Browsing by Author "Ramson, S. M."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

The enduring self : exploring the identity of the Hare Krishna devotees beyond race, language and culture.
(2006) Ramson, S. M.; Kumar, P. Pratap.; Sookrajh, Reshma.
In this study I indicate that the variety of psychological and social research perspectives that continue to interrogate the question "Who am I" has generated profuse and ambiguous definitions of identity, and that particular global trends are producing a corresponding flux in identity construction. In this thesis I argue that although such trends are emerging, for those with a spiritual proclivity there is an experience of the self as "enduring", an essence that may not be able to be immediately concretized by the individual, but a sense of continuity of self regardless of the external binaries of race, culture and language, that gives impetus for such individuals to enter into common dialogue as Hare Krishna devotees. The enquiry, which is located within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) Temple of Understanding, Durban, South Africa, as a context, examines the influence of institutional, physical and cultural dynamics, and self-reflexivity in identity formation of the Hare Krishna devotees. In relation to the "enduring" sense of self the following critical questions are asked in the study, viz. what is the institutional identity of ISKCON and how is it derived; what are the physical, religious, social and educational features of the context within which these identities are formed; how and why are the resident devotees of the who are variegated in term of race, culture and language, able to create their identities as devotees; what are the possible changes in the lifestyle and value-systems of these resident devotees since they first joined; and how do the devotees understand and experience notions of self and Truth? To place the devotee identity in perspective, a brief description of the historical background of ISKCON is undertaken, its position in relation to Hinduism, and various research issues about ISKCON and within ISKCON is discussed. Through the use of prevalent identity construction theories and perspectives, I review the academic trends challenging sets of value that are exclusionary, and trends of globalization, easternization, and multiculturalism and new religious movements, detraditionalization, and de-institutionalization with a view to understanding identity construction. To understand the ISKCON devotee identity, I examine its theological perspective that derives from its Gaudiya Vaisnava heritage, consisting of several scriptures that describe the nature and characteristics of the self. Arguing for the use of descriptive and interpretive validity through the lens of an ethnographic scientist, I position myself as a deep-insider, discussing the benefits and difficulties of this stance. In arguing for understanding as a major component of validity, I address the issues of what constitutes Truth in social science research and introduce a contemporary use ofphronesis as a methodological technique to extend the argument that expert evaluation based judgements, intuition and practical wisdom play a highly significant role in research, and should not be surpassed in favour of only analytical, scientific and technical knowledge. It is suggested that the institutional identity of ISKCON is a disseminated process occurring at many sites, framed by various activities, and manifest particularly in its organizational structures, and the physical context and cultural contexts. Using current theorizing about how Truth is generated in the academic arena, the spiritual Truths as understood by the devotees are juxtaposed, as well as intersections between Truth and the notions of identity are examined. Several insights emerge from the data that confirm the existence of a more internal, "enduring" sense of self, beyond external binaries of race, language and culture. For the devotees this sense of self emerges as a spiritual identity, a distinction being made between the conditioned self, i.e. that "self as socially constructed, or reflexively determined, on one hand, and the individual or possessor of the self, called atma, a premise that frames his identity as a "servant" of Krishna.
Exploring doctoral students' theory choices in education.
Ramson, S. M.; Sookrajh, Reshma.; Amin, Nyna.
The use of theory, regarded as a set of structured lenses or frameworks through which phenomena can be systematically analysed or explained (Klette, 2012; Johnson & Christensen, 2007), and deemed central to the entire research process, is not without contention. Contentious issues relate to theory as occupying a nebulous position due to its borrowing from the natural sciences for academic legitimacy, and an inherent hegemony that entrenches the status quo (Thomas, 1997; Carr; 2006). Given the link between knowledge production and theory, and that locating a theoretical framework forms a major part of doctoral students’ deliberations, the study sought to explore and understand the process by which doctoral students chose their theories for their doctoral research. A review of the academic literature provided the historical and definitional aspects of theory, some of the contestations about the meanings and uses of theory, and an evaluation of issues as they pertained to particular developments within tertiary education and postgraduate knowledge generation. Although the social sciences have a diverse array of theories to choose from, the literature did not specifically reveal how doctoral students choose theories. Against this background, this qualitative study, which initially adopted an interpretivist case study approach incorporating purposive sampling, was located at the Faculty of Education at a university in South Africa and focused on five doctoral students who completed their doctoral theses in Education, in the period 2006 to 2011. The study asked the key questions, how do doctoral students choose their focal theories for their study, and why do they do so? To explore doctoral students’ theory choices, the study drew on the salient features of two dominant psychological and cognitive theories, viz., the Information Processing Approach and Prospect Theory (Beresford & Sloper, 2008; Payne & Bettman, 2004). The emergent data suggested that for the students in this study, factors like academic context, sociocultural background, intuition, worldviews and knowledge influenced their theory choices. However, several deeper issues emerged which the psychological and cognitive theories of decision-making were inadequate in addressing, particularly issues of power, and the dichotomies of east/west, north/south influences on knowledge generation. Due to the lack of criticality, and the inability of these models to provide a deeper analysis for the why question, the study motivated for the shift to a critical stance, underpinned by the Decolonial Turn, which included an array of positions that viewed coloniality as the problem confronting the modern world (Maldonado-Torres, 2011). The literature on Said’s Postcolonial theoretical views on Orientlalism, Gayatri Spivak on the subaltern, Southern Theory by Connell, and Decolonial Theory by Quijano, Mignolo and Grosfoguel was reviewed, and decolonial theory was used to analyse the data from a critical stance. It is suggested that while insertions from the North and West may continue to determine particular theoretical inclinations and choices of theory on the part of doctoral students in the periphery, an epistemic shift is occurring in the South. This is supported by the observations from the data that, participants tended toward critical, feminist, gender, postcolonial and postmodern theoretical underpinnings, were conscious of the impingement of West/Eurocentricism on their choices and knowledge production, and open to alternate knowledge frameworks. Finally, the concept of epistemic dissonance is proposed as necessary to delink from the status quo, suggesting it as a means to confront our assumptions about culture and history, and re-conceptualize our research in the context of sensitivity to difference, and facilitate a change in consciousness of students towards disrupting particular epistemic gridlocks on theory choices.