العدد الرابع

Foreword

Education, society and culture are among the major tenets of research in humanities and social sciences. These three domains are mutually so intertwined that sometimes it is difficult to decide which influences which and which drives which. Education is the process of transmitting knowledge, skills and values to young people through formal instruction and the use of systematic methods and grounded approaches. One of the objectives of education is to ensure a smooth integration of young people in society. Society refers to a large group of people living together in a community that shares mutual values and common cultural heritage. Culture, however, encompasses all the elements that bond together a community such as language, religion, life style and values. This fourth issue of Research journal comprises five articles which touch upon education, society and culture.

The first article entitled “ELT in Morocco: past present and future” is an evaluative reflection on the Moroccan experience in teaching English as a foreign language. This endeavour started after the independence of the country, and it has witnessed a number of changes to reach its current state of “maturity”. The main proposition of the article is that although ELT in Morocco is influenced by the practices of the international ELT community, it has its own specificities and interests. In addition to this, the article suggests a number of recommendations to improve EFL practices in Morocco.

The second article entitled “Thriving under Ethnic Discrimination: The resilience Potential of the Family” is a report on a study which aims to build a model of resilience under ethnic discrimination through the use of attachment theory. This model is an attempt to cater for the weaknesses in the existing models. The study surveys a sample of 84 male and 71 female Moroccan adults living in Netherlands. The respondents are asked to react to a number of comprehension tasks, and the results showed a significant variation both within and across the tasks. The third article entitled “The Stylistics of New York Times” examines the stylistic devices used either consciously or unconsciously by the New York Times journalists when reporting about Islam or Muslims. The foregrounding theory is used to dismantle the discourse of this newspaper and reveal the meanings it conveys.

The fourth article entitled “The Scientific Study of Values: A brief Guide to Statistical Concepts, Models and Procedures” is an attempt to study values in a scientific manner. Values can be studied both as manifested in individuals’ behaviour and as abstract moral codes. This study employs a mixed method approach in which qualitative design is used to generate a set of values, and the quantitative design is used to analyse the attitudes of people towards these values. The fifth article entitled “Cultural Capital: David Throsby’s Notion of Culturally Sustainable development” addresses the concept of cultural capital as one of the main principles of David Throsby’s model of culturally sustainable development. The main purpose of the article is to unveil how cultural, economic and environmental elements could be invested to achieve sustainable development.

In the end, I would like to thank all the contributors to this issue for their efforts and dedication. I would like to thank also the laboratory of Values, Society and Development at the Faculty of Letters in Agadir for their support and encouragement.