Stream chain , how the collective memory or new creation knowledge organizational acquired and stimulate the new cycle, and at the end are all these area adopted strategically or not.

Here we propose a blending of Value Chain analysis for environment scanning, Innovation as Process, Knowledge Creation platform, and strategically adoption of innovation in order to ensure sustainable innovation environment

دراسة عن أثر النظام السياسي السائد علي اكتساب المعرفة - التعليم نموذجا

تقديم

د.منال خضر محمد عثمان

استاذ مساعد كلية الدراسات الاجتماعية والاقتصادية

قسم العلوم السياسية، جامعة بحري

      تهدف  هذه الدراسة للإشارة  لأهمية المناخ السياسي السائد في المجتمع وعلاقته بالمعرفة  واكتسابها وتطبيقها . متخذة من تأثر التعليم بالنظم السياسية السائدة  نموذجا مما يؤثر في بناء المجتمع  موضحة أن    بناء ﻤﺠﺘﻤﻊ ﻤﻌﺭﻓﺔ ﻴﺨﻀﻊ ﻟﻌﻭﺍﻤل ﺍﺠﺘﻤﺎﻋﻴﺔ ﻭﺜﻘﺎﻓﻴﺔ ﻭﺴﻴﺎﺴﻴﺔ ﻭﺘﺎﺭﻴﺨﻴﺔ ﺘﺴﻬﻡ ﺒﺘﻬﻴﺌﺔ ﺍﻷﺭﻀﻴﺔ  ﺍﻟﺼﺤﻴﺔ ﻟﺒﻨﺎﺀ مجتمع    ، ﻗﺎﺩﺭ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺇﻨﺘﺎﺝ ﺍﻟﻤﻌﺭﻓﺔ ﻭﺘﻭﻅﻴﻔﻬﺎ ﺒﻜﻔﺎﺀﺓ ﻋﺎﻟﻴﺔ  ، ﻟﺘﺤﻘﻴﻕ ﺍﻟﺘﻘﺩﻡ ﻭﺍﻻﺯﺩﻫﺎﺭ ﻟﻺﻨﺴﺎﻥ ﻓﻘﺩ ﺍﻋﺘﺒﺭﺕ ﺍﻟﻤﻌﺭﻓﺔ ﺍﻷﺩﺍﺓ  ﺍﻟﻜﻔﻴﻠﺔ ﺒﺤﺭﻜﺔ ﺍﻟﻌﻨﺼﺭ ﺍﻟﺒﺸﺭﻱ  ﻭ ، ﻟﺘﺤﻘﻴﻕ ﺃﻫﺩﺍﻓﻪ ﺍﻟﺘﻲ ﺘﺭﺘﻜﺯ ﺒﺎﻟﻀﺭﻭﺭﺓ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺤﺭﻴﺔ ﺍﻹﻨﺴﺎﻥ ، ﻭﺍﻟﺭﻓﻊ ﻤﻥ ﻤﻜﺎﻨﺘﻪ ﻭﻨﻘﻠﻪ ﻤﻥ ﻭﺍﻗﻊ ﺍﻟﺘﺨﻠﻑ ﺇﻟﻰ     ﺍﻟﺘﻘﺩﻡ المنشود.  ﻭﺒﺎﻟﺘﺎﻟﻲ ﻓﺎﻟﻤﻌﺭﻓﺔ ﺘﺴﻬﻡ ﻓﻲ  ﺘﺄﻫﻴل  ﺍﻷﻓﺭﺍﺩ ﻟﻠﻌﻴﺵ ﻓﻲ ﻤﺠﺘﻤﻊ ﺩﻴﻤﻘﺭﺍﻁﻲ،ويشكل مجال التربية والتعليم مجالاً حساساً وسيادياً للدول والمجتمعات كافة، ويعكس خصوصياتها من النواحي المرتبطة بالهوية كالّلغة والتاريخ والمعتقدات ومنظومات القيم،  إضافة إلى رؤاها وطموحاتها ومشاريعها في ما يخص موقعها ودورها في العالم.ويعتبر بلا شك التعليم هو البوابة الأساسية للولوج الي المعرفة وتنمية الابداع والابتكار بجانب عوامل أخري هامة لذلك، وفي الوقت الذي تنوء فيه البلدان والمجتمعات الفقيرة والضعيفة النمو تحت أعباء توفير التربية والتعليم ضمن الحدود الدنيا المقبولة، تعتبر الدول المتقدمة الاستثمار في التعليم استثماراً ذا طبيعة استراتيجية وشرطاً من شروط التنمية المستدامة على المستويين الاجتماعي والاقتصادي وتتنافس أنظمتها التعليمية على مستوى الفعالية والأداء كما على مستوى تطوير الرؤى التربوية وأهداف التعليم، توصلت الدراسة ﺇلي  ﺃﻥ ﻫﻨﺎﻙ ﺍﻟﻜﺜﻴﺭ ﻤﻥ ﺍﻷﻓﺭﺍﺩ ﻻ ﺍﻟﺫﻴﻥ   ﻴﺴﺘﻁﻴﻌﻭﻥ ﺍﻟﺤﺼﻭل ﻋﻠﻰ ﺍﻟﻤﻌﻠﻭﻤﺎﺕ ﻭﺍﻟﻤﻌﺎﺭﻑ ﺍﻟﺘﻲ ﺘﻠﺒﻲ ﺍﺤﺘﻴﺎﺠﺎﺘﻬﻡ ﺍﻹﻨﺴﺎﻨﻴﺔ ﻷﺴﺒﺎﺏ ﺴﻴﺎﺴﻴﺔ،  ﻭأن ﺍﻟﻤﺸﻜﻠﺔ   ﻟﻴست فقط ﻋﺩﻡ ﺘﻭﻓﺭ ﺍﻟﻤﻌﻠﻭﻤﺎﺕ ﺒل ﻋﺩﻡ ﺘﻭﻓﺭﻫﺎ ﺒﺎﻟﻁﺭﻴﻘﺔ ﺍﻟﺘﻲ ﻴﻤﻜﻥ ﺍﻻﺴﺘﻔﺎﺩﺓ ﻤﻨﻬﺎ. كذلك توصلت  لعدم تمكن بعض اصحاب المعارف من تقديمها بشكل مفيد للمجتمع نتيجة لعدم العدالة الاجتماعية في توزيع الوظائف الأساسية  في مجالات التعليم  والثقافة حسب الكفاءة    أوصت الدراسة  بأﻫﻤﻴﺔ ﺍﻟﺘﺄﻜﻴﺩ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺍﻟﺸﺭﻭﻁ ﺍﻟﺒﻴﺌﻴﺔ ﺍﻟﻤﻼﺌﻤﺔ ﻟﻠﻤﻌﺭﻓﺔ كقبول ﺍﻻﺨﺘﻼﻑ وعدم ، ﻏﻴﺎﺏ ﺍﻟﺤﺭﻴﺎﺕ  وحقوق ﺍﻹﻨﺴﺎﻥ، ﻭﻋﺩ ﻡ ﻏﻴﺎﺏ ﺍﻟﺩﻴﻤﻘﺭﺍﻁﻴﺔ ﻭﺍﻟﻤﺸﺎﺭﻜﺔ ﺍﻟﺴﻴﺎﺴﻴﺔ.وتكافؤ  فرص التعليم  والمعرفة والمشاركة للجميع. دون التقيد بمنح الفرص الؤثرة للموالين للأنظمة السياسية الحاكمة أو ايدولوجية النظام .

  

دور  شبكات التواصل الاجتماعي في تعزيز قيمة التكافل في السودان

تقديم

أ/ حمدي صلاح الدين

محاضر ومذيع وصحافي

         

التكافل موجود فى السودان فى صور متعددة ومنذ قديم الزمان . من امثلة التكافل تجد (النفير) حيث يتجمع الاهل والاصدقاء والجيران لانجاز عمل ما لشخص ما بدون مقابل مادى مثل (البناء – الحصاد - الزراعة – عواسة الابرى- وقراءة القران للمتوفى).من صور التكافل ايضا نجد المشاركة فى (بيت العرس) و(بيت البكاء)بالوجبات والمياه  والدعم المادى واستضافة الضيوف  و(الكشف)حيث يقوم المشاركون فى المناسبة بدفع مبلغ مادى كل حسب استطاعتة – لصاحب المناسبة.  ومن امثلة التكافل النسوية نجد (الصندوق) او (الختة) حيث تقوم مجموعة من  النساء بجمع مبلغ محدد من المال يذهب لاحداهن بصورة دورية. كل هذا التكافل كان ويظل موجودا فى نطاق الحى والاهل والاصدقاء والجيران ولكن بعد ظهور شبكات التواصل الاجتماعى فى المسرح السودانى امتدت رقعة التكافل عبر مجموعات العمل الطوعى التى استخدمت الانترنت لجمع عدد من المتطوعين لانجاز برامجها التكاملية فنجد  مجموعات مثل (صدقات – شارع الحوادث – تعليم بلاحدود ) استطاعت ان تخرج بالتكافل من كونه طقس يمارس (داخل الاحياء) الى طقس ممتد بلاحدود فى الخرطوم والولايات وخارج السودان فتجد نموذجا مثلا لوردية مجموعة شارع الحوادث يشترك فيها متطوعين اثنين جاءا لخدمة الاطفال الاول من (جبل الاولياء) اقصى جنوب الخرطوم والثانى من (الجيلى) اقصى شمال الخرطوم والمسافة بين المنطقتين تفوق ال120كيلو مترا .اذن مجموعات العمل الطوعى استطاعت تعزيز قيمة التكافل ونقلها   من محيط (الحى والاهل والجيران ) الى محيط (العالم)عبر شبكات التواصل الاجتماعى.