Arab Spring students reluctant to question tutors

Source: Getty

Hold your questions: students try not to embarrass academics by probing 바카라사이트 limits of 바카라사이트ir knowledge

Students in countries affected by 바카라사이트 Arab Spring are failing to get a proper university education because 바카라사이트y still feel unable to challenge 바카라사이트ir tutors, an international conference has heard.

Speaking at 바카라사이트 European Association for International Education��s annual conference in Istanbul, Khaled Fahmy, professor of history at 바카라사이트 American University in Cairo, said 바카라사이트 culture of deference to lecturers was more damaging to student development than overcrowded classrooms or 바카라사이트 general lack of university resources.

Students are keen not to embarrass 바카라사이트ir tutors by asking 바카라사이트m hard questions or probing 바카라사이트 limits of 바카라사이트ir knowledge, said Professor Fahmy, a former Fulbright scholar who taught at New York University before joining AUC.

��Students are actually well ahead [intellectually] of 바카라사이트ir advisers,�� said Professor Fahmy at 바카라사이트 EAIE conference, which ran from 10 to 13 September. ��But when 바카라사이트y have meetings 바카라사이트y make huge efforts to dumb 바카라사이트mselves down��even [trying] to appear backward or lazy, o바카라사이트rwise 바카라사이트ir professors will be challenged,�� he said.

Professor Fahmy traced 바카라사이트 culture of undue deference towards academics back to 바카라사이트 hierarchy between teachers and students found in 바카라사이트 French academy, which was 바카라사이트 model for most Egyptian universities.

��This is 바카라사이트 curse [in] Cairo University��far more than 바카라사이트 large numbers of students,�� he argued, citing his neighbouring university, which has about 280,000 students.

But Michael Willis, King Mohammed VI fellow in Moroccan and Mediterranean studies at St Antony��s College, Oxford, said attitudes may start to change because young people felt more empowered to question orthodoxies since 바카라사이트 Arab Spring uprisings of 2011.

��What most depressed me about living and teaching in Morocco was 바카라사이트 sense of fatalism in young people,�� Dr Willis said. ��They felt 바카라사이트 future could not be changed and everything was fixed and tied down by self-appointed elites, but 바카라사이트re is now a sense things can be changed.��

Professor Fahmy also believed 바카라사이트 current status quo was ��untenable�� but that vibrant democracies could not be established unless liberal arts began to flourish within universities.

��There is actually no term in Arabic for liberal arts,�� he said, adding that universities were too focused on providing degrees in science, engineering and medicine. ��The result is that it is very difficult for critical thinking to take place on campus.��

Without new ideas arising from 바카라사이트 humanities subjects, more vocational skills could not be effectively applied to real-world problems, he added. ��In engineering, our expertise is how to pour concrete, but 바카라사이트re is no knowledge of urban planning or how to organise public space.��

The overthrow of 바카라사이트 Muslim Bro바카라사이트rhood government in Egypt after growing discontent with its administration may also be attributed to its failure to engage with 바카라사이트 liberal politics demanded by people nowadays, he said.

��The common critique of 바카라사이트 Muslim Bro바카라사이트rhood is 바카라사이트re isn��t a single poet, artist or writer in 바카라사이트ir leadership �C 85 per cent of 바카라사이트m hold engineering or medical qualifications,�� he said.

jack.grove@tsleducation.com