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• The Implementation of Music in Teaching Persian Heritage Speaking Students in International Schools: The Case of Persian Students in Dubai

  Fatemeh Faroughi

  Ilona Dabney-Fekete

  Foroozan Hajian

  Views:

  68

  It is widely acknowledged that music plays an important role in education as a powerful tool for identity formation. Within the educational sphere, there is limited empirical evidence to show how heritage language learners do engage with music as a resource for learning and to maintain linguistic knowledge. This research is a step towards achieving a deeper understanding of how Persian students residing in the United Arab Emirates connect with their mother tongue in the multicultural society of the country. The aim is to investigate whether integration of music into the Persian literature classroom of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme can enhance the students’ comprehension and cultural understanding among Persian students. Therefore, the study addresses three central questions: (1) Does using music in the classroom improve students’ understanding of classic Persian literature? (2) How does using music affect their motivation and emotional engagement if used in the classroom? (3) What impact does using music have on students staying connected to their heritage language and culture? This study was conducted in 2023 in the UAE and using a two-phase within-subject design. There were twelve IBDP students between 16 to 19 years old participating in the research answering questionnaires after reading ghazals by Rumi and again after listening to the musical adaptations of the same poems. A Google Form was used to analyse the data through descriptive statistics and thematic coding. Findings show that listening to music significantly improved understanding Persian poetry and detecting literary devices and comprehension was easier.

• Use of Electronic Resources in Teaching Religion in Higher Education: Best Practices from the SULSIT, Bulgaria

  56-60

  Svetla Shapkalova

  Georgeta Nazarska

  Views:

  327

  This paper describes actually methodical attempts to use library electronic resources in academic education. Some opportunities for improving the teaching of religious cultural heritage and for diversify the methods of assessment of students in Bulgarian universities are commented. The text describes the personal experience of the authors with students of 3rd-4th grades from the State University of Library Studies and IT (SULSIT), Bulgaria. Among the “best practices” are tasks of performing on-line survey of digital resources of periodicals from the digital resources of the “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” National Library, of making content analysis of the database on a particular subject, of preparing bibliographic descriptions of the new discovered resources, of writing historical analyses, of generating thematic bibliographies on topics related to religion, using the resources of the electronic catalogs of regional public libraries in the country.

• Religious Socialisation of Children and Youth in Eastern Orthodox Christian Church as Educational and Pastoral Challenge of Sharing of Cultural Practices

  1-16

  Liana Galabova

  Views:

  442

  As a result of three decades of social-cultural transformation, Bulgarian literature and practice of religious education though still rare is increasing and improving. As the Church recovers, local parishes, monasteries, and convents become visibly re-socialised and motivated again to provide more adequate pastoral care for all ages. This study explores the importance of informal improvisation and innovation as an approach, in the best interest of children and youth, at a time when an effective, regulated mass public religious education system in Bulgaria is not likely to appear soon. At the same time, revitalised eparchial, parish, convent, and monastery centres start meeting actual needs of renewed church ethos, and begin to provide opportunities for religious socialisation of children and youth that is more functional. Based on direct and indirect experience, on observation, and on partial access to limited local empirical data (that is historically and/or anthropologically only partially explored and categorised), this paper contributes to the analysis of the following unresolved issue: how to direct research toward and keep account of well-known educational and pastoral practices, whether traditional or contemporary, that aid the effective and sustainable religious socialisation of children and youth.