Ragy Mikhaeel receives Baker Faculty Award
April 3, 2025
Arabic Language Teaching through Social Justice
Ragy Mikhaeel received a Baker Faculty Award for two of his projects: How to improve Arabic language teaching through social justice themes, and adapting and digitizing material for creating a website for use in his Advanced Arabic Manuscripts class. Congratulations.
Social justice is an important topic when teaching the Arabic language and culture. Ragy Mikhaeel and his students will be researching how social justice can create a spirit of curiosity in students to delve deeper into “other” communities in an effort to treat all people with fairness, respect, dignity, and generosity. This idea is inspired by Glynn et al (2014) “Our emphasis on social justice is, in part, a way to expand the definition and scope of language education, leading to further innovation in the profession.”
The 2025 Baker Faculty Research Program is part of Weinberg College's Baker Program in Undergraduate Research. Faculty members awarded the grant will have the opportunity to select a team of two WCAS undergraduate students whom the College will support with Baker funds. The expectation is that the students will work a full-time 40-hour work week on their project for eight weeks during the summer term. The grant provides students with the valuable opportunity to work with a research team in a collaborative environment.