Fulbright Scholars

Aslam Fataar, South Africa

I am a professor the Faculty of Education, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. I taught Social Studies for a number of years at a high school in Cape Town. I have been a university teacher since 1995. I completed my doctoral thesis in 1999 on Education Policy Development in South Africa, and published articles on this topic, and on aspects of South African educational history, identity and schooling cultures.

I am on a Fulbright researcher programme in the College from Sept  2005 through to June 2006.  I am working on a project entitled, Educational Policy Renovation in an Urban Geographic Context.

The project focuses on the complex unfolding of policy reform initiatives when they are 're-worked', 're-interpreted', or 're-novated' in actual schooling processes.  These renovations should be understood in the light of the contingent sociological make - up, and the global - local conjunctures and disjunctures that are operating in the context of my study. The project employs the notion, 'social construction of space,' to analyse the subjectivizing processes embedded in schooling processes, whether at the level of individual schools, of teachers, or at the broader systemic level.

During my stay at the University of Illinois I will be writing papers on this topic.  I will also be writing on the following aspects: 1) Governmental Power and School Curriculum Policy and Politics; 2) The Political Discourses of Muslim Teachers in Apartheid Cape Town between 1950-1990; and 3) The Politics of Human Capital Development discourses in Education Policy Reform in a South African Province.

Muhammad Sirozi, Indonesia

Muhammad Sirozi is a Professor of educational studies and Director of Graduate Program at the National Institute for Islamic Studies in Palembang, Indonesia. In 1987, he received his B.A. honors in educational studies from Faculty of Education of the same institute. In 1992 he received his M.A. from Department of Social Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. In 1998, Muhammad Sirozi received his Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies from Faculty of Education, Monash University in Australia. His research interests include the politics of education, international education, Islamic education, and educational management.

Muhammad Sirozi is active in some national and international academic institutions. He is the founder of the Center for Islamic Education Review (CIER), member of the Academic Advisory Board of Mayor in Palembang, member of the Academic Advisory Board of Istanbul Foundation for Science and Culture, co-founder and Director of Serumpun Foundation, a Community-based Education Network, and Chairman of the Coordinating Committee for Integrated Madrasah in South Sumatera, Indonesia. He is a member of Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) in Virginia, USA; an international Affiliation of American Educational Research Association (AERA), Washington D.C. USA.; and a member of Indonesian Association for Scholars of Educational Management. From February to August 2003, Muhammad Sirozi was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at MacDonald Center for the Study of Christian-Muslim Relations, Hartford Seminary, Connecticut; from September 2003 to February 2004, he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the Center for International Studies, Ohio University; and From September 2005 to September 2006, Muhammad Sirozi is selected as a member of Fulbright New Century Scholars (NCS) program for research on "Higher Education in the 21st Century: Global Challenge and National Response." As part of his involvement in this program, Muhammad Sirozi is visiting College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for three months (September to November 2005), working with Professor Fazal Rizvi in the Center for Global Studies in Education to refine his research proposal and develop more familiarity with recent globalization and internationalization theories.

Abstract of NCS Research

The topic of Sirozi’s NCS research is Internationalization of Islamic Higher Education in Southeast Asia: A Comparative Study between NIU in Jakarta and IIUM in Kuala Lumpur

This research aims to provide a comparative and critical reflection on and analysis of the dynamics of internationalization in Islamic higher education institutions in Southeast Asia with particular reference to National Islamic University (NIU) in Jakarta, Indonesia and International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in Kuala Lumpur. It is designed to contribute to the development of a conceptual framework for developing more flexible and acceptable approaches to analyze issues and concerns that effect the internationalization of higher education institutions in different parts of the world and various cultural settings. 

The research focuses on the rationales, paradigms, approaches, strategies, and implications of internationalization in the two Islamic universities. The participants of this research are key figures directly and actively involved in internationalization programs. They are the "elites" who occupy the top ranks management at the two universities and in the offices of higher education authorities in Indonesia and Malaysia whom will be identified and selected based on three main criteria: their leadership positions, their activities, and their views. This research is an attempt to understand internationalization from their viewpoints: how they view their circumstances in internationalization processes, how they interact, and how they create, modify, and implement internationalization, to capture what they say and do as a product of how they interpret the complexity of internationalization. It provides a qualitative explanation and understanding of how internationalization processes change NIU and IIUM and what is unique and particular about internationalization at the two Islamic universities.

This research relies heavily upon qualitative data obtained from interviews, observations, and documents, including raw, empirical, detailed and in-depth qualitative descriptions of the participants' views of internationalization. All relevant data will be analyzed and conveyed through words or images, following "a circular process": describing, classifying, and interconnecting with special attention on the dynamics of the process of formulating and implementing internationalization programs at UIN and UIA, the situations that affect the processes, and the meaning of participants' insights and understandings of internationalization.

Selected Publications in English

• "The Intellectual Roots of Islamic Radicalism in Indonesia," The Muslim World (2005);
• "Perspectives on Radical Islamic Education in Contemporary Indonesia," in Ron Geave et al 2005. Islam and the West Post 9/11.
• "Secular-Religious Debates on the Indonesian National Education System: colonial legacy and a search for national identity in education," Intercultural Education (2004)
• "Blood or Money? Ethnicity now plays a role in local politics in South Sumatra but money still rules," Inside Indonesia (2004).
• "Understanding Muslim Internal Conflicts," in The Risae-I Nur's Approach (2004).
• “Indonesian Responses to September 11, 2001,” Ihya Ulumuddin (2003).