Jevdet Rexhepi, PhD | Private (original) (raw)
Uploads
Books by Jevdet Rexhepi, PhD
As national planners codify and enact the university, state, and market alliance—amid global hi... more As national planners codify and enact the university, state, and market alliance—amid global higher education trends towards internationalization, competition, and massification—debates on the efficacy of this merger have increased in recent years, clarifying a real or perceived significance. Bologna has been the conceptual vehicle within which many European nations have sought to reorient often disparate higher education sectors in order to forge the European Higher Education Area, a move replete with social, political, economic, and cultural significance. Yet, the extent to which Bologna has fomented qualitative policy change in developing post-communist nations like Albania remains ambiguous. Globalization and Higher Education in Albania explores how international educational trends mitigate higher education policy and practice in Albania, a nation which continues its complex and evolving transition from communism to a more open society. Based on archival research, original fieldwork, and supplementary interviews with subjects who in many cases work and live amidst Albania’s ongoing physical and psychosocial post-communist transformation, Jevdet Rexhepi clarifies how the interplay between global and local forces manifests in key sector policy documents and related frameworks and institutions, and he thoughtfully considers how higher education positions Albania on individual and collective levels to respond to the challenges and opportunities of globalization and the knowledge society.
Papers by Jevdet Rexhepi, PhD
The Wiley Handbook of Paulo Freire, 2019
Paulo Freire's insights on education continue to inform an array of practitioners and scholarship... more Paulo Freire's insights on education continue to inform an array of practitioners and scholarship. Yet, the field is bereft of study on the implications of Freire in the Middle East—a region of immense significance. This case study explores the relevance of Freire's pedagogy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (SA) in the context of education transformation central to SA's Vision 2030 social‐economic reform. The author uses an Islamic analytical lens (which helps further articulate an explanatory, practical, and normative Islamic critical theory) to explore Freire in the context of a sharia‐based society, using educational ideas drawn from the Muslim scholar, Al‐Ghazali, for comparative perspective. The contention is that a creative critical reading and targeted rendering of Freire's critical literacy pedagogy can enhance SA's education reform and help empower its most valuable natural resource: Saudi youth. The chapter has implications for policymakers and academics in the Middle East and beyond.
Foreign Military Studies Office, 2018
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY While Islam and Muslims remain the object of intense scrutiny post-9/11, por... more EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
While Islam and Muslims remain the object of intense scrutiny post-9/11, portrayals of the religion and its central concepts by non-Muslims (and Muslims) reflect a lack of nuanced, contextualized understanding, which hampers effective operations involving societies with substantial Muslim populations.
Particular interpretations of jihad and shariah enjoy traction among fringe, often politically-minded movements (Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Taliban), but these need to be contextualized as such (marginal), and not conferred on Muslims writ large as normative doctrinal Islamic understanding.
Accurately conceptualizing eclectic Muslim polities, i.e., the myriad nuances of practice and doctrine among groups/regions, can promote more effective external engagements.
This paper discusses Critical Theory, a model of theorizing in the field of the political sociolo... more This paper discusses Critical Theory, a model of theorizing in the field of the political sociology of education. We argue for a reimagined Critical Theory to herald an empowering, liberatory education that fosters curiosity and critical thinking, and a means for successful bottom-up, top-down political engagement. We present arguments at a theoretical and meta-theoretical level, leaving empirical analysis to a future writing. We hold it impossible: to fully dissociate normative from the analytical in constructing scientific thought, thus showing the importance of the notion of a good society to guide varied intellectual explorations; to deny the political role of education; and to detach from historicity of thought and policy prescriptions emerging from such theorizing, as not all social constructions are equal in terms of logical configuration, methodological rigor, or solid empirical proof. What follows are snapshots of how we can reimagine the historical present, and how Critical Theory can impact the new theorizing of sociology of education.
In this study, faculty at institutions of higher education in Southern California were surveyed t... more In this study, faculty at institutions of higher education in Southern California were surveyed to determine the ways they interpret the effects of globalization dynamics upon their various teaching and research activities. Faculty in the state’s three higher education tiers spoke positively about the intellectual benefits to be gained by exposure to different worldviews made possible by an increasingly diverse faculty and student body. Divisions were noted among the different tiers, however, with respect to their disparate levels of engagement with the private sector. The private sector was seen as having a negative impact upon the public sector’s research agenda while simultaneously being embraced by faculty at the community colleges. Faculty at the research institutions were typically critical of the overarching neoliberal paradigm and spoke in political terms about the ways this largely economic‐efficiency model was reorienting their teaching and research roles.
As national planners codify and enact the university, state, and market alliance—amid global hi... more As national planners codify and enact the university, state, and market alliance—amid global higher education trends towards internationalization, competition, and massification—debates on the efficacy of this merger have increased in recent years, clarifying a real or perceived significance. Bologna has been the conceptual vehicle within which many European nations have sought to reorient often disparate higher education sectors in order to forge the European Higher Education Area, a move replete with social, political, economic, and cultural significance. Yet, the extent to which Bologna has fomented qualitative policy change in developing post-communist nations like Albania remains ambiguous. Globalization and Higher Education in Albania explores how international educational trends mitigate higher education policy and practice in Albania, a nation which continues its complex and evolving transition from communism to a more open society. Based on archival research, original fieldwork, and supplementary interviews with subjects who in many cases work and live amidst Albania’s ongoing physical and psychosocial post-communist transformation, Jevdet Rexhepi clarifies how the interplay between global and local forces manifests in key sector policy documents and related frameworks and institutions, and he thoughtfully considers how higher education positions Albania on individual and collective levels to respond to the challenges and opportunities of globalization and the knowledge society.
The Wiley Handbook of Paulo Freire, 2019
Paulo Freire's insights on education continue to inform an array of practitioners and scholarship... more Paulo Freire's insights on education continue to inform an array of practitioners and scholarship. Yet, the field is bereft of study on the implications of Freire in the Middle East—a region of immense significance. This case study explores the relevance of Freire's pedagogy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (SA) in the context of education transformation central to SA's Vision 2030 social‐economic reform. The author uses an Islamic analytical lens (which helps further articulate an explanatory, practical, and normative Islamic critical theory) to explore Freire in the context of a sharia‐based society, using educational ideas drawn from the Muslim scholar, Al‐Ghazali, for comparative perspective. The contention is that a creative critical reading and targeted rendering of Freire's critical literacy pedagogy can enhance SA's education reform and help empower its most valuable natural resource: Saudi youth. The chapter has implications for policymakers and academics in the Middle East and beyond.
Foreign Military Studies Office, 2018
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY While Islam and Muslims remain the object of intense scrutiny post-9/11, por... more EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
While Islam and Muslims remain the object of intense scrutiny post-9/11, portrayals of the religion and its central concepts by non-Muslims (and Muslims) reflect a lack of nuanced, contextualized understanding, which hampers effective operations involving societies with substantial Muslim populations.
Particular interpretations of jihad and shariah enjoy traction among fringe, often politically-minded movements (Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Taliban), but these need to be contextualized as such (marginal), and not conferred on Muslims writ large as normative doctrinal Islamic understanding.
Accurately conceptualizing eclectic Muslim polities, i.e., the myriad nuances of practice and doctrine among groups/regions, can promote more effective external engagements.
This paper discusses Critical Theory, a model of theorizing in the field of the political sociolo... more This paper discusses Critical Theory, a model of theorizing in the field of the political sociology of education. We argue for a reimagined Critical Theory to herald an empowering, liberatory education that fosters curiosity and critical thinking, and a means for successful bottom-up, top-down political engagement. We present arguments at a theoretical and meta-theoretical level, leaving empirical analysis to a future writing. We hold it impossible: to fully dissociate normative from the analytical in constructing scientific thought, thus showing the importance of the notion of a good society to guide varied intellectual explorations; to deny the political role of education; and to detach from historicity of thought and policy prescriptions emerging from such theorizing, as not all social constructions are equal in terms of logical configuration, methodological rigor, or solid empirical proof. What follows are snapshots of how we can reimagine the historical present, and how Critical Theory can impact the new theorizing of sociology of education.
In this study, faculty at institutions of higher education in Southern California were surveyed t... more In this study, faculty at institutions of higher education in Southern California were surveyed to determine the ways they interpret the effects of globalization dynamics upon their various teaching and research activities. Faculty in the state’s three higher education tiers spoke positively about the intellectual benefits to be gained by exposure to different worldviews made possible by an increasingly diverse faculty and student body. Divisions were noted among the different tiers, however, with respect to their disparate levels of engagement with the private sector. The private sector was seen as having a negative impact upon the public sector’s research agenda while simultaneously being embraced by faculty at the community colleges. Faculty at the research institutions were typically critical of the overarching neoliberal paradigm and spoke in political terms about the ways this largely economic‐efficiency model was reorienting their teaching and research roles.