Non-Western Perspectives on Learning and Knowing, Term Paper Example

Availability: the book can be bought online at Amazon.com or directly from the site Krieger-publishing.com.

About the author (short biography at time of publication): Sharan B. Merriam was born in 1964 in New York and is the daughter of Harold W. (insurance worker) and Janeth S. Ballard (the museum employee). She married Allen H. Merriam and has two children from their marriage, Paul and Laura, divorced in 1980. Now she is in the second marriage with Robert W. Rowden and now works in the University of Georgia on the faculty of Adult Education. She is a co-author or editor of seventeen books (Sharan B. Merriam, Ed.D, Professor of Adult Education, 2003).

Sharan M. Merriam has a scientific interest in adult development and learning, foundations of adult education, international adult education and qualitative research methods in this sphere. Organizations with which the author cooperated in the process of scientific activity are the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education, American Educational Research Association etc. (Sharan B. Merriam, Ed.D, Professor of Adult Education, 2003).

About the book (content, outline, chapters, pertinent information, etc.): the main question the author raises as the purpose of the book is the multiple perspective at which education and learning have to be faced in the process of defining objectives for education. The title of the book eloquently speaks about the aim of the author’s research: Sharan B. Merriam investigates other perspectives of learning besides the Western outlook at it – she makes a preliminary supposition about the number of alternative theories about the educational and learning process and suggests that there is much that can be taken from the whole scope of learning objectives to enrich the scope of learning and to diversify the methods, materials and philosophies that form the basis of the learning process.

The author examines a number of cultures that exist in the world and offer a substantial contribution to the learning process – she takes indigenous Native Americans, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Maori, Latin Americans and Africans. The essence of these learning objectives, the whole understanding of the learning process, contents and background included in it by these cultural groups are discussed in the articles that are included in the book.

Additional comments: it is important to understand that the alternative learning theories contain not only some educational contents but are much more than only the learning schedule. They are based on a certain type of philosophy, include certain cultural, social and historical implications that form a distinctive type of a personality that will always have a positive impact on the development of any child.

The book Non-Western Perspectives on Learning and Knowing contains such articles as the study of Islam’s Lifelong Learning Mandate that included the history of Islam and the over-grasping philosophy preserved in the history of Islam that has been accumulated for many centuries; the article about Hinduism and learning, about Buddhist learning, about liberation theology and learning in Latin America, adult learning from a Confucian way of thinking etc. In addition, the author offers not only the overview of important ethical, cultural and developmental formulations from other cultures, but the methodological framework of re-structuring education, which can be seen in the articles Broadening Our Understanding of Learning and Knowing.

Links/websites/resources: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P3-1477609681.html, http://www.krieger-publishing.com/subcats/adulteducation/ STACKAdultEducation/stackadulteducation_59.html, http://www.amazon.com/Non-Western-Perspectives-Learning-Knowing-Around/dp/157524280X

References

Merriam, S.B. (2007). Non-Western Perspectives on Learning and Knowing. Krieger Pub Co.

Non-Western Perspectives on Learning and Knowing (n.d.). Krieger Publishing. Retrieved October 15, 2009, from http://www.krieger-publishing.com/PDF/Merriam.pdf

Sharan B. Merriam, Ed.D, Professor of Adult Education (2003). Retrieved October 15, 2009, from http://www-distance.syr.edu/pvitasbm.html