Pedagogy of Reconstruction – John Dewey and Malik Bennabi in Libya
Reem Ben Giaber (University College London)

Zoom Meeting
https://ucl.zoom.us/j/97365426365
Meeting ID: 973 6542 6365

Reem will present some parts of her ongoing part-time PhD research. In it, she uses pragmatist philosophy as both the lens through which to see the problem and the tool with which to explore the problem. The problem is Libya today – unstable, unpredictable and inchoate – what John Dewey would call an ‘indeterminate situation.’ She looks at education, specifically teachers’ thoughts and feelings about their profession, to help her problematize this “indeterminate situation.” Her research asks how do Libyan teachers conceptualise educational aims in an unsettled society? During this empirical inquiry on teachers’ articulation of aims, she found that she must also incorporate agency which she does by using sociologists Mustapha Emirbayer and Ann Mische’s (1998) seminal work on agency. With the data gathered through semi-structured interviews, Reem was able have a richer understanding of Libyan teacher agency and develop a typology of aims expressed by Libyan teachers. One of these aims, Tarbiatic Aims, which she defines as a pedagogy of continuous reconstruction, leads Reem to explore Algerian cultural critic Malik Bennabi (1905-1973) to see to where his critique of Muslim civilization and his project for its ‘renewal’ converges and diverges from a Deweyan pragmatist socio-cultural reconstruction.

Reem Ben Giaber is a part-time PhD candidate at the IOE, UCL. Before this, she taught English Language and Literature in inner London secondary schools for 12 years. As a Libyan-German, Reem foregrounds her positionality in a pragmatist enquiry into Libyan teachers’ articulation of aims in an unsettled society. Her interests include John Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy, qualitative research ethics and methods, Malik Bennabi and teacher development. Reem’s focus on socio-cultural transformation through pragmatist philosophy has also lead her to co-found two virtual education networks: SWANA Forum for Social Justice and EduLibya.