1. Thinking Critically: Tradition versus Modernity in Salih’s The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid
Dr. Saleh Al Busaidi & Dr. Tausiff Sultana
Sultan Qaboos University, Language Center

2. Presentation outline Definition and importance of critical thinking
Developing critical thinking through literature
Description of the study and context
Findings
Tips for teaching critical thinking
Conclusion

3. What is Critical Thinking?
Three perspectives:
Philosophical: definition based on the ‘hypothetical critical thinker’ in the ideal world
Cognitive: how people actually think, define critical thinking by types of actions or behaviors that critical thinkers can do
Educational: what learners do or need to do (Bloom’s taxonomy)
Two aspects:
Skills: the abilities (synthesizing, evaluating, applying, making inferences)
Disposition: attitude or habits of the mind (e.g. open-mindedness, inquisitiveness, flexibility, desire to be informed, respect for others)
Paul and Elder (2001), define critical thinking as a mode of thinking about any subject, content, or problem.
“Critical thinking is the most cross-curricular and generic of skill constructs. It takes place in mathematics and science, and it takes place in humanities, the arts and the social sciences. Critical thinking underpins literacy and numeracy”. McCurry

4. What is Critical Thinking?
The National Council for the Teaching of English Committee on Critical Thinking and the Language Arts in the US (NCTE & IRA,1996) state that: “Critical thinking is a process which stresses an attitude of suspended judgment, incorporates logical inquiry and problem solving , and leads to an evaluative decision or action.”
Critical thinking goes beyond a mere accumulation of factual information to conceptual understanding and understanding of the interrelatedness of all concepts, old and new.
It includes skills of analyzing arguments, making inferences using inductive or deductive reasoning, judging or evaluating, and making decisions or solving problems.
Critical thinking fosters in learners a sense of autonomy. Students learn to make queries, evaluate data sources, find solutions, etc.

5. Why Critical Thinking ?
Gained prime importance in era of globalization- International interest – across disciplines
Critical thinking is one of the essential skills of the 21st century.
Central to effective learning
Makes learners self motivated and autonomous
Learners apply acquired modes of enquiry – inside & outside classroom

6. Why Critical Thinking?
Our thinking at the personal level tends to be by default biased, self-oriented, partial, etc. The development of critical thinking brings with it improvement not only in the cognitive domain but also in the personal and social domains.
The rapidly changing world requires a unique combination of “soft skills” (personal and interpersonal) and “hard skills” (technical, problem-solving).
Critical thinking enhances students’ employability in the fast changing workplace.

7. What do critical thinkers do?
They raise questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely
They gather information, assess it and use it to make well informed conclusions or judgments
They think open-mindedly about issues presented to them, recognizing and assessing their assumptions, and implications
They communicate effectively with others in finding solutions to problems.

8. Critical Thinking through Literature
Skills are not developed in a vacuum. They need a carrier!
Literature can engage learners affectively, cognitively, linguistically and socially. That makes it the most appropriate didactic resource for language learning and critical thinking.
Literature is a microcosm of the real world in which characters, setting, and action presented appear to be a replication of the real world.
Literature reading is a complex process that requires readers to recall, retrieve and reflect on their prior experiences or memories to construct meanings of the text.
Readers need to be able to: differentiate facts from opinions, understand the literal or implied meanings and the narrator’s tone, locate details related to the issues discussed, find out the connections between the events or actions, understand different points of views about issues in the reading, make moral reasoning and fair-grounded judgments, and apply what they have learned from this process to the real world.

9. Critical Thinking through Literature
Literature readers engage in many mental processes, such as: explanation, analysis, synthesis, argumentation, interpretation, evaluation, problem-solving, inference, logical reasoning, and application
Readers respond to texts differently depending on their “cultural distance”.
Using stories from students’ own culture lowers learners’ “affective filter” Krashen
Same-culture stories enhance the learners’ self –esteem and are conducive to better learning. Campbell
When cultures match and learning is optimized, critical thinking too reaches a peak .
When students are engaged in reading, interpreting and evaluating literary texts, their thinking is stimulated.
Tayeb Salih’s The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid story as an example.

10. Context and the study

11. Teaching context
LANC 1120 Advanced Academic Writing Course- English for English Specialists Credit students at Language Center of SQU

12. Tayeb Salih
Born in 1929 in Sudan, educated in Koranic school-completed education in London-worked for BBC- passed away in 2009.
Al Rajul al Qubsi (The Cypriot Man,1978),Urs al Zayn (The Wedding of Zein,1969), Mawsim al Hijra ila al Shamal (Season of Migration to the North,1969), and Daumat Wad Hamid ( The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid,1985)

13. Sudan : Background
1956-Sudan declared it’s independence from Great Britain & Egypt.
1952-The Egyptian Revolution helped march toward Sudanese independence.
Sudanese culture melds the behaviors, practices & beliefs of 578 tribes, communicating in 145 different languages.

14. Wad Hamid
Village of Wad Hamid by the Nile River.

15. Wad Hamid
Wad Hamid –pious slave who runs away from a cruel master who does not allow him to pray. Later on, miracles happen to him and he acquires a saintly status.

16. Tayeb Salih’s “The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid” Dawmat Wad Hamid
Doum: A palm ( Hyphaene thebaica) native to the Nile Valley of northeast Africa and having oblong or ovoid orange sized fruit. Also called doum , gingerbread palm.
The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid is set in a remote village in Northern Sudan.

17. Narration:
An old local man narrates the story to a young guest. Collective memory-12 narrative voices- oral history.
“Tomorrow, without doubt, you will be leaving us. When you arrive at your destination, think well of us and judge us not too harshly.”

18. The clash : Tradition versus Modernity
The clash between tradition and modernity is the central theme in Salih’s Doum tree. The struggle of the villagers - battle between tradition and spiritualty versus modernization and progress. The villagers of Wad Hamid refuse government’s attempts to introduce an agricultural scheme, a water pump and a stopping place for the steamer.

19. Reason for the resistance
The doum tree is in the danger of being cut and the tomb of Wad Hamid would be removed from under the tree.
The doum tree - symbol of tradition, beauty, hope, protection, fertility - an integral part of daily life - dream of it at night and cannot think of a life without it.

20. Student Responses to prompts
Write out the similes and metaphors used by the Speaker to describe the doum tree.
The Doum tree “look at its full, sturdy trunk, like the form of a comely woman, at the branches on high resembling the mane of a frolicsome steed!” “like some mythical eagle spreading its wings over the village and everyone in it”.
The Doum tree “look at it, my son, look at the doum tree: lofty, proud, and haughty as though- as though it were some ancient idol”.
The Doum tree is special – stands above all other trees- “ he climbed a hill and on reaching the top he saw a dense forest of doum trees with a single tall tree in the center which in comparison with the others looked like a camel amid a herd of goats”.
The fuss made by government officials about the doum tree followed by total silence is described as “like a tornado blowing up for a while and then passing over…”

21. Point out instances of the use of irony as a literary device
Point out instances of the use of irony as a literary device. ( Evaluation of literary aspects of a text)
The narrator talks of the horse flies and says “they have a special love for man and no sooner smell him out than they attach themselves to him.”

22. Irony
The preacher who preaches on “the delights of the primitive life”, runs away from the village unable to withstand the bites of the flies and other hardships that the villagers uncomplainingly put up with.
The villagers are “solely concerned with their everyday needs” and never rebel or complain about anything but they “rose up as one man” and attacked the government official who came to announce that the tree would be cut.

23. Looking critically:
According to himself, what was the Speaker as a young man ? Do you believe him? Do you find, as a narrator, he exaggerates at any point in the story ?
The old man is no doubt exaggerating when he says “ In my young days I would breakfast off half a sheep, drink the milk of five cows for supper, and be able to lift a sack of dates with one hand.” I don’t believe that anyone could eat so much and not have digestive problems or cholesterol issues! Description of horse-flies as enormous flies “the size of young sheep” also sounds rather exaggerated! Sand flies are called “devils”, which I think is an appropriate description of the menace of these flies.

24. Critical outlook continued:
Why does the man in charge of the government scheme speak as follows : “Doum tree stay-scheme no stay!” What does the writer want us to understand from this ? The event occurs during the time of foreign rule and the district governor speaks in broken Arabic because of his unfamiliarity with the language . There is a hint that the villagers find his broken Arabic funny.

25. Reflective prompts: making connections to real life
Reflection – mental process- contemplation, exploration of an event.
It involves explorative revisiting- to find new meaning through questioning own assumptions, reworking issues and being more critical than before.
How does the text connect you to real life ?

26. Reflective prompts: connecting to real life..
The village reminds me of Oman in the past, with no electricity, no asphalt roads, no schools and no hospitals. Life indeed must have been hard for my grandparents. No wonder the narrator’s son, in the story, runs away to the neighboring city to enroll in school. Probably I too would have done the same.

27. Critical Reflections :
The behavior of the villagers at the tomb of Wad Hamid is indeed shocking! How could they venerate a dead holy man and ask favors from him and promise offerings in return for the favors? This is like idol worship. I thought such practices were put an end to with the advent of Islam but realize, while reading on internet, that some Muslims in Morocco still do all that is described in the story. On further discussion, I came to know that even in some Asian countries some dead holy men are worshipped as Patron Saints and people seek relief and protection from them. I even happened to watch a movie song sequence where this was done. Very strange practices indeed!

28. More real-life connections…
The old man in the story addresses the young man as ‘my son’ this is so truly an Omani practice. When I read the words “Sheik” in an English text, for a moment I did not understand the word then I realized what it was and felt a kind of happiness and closeness to the text and the story.
When the narrator speaks of riding donkeys and camel for transport and the bones aching from that, I am reminded of means of travel in Oman in the past.

29. Merging of art and life…
The narrator also speaks of how the “townsfolk don’t go to sleep directly the birds are silent…” this reminds me of my grandfather’s words. He said that in their days people slept once it got dark (perhaps because there was no electricity and being awake was difficult) and woke up with the birds.. Life now is so different. People go to bed only in the early hours of the day and sleep through the day… (on weekends!)

30. Application of concepts to own life…
The villagers in the story struggle to preserve their traditional identity. Do you think tradition and modernity are at war with each other in real life? If you were to choose between the two, what would you choose ? Why ?

31. Student Responses to the question of tradition versus modernity
Tradition is when a man wears a dishdasha and goes to his job. It is when a student uses only books to study. Modernity is a world with technology “a small village”. I will choose tradition though modernity offers big help and comfort. Who knows, modernity may bring about the destruction of the world.

32. Making choices…
I’d rather be with tradition than with this scary era of speed which brings so much pressure with all its modernistic devices using which one misses the “real” life while living in virtual world! It is the cause of so many broken relationships, compared to the past.

33. Justifying choices…
In the past, Omani people lived in simple houses made of mud and palm leaves. They lived by fishing and collecting wood. The family consisted of over 14 children or more. Drinking water from the falaj, they lived a healthy and happy life, close to nature. Simple, humble people, lived with friendship and helpful nature. Now , family size has shrunk, water comes in taps at home, there is air conditioning, cars, electricity and so on but where is the peace, the happiness ?

34. Finding a balance ….
The conflict between tradition and modernity need not impact negatively on life. We can balance by keeping traditions which express our identity correctly but at the same time we have to leave harmful traditions ( eg.superstitions) because it will hinder us from living in a better way. Moreover, we have to take positive things from modernity and leave the negative things. Actually, this balance requires the old people and young people to understand the ideas and thoughts of themselves and to cooperate in order to preserve the heritage and to benefit from progress at the same time.

35. More responses…
Tradition is the root of modernity and just as we cannot imagine a tree to exist without a root, modernity cannot exist without tradition. Tradition and modernity are complementary, so I do not believe in one of them to the exclusion of the other.
Modernity is my choice because through modernity I can keep tradition. Following tradition means there is no place for modernity but if we follow modernity, we can use modern techniques to spread the valuable collective ideas of our forefathers.

36. Summary
Mixed responses- difficulty in making choice- outward superficial aspects- clothing & customary rituals.
Open support for tradition / for modernity.
More balanced- view negative & positive aspects –synthesis of both in life.
Multiple perspectives- different angle of seeing..
“ What all these people have overlooked is that there is plenty of room for all these things: the doum tree, the tomb, the water-pump, and the steamer’s stopping place .”

37. Tips for teaching critical thinking

38. Tips for teaching critical thinking
Many students lack critical thinking skills because:
Students’ prior learning experience was based on rote learning
Teachers lack experience and training in critical thinking instruction
Students are more attuned to a collective society where individuality in thought and action is not valued as much as in western societies (Tung& Chang)
Critical thinking instruction should be carried out effectively and systematically
Acquisition is not automatic – it requires explicit teaching
Teaching should be student centered rather than content-focused
It requires active engagement from students
Students should be encouraged to examine the thinking of themselves and others.
Teachers should model critical thinking by articulating their own thinking process so as to make thinking visible

39. Tips for teaching critical thinking
The development of critical thinking skills requires content. You cannot teach them in abstract. You also cannot simply ask students to memorize them.
For assessment, teachers should use open-ended tasks, real-world or authentic problem contexts that require students to go beyond recalling or restating previously learned information.
Assessment tasks should make student reasoning noticeable by requiring them to provide evidence or logical arguments in support of judgments, choices, claims, or assertions.

40. Conclusion
Critical thinking involves skills and dispositions. Literature can be a very useful context for the development of critical thinking skills.
Critical thinking goes beyond a mere accumulation of factual information to conceptual understanding and understanding of the interrelatedness of all concepts, old and new.
Teachers should make deliberate efforts to develop critical thinking among students.

41. References
Campbell, J. (1987). Primitive mythology: The masks of God. New York: Penguin.
Capper, J. (1996). Testing to learn- Teaching to test: Improving educational testing in developing countries. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Dewey. (1993). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educational process. (Rev.ed.). Boston: D.C. Heath
Fish,S. (1980). Is there a Text in this class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.
Krashen, S.D. (1986). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

42. References
Lai, E . R. (2011). Critical thinking: A literature review. Retrieved March 30, 2014 from
Langer, J.A (1990). Understanding Literature. Language Arts, 67 (80),
McCurry, D. (2013). Teaching Critical Thinking. The Research Digest, QCT, 2013 (9). Retrieved from
NCTE&IRA. (1996). Standards for the English language arts. Newark, NJ: IRA, Urbana, IL: NCTE
Partnership for 21st century skills. (2013). Retrieved from
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2001). The miniature guide to critical thinking: Concept and tools. Dillon Beach, CA: The Foundation for Critical Thinking
Tung, C. & Chang, S. (2009).Developing critical thinking through literature reading. Feng Chia Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 19 (pp. 287 – 317).

43. Thank you