Constructing the Espoused Purpose of Islamic Schools in Australia

Evidence showing a positive link between Islamic practices and rituals at the everyday level with civic participation is on the rise (Harris & Roose, 2014; Patton, 2014; Vergani, Johns, Lobo, & Mansouri, 2017). Yet, character building to produce women and men of adab (Al-Attas, 1980) for active and confident engagement with society, has always been the raison d’etre of Islamic schools (Buckley, 1997). What remains unexplored is how these schools and their educational practitioners intervene and actively engage with their central purpose in the minutiae of everyday life (Apple, 2006). Specifically, how the racialised Islamic schools (Gulson & Webb, 2012, 2013) and their leaders mediate the “pluri-cultural” life (Said, 1977, p. xvii), articulating, embodying and defending alternative educational possibilities for parity of educational outcomes, lacks analytical consideration. This study explored the construction of the espoused purpose of Islamic schools in Australia. Grounded in a critical race position (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) and a faith-centred epistemology (Zine, 2004), it employed a collective case study methodology (Stake, 1995; Merriam, 1998; Yin, 2012) to understand how a disenfranchised community understands and experiences its everyday lived realities, and how leaders speak back to authoritarianism (Said, 2004; Apple, 2006) to achieve their aspirations in a diverse marketised Australian society (Walsh, 2014). An analysis of the promotional materials (Symes, 1998) and an online survey of stakeholders of Islamic schools in Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane were conducted in the exploratory phase of this inquiry, followed by an in-depth analysis of documents and a leadership qualitative questionnaire. The findings revealed, firstly, that neoliberal technologies have worked to influence the schools’ educational practices, creating possibilities that are bounded with limitations. By enabling choice—and as a consequence, the physical space where schools and their educational practitioners provide an education that aligns school values with those of students’ homes; religious practice that can be freely exercised and instituted; and, support mechanisms to mitigate the harm arising from students’ external social realities—neoliberalism has been productive for this disenfranchised community, allowing for its aspirations to provide the tools for achieving its purpose. Islamic schools therefore play a vital role in contributing to social cohesion. Yet, substance has been compromised and remains unresolved by a formal curriculum that prioritises the dominant “excellence” discourse alongside an appended imitation Islamic curriculum model (Ramadan, 2004). Secondly, negotiation of key tensions arising from the external and internal contexts, primarily the prevalence of persisting dichotomies, summons leadership practices that not only draw on the schools’ ethical frameworks and own personal values (Striepe, 2016) but full engagement in intellectual activity: persistence, critique and pushing through (Said, 1994). Thirdly, any attempts made by schools and leaders to engage with Islamic education must stem from learning and the collective creation and alignment of the “right” aims (Merry, 2015, p. 147). By persisting and pushing, schools and leaders who operate by faith (Dantley, 2005) focus on helping students negotiate their identities and connect with their worlds (Ramadan, 2004)

Potential Use of Petroleum-based Sulfur in Rubber Industry

AbstractPotential use of petroleum-based sulfur generally classified as a by-product from refinery process is investigated as vulcanizing agent in rubber, and compared with commercial rhombic sulfur. Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and nitrile rubber (NBR) are used as rubber matrices. Results obtained show that, between 2 types of sulfurs, the SBR system reveals similarity in cure behaviors whereas the NBR system demonstrates faster cure behavior when vulcanized by petroleum-based sulfur. However, rheological properties, mechanical properties, and dynamic mechanical properties of both rubbers show comparable results regardless of sulfur type. The results suggest the strong potential utilization of petroleum-based sulfur as vulcanizing agent as an alternative to the commercial rhombic sulfur usually used in rubber vulcanization

Influence of Carbon Black/Silica Hybrid Ratio on Properties of Passenger Car Tire Sidewall

Influence of carbon black (CB)/precipitated silica (SiO2) hybrid ratio on properties of a passenger car tire (PCT) sidewall based on natural rubber (NR) and butadiene rubber (BR) blend was investigated. Rubbers filled with various hybrid filler ratios at a constant loading of 50 phr were prepared and tested. The filler reinforcement efficiency in association with crucial properties of the tire sidewall were of interest. Results show the enhanced rubber–filler interaction with increasing SiO2 fraction leading to the improvement in many vulcanizate properties including hardness, tensile strength, tear strength and fatigue resistance, at the expense of cure efficiency and hysteretic behaviors (i.e., reduced heat build-up resistance and increased dynamic set). The results also suggest the improvement in tire sidewall performance of the NR/BR vulcanizates reinforced with CB/SiO2 hybrid filler, compared to that of the CB-filled vulcanizate

Effects of Blend Ratio and SBR Type on Properties of Carbon Black-Filled and Silica-Filled SBR/BR Tire Tread Compounds

This work aimed at investigating the effects of blend ratio between styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and butadiene rubber (BR) and SBR type (E-SBR and S-SBR) on properties of SBR/BR tire tread compounds. Influences of these parameters on properties of the tread compounds reinforced by 80 parts per hundred rubber (phr) of carbon black (CB) and silica were also compared. Results reveal that hardness, strengths, and wet grip efficiency were impaired whereas rolling resistance was improved with increasing BR proportion. Surprisingly, the presence of BR imparted poorer abrasion resistance in most systems, except for the CB-filled E-SBR system in which an enhanced abrasion resistance was observed. Obviously, S-SBR gave superior properties (tire performance) compared to E-SBR, particularly obvious in the silica-filled system. Compared with CB, silica gave comparable strengths, better wet grip efficiency, and lower rolling resistance. Carbon black, however, offered greater abrasion resistance than silica

Food Culture in Ancient Greek Literature

application/pdf本稿では古代ギリシアの吟遊詩人ホメロスによる英雄叙事詩『イリアス』『オデュッセイア』に共通してみられる「英雄が魚を食べない」という一つの特徴に着目し、その理由を明らかにしようと試みた。 古代ギリシアにおいて、海産物が盛んに食べられていたことは、当時の料理書やギリシア喜劇といった文献や考古学的発掘などからも明らかであるが、奇妙なことにホメロスには魚食を示唆する場面は比喩表現などわずかにしか見られず、英雄が海産物を食べる場面は存在しない。 本稿ではまず、ホメロスの英雄叙事詩について考察を進めたのち、ホメロス以後の英雄叙事詩、ギリシア悲劇、喜劇、小説、哲学といった異なるジャンルの文献も検討した。その結果、「英雄が魚を食べない」という特徴がホメロス以外にも見られることを確認し、そうした描写の背景にある意図の考察を行った。departmental bulletin pape

Taxonomic annotation of public fungal ITS sequences from the built environment - A report from an April 10-11, 2017 workshop (Aberdeen, UK)

The UNITE database community gratefully acknowledges support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. HN and CW gratefully acknowledges financial support from Stiftelsen Olle Engkvist Byggmästare, Stiftelsen Lars Hiertas Minne, Kapten Carl Stenholms Donationsfond, and Birgit och Birger Wålhströms Minnesfond. CW gratefully acknowledges a Marie Skłodowska-Curie post doctoral grant from the ERC. Leho Tedersoo is gratefully acknowledged for providing helpful feedback on an earlier draft of this manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD