International Conference on Sri Lanka Studies (ICSLS)
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Item The level of match between the learning styles of students and the teaching styles of lecturers of Universities in the field of Management. (One university as a case study)(University of Kelaniya, 2005) de Alwis, W.P.G.; Sridharan, U.There is an unemployment problem of graduate in Sri Lanka, because of low demand for graduate from business sector. Industry perception views that the Management education is somewhat cognitive and conceptual in approach and lacking in sufficient practice bias and skill orientation. In other words the argument is that the Management education in the universities is still has the features of colonial and traditional era and not match with the current complex changing environment. Keeping in view the criticisms of management education and the competence required for being an effective graduate, this study attempted to explore the learning preferences of the management undergraduates and the teaching methodology in relation to the demand of the field of management. The total sample consists of 100 final year Management and B.com students, 40 lecturers consist of assistant lecturers, lecturers and senior lecturers drowning from a university. The index of learning style- the instrument was developed by Richard M. Felder and Barbara A. Soloman of North Carolina State University was used to measure the four learning styles of students. To assess the perception of the students about the course, another questionnaire was used in this study. Based on the learning styles questionnaire to assess the teaching methods and congruence between the learning style and teaching methodology the researchers used the questionnaire designed by Luciano Mariani, Milan.This study found that most of the management students are active, sensing, visual and sequential learners. This indicates there is a shift of students learning style from traditional to modern except one style of learning. This pattern is common irrespective of race and religious differences, but there is a significant difference found in terms of sex. Although both sex groups show the modern learning styles, females are more conservative than males. Males are end oriented rather than mean oriented. It was found there is a disparity between management students’ style of learning and the teaching methods and styles, in terms of the rate of change. In other words the changing of learning styles of students towards the modern is faster than the changing of teaching methods.Item Colonial Construction: Panadura Vaadaya in the Anthropological Literature(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Goonatilake, S.The "Panadura debate" Panadura Vaadaya in the nineteenth century between the Christians and Buddhists was central to the anti-colonial struggle in the cultural sphere. It was the culmination of protests against the crude methods of suppression against the local culture employed by respectively the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British over nearly 400 years. This cultural liberationist movement has been deliberately distorted by a recent set of writers. These writers include Obeyesekere, Gombrich, Kapferer, Roberts, Tambiah, H.L. Seneviratne, C. R. de Silva and Kumari Jayawardene. Some of them have associated the debates with the contemporary Western discourse on fundamentalism -triggered by the Western fear of the Muslims. This paper summarizes the social background to the Panadura Vaadaya, its global context (within a time non Western classical literature and learning was coming into Western discourse) and global role (as part of the sensitizing process in the West to the existence of sophisticated discourses outside Christianity). The paper puts into contemporary global context and global role the interpretations of these latter writers. The writers engaging in distorting the anti colonial content help processes of recolonisation operating in the country.Item Searching for Traces of Protestantism among Buddhists in the Panadura Controversy Documents(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Sugataratana himi, Kahapola; Karunamuni, M.The struggle to regain, maintain and practice Buddhism was a continuing theme when Sri Lanka went under European colonial rule in the 16th century. This period witnessed, not only brutal repression, but also equally valiant attempts to regain valuable texts and accompanying practices from within and also outside Sri Lanka. The continuous historical thread which connects together all these struggles is to be seen as but one process. Recent western writers and Sri Lankans scholars located in the west, unaware of primary sources have superficially examined the resurgence that appeared in the late 19th century, and have falsely labeled it as Protestant Buddhism. It is alleged by them that those monks and laymen who rose to prominence in the new Buddhist movement adopted Protestant themes and rewrote Buddhism. The 19th century Buddhist resurgence begins with the British Christian grip loosening from around the early decades of the 19th century. Key makers of the resurgence were the emergence of the Paramadhammacetiya in Ratmalana (1841) and the re-establishing of key centres of Buddhist learning, Vidyodaya (1873) and Vidyalankara (1875) after the monastic institutions had been burnt down by the Portuguese in the 16th century debates between Buddhists and Christians culminating in the Panadura Controversy (1873). Some of the original documents of the Panadura Controversy still exist, as well as the oral histories. The present authors examine both documents as well as oral histories to identify areas where traces of Protestantism can be found. It is concluded that the total thrust, not only of the Panadura Controversy, but also of the other debates and the Buddhist resurgence in general were ideologically and organizationally against Protestantism. The theory of Protestant Buddhism is shown to be a complete perverse reading of the factual situation of putting facts on their heads.Item Sociology/Anthropology Literature: An Excursion into the Sociology of Sociology(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Goonatilake, S.The sociology of knowledge posits social networks and frameworks that filter the production, acceptance and dissemination of legitimized knowledge. Sri Lankan anthropology, over 50 years after independence is still largely written by foreigners or foreign based Sri Lankan academics for foreign audiences and have given rise to a body of knowledge largely tangential to the truth. These flights of fancy have been allowed to occur because there is a disjuncture between the academic discourse within Sri Lanka say in the universities, and that occurring outside the country in this anthropology literature. The obvious question is: what are the institutions within Sri Lanka, outside of the university and public sphere that maintain this production of spurious knowledge. The paper identifies a cluster of basically foreign funded institutions that interact with and help in the production of this spurious anthropology. The organizations identified include ICES (Colombo), Marga, SSA, CPA. The list of spurious publications and their authors either channel through, work with, or find discussion room in these institutions. During the period of attempted decolonisation of anthropology in the 1960s and 1970s a call was made for a new anthropology where power structures in knowledge were to be reversed. The paper posits that the same logic should be applied to this network of organisations and that they should be subjected to anthropological inquiry in the same manner that innocent villages in Sri Lanka are subject to.Item Contemporary Art in Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Grosser, S.In the last years more contemporary art from Asian countries was shown in major art exhibitions like the documents, various biennials, etc. The relationship between postcolonialism and cultural development came into the discussions with texts by Edward Said, Stuart Hall, Gayatrie Spivcak, Homi Bhaba and others questioning binary oppositions and hierarchical relations. In the context of art history or better art science this means to question binary oppositions like high and low culture, centre and periphery, original and copy, etc. Especially in the Anglo-American discussions new terms like hybridity and heterotopias, contact-zone and transgression, identity and nation became relevant. In the discourse in German speaking countries, these topics are slowly gaining awareness but are often still considered under an anthropological or ethnological perspective. This research project develops an approach to contemporary art in Sri Lanka and especially its developments during the last decade of the 20th century. To appreciate the individual artistic production on its own right, the project concentrates on five artist personalities: Anoli Perera, Jagath Weerasinghe, Druvinka Madawela, Chandraguptha Tenuwara and Koronegela Pushpakumar. For a better understanding and to reflect the perspective of the author’s outside point of view it combines the analysis of art works with interviews. In the interviews the artists speak about their artworks, their ideas, selfconcepts and their understanding of own role as artists in contemporary Sri Lankan society as well as art immanent questions related to technique and media. Major topics in this context are changing concepts of identities as artists, women, men or as members of the new middle class as well as the relation of art and politics in the face of the current political situation and the ongoing cultural globalisation.Item The Social Dynamics of the Formation of an Anti Sri Lankan Subculture in Department of Sociology in the 1960s(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Gunawardene, G.This paper places on record the social milieu and relationships on the Peradeniya University Campus during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It may shed light on the cultural and social context that would have influenced present day sociologists. The period was approximately 10 years after independence; the Arts Faculty of the University of Ceylon was shifted to Peradeniya in 1952. Most of the undergraduates of this university came from the relatively exclusive public schools of Ceylon modeled on the public schools of Britain. The students by and large belonged to the English speaking upper middle class mainly from Colombo, Kandy, Galle and Jaffna whose predominant cultural occupation was the pursuit of the emulation of a British way of life. However, two momentous events were beginning to have their impact on the campus. They were a) the free education scheme and b) the change of government that took place in 1956. As described by the English educated middle upper class, it was the dawn of the era of ‘Yakkos’. Towards the end of the nineteen fifties the hordes of the siblings of the ‘Yakkos’ were reaching the portals of Peradeniya. The situation compounded when in the mid-sixties the Sinhala/ Tamil educated hordes landed on the campus. Socially, these new comers came partly from the society that hitherto provided the upper middle class homes with domestic servants and the farmers of their paddy fields. This disparity created in the minds of the new arrivals resentment towards the ‘elites’, but since their own numbers were substantial, they began describing the other group as ‘Kultur’ (German for culture). Kulturs in turn called the ‘uncouth’ ‘Haramanis’ which was a common name for their domestics. Academically too the two groups differed. The ‘Kulturs’ took mainly subjects like English, western classics, european history, law, sociology, philosophy, economics and geography, etc. The ‘Haramanis’es were more comfortable with Sinhala/ Tamil, Arabic, Pali, Sanskrit, Indian History and also ventured out towards statistics, economics and geography. The category of students who offered Pali, Sanskrit and Sinhala/Tamil were the lowest in the campus social order and referred to as ‘Ofac’ meaning Oriental Faculty. The writer of this paper was one of them. Some Haramanises did admire the way of life of the Kulturs and secretly aspired to be ‘Kultur’. Some tried to get there by offering the same subjects as the Kulturs. Sociology offered a common platform for this upward mobility. Thus, many an aspirant to social climbing on the campus did avail of this opportunity. Thus, the socio-cultural background of both the Kulturs and, to a lesser extent, the Haramanises would have influenced in shaping their thought including their sociological perspectives. Behind this may be the perception that some sociological writings on Sri Lanka are tangential to Sri Lanka's reality.Item The Further Consequences of the Contribution of Sri Lankan Monks to British Buddhist Studies: What Happened Next in the Childers Family?(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Crosby, K.Such studies as have been done on the interaction between scholar monks of Sri Lanka and western academics in the emerging field of Buddhist Studies in the West in the 19th century have looked at these matters in the context of the development of Buddhist studies and the consequences of the interaction for Sri Lankan Buddhism and Sri Lankan political developments, particularly the independence movement and resistance to the impact of British colonial rule. This paper will look at the subsequent impact of the input of Buddhist scholar monks of Sri Lanka on UK politics more broadly by looking at the on-going fortunes of the Childers’ family, who had received assistance particularly from Waskaduwe Subhuti Thera, and how each generation reflected the unraveling of British colonial rule.Item Unpublished Documents on the Sri Lankan Intellectual History of the 19th Century(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Mahindawansa, V.W.The monks at Vidyalankara and Vidyodaya developed a nexus of links between local scholars and those of the world. They provided a major contribution to the development of Buddhist thought, not only in Sri Lanka, but in fact, to the beginning of an intellectual interest in Buddhism in the Western world. Outsiders with whom they linked sound like a Whose Who of Western World Buddhism. Thus, linked local Buddhist monk scholars amounted to around forty. The key nodal point was Waskaduwe Subhuti Thera whose Asian links included Japan, Burma, and Thailand, especially Thai royalty. He was proficient not only in Buddhist philosophy, but also in Western philosophy and several languages. He also took an interest in modern science and technology, being in fact, the first person in Sri Lanka to have an electric bell and a phonograph. Some of the primary documents associated with Subhuti Thera have been published by Guruge (Living Fountains of Buddhism, 1984). There is a considerable body of correspondence available in his temple and in temples that were associated with him that throw light on the intellectual life at the time. The paper describes these hitherto unpublished documents and summarises the contents which is relevant, not only to Sri Lankan intellectual history, but also to that of wider world.Item The Contributions of Vidyalankara and Vidyodaya to the Political, Intellectual and Social Discourse in Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Kusaladhamma, V.W.Vidyalankara and Vidyodaya Pirivenas were the key centres of learning that transformed the Sri Lanka mindset from a colonial one to that demanding full Independence, not only politically, but also economically and culturally. With the British allowing a limited degree of freedom of religion, Paramadhammacetiya Pirivena was formed as a centre of ferment in 1841 leading the way to the establishment of Vidyodaya Pirivena in 1873 and Vidyalankara Pirivena in 1875. These two institutions, especially the latter provided a close dialogue among the people and made a think-tank of the Independence movement. It revived the former university type of Buddhist education lost in the sacking of key pirivenas by the Portuguese. Those associated with Vidyalankara and Vidyodaya provided intellectual support for the key anti-colonial debates culminating in the Panadura Controversy while closely associating with Buddhist schools which were an indirect creation of those who helped launch the social conscience movement (almost all Left leaders were products of Buddhist schools). Its graduates followed the tradition of Buddhists engaged in social action, long before engaged Buddhism became fashionable. Their social liberation discussions preceded by several decades, liberation theology. Their Unilateral Declaration of Independence for the country was a key-marker in monastic activism in line with monk revolts of 1818 and 1841. Internationally, Vidyalankara became a centre of debate and discussion for many oriental and Leftoriented oriental scholars in the region. The paper traces these developments and the major difficulties Vidyalankara underwent.Item The Contents and the Historicity of the Sinhala Hatana Poetical Works(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Vitharana, V.A genre of Sinhala poetic literature – the eulogy (prasasti) that burgeoned During the middle of the fifteenth century exemplified by the Parakumba Sirita (composed in praise of the King Parakramabahu VI) with scanty references to achievements in the field of war transformed itself to yet another – the Hatanna (‘battle’), the works of which supply relatively a greater proportion of historical information including the achievements of the fighting forces. They pertain to an era of Sri Lankan history when island was assailed, if partly at first, by the better armed fighting units of the three European nations, one after the other, for a continuous three centuries – the longest period of such travail undergone by any nation that came under their sway. The theme of these literary works has been the description of the victorious battles that the native forces fought against these invaders and their mercenaries. The information supplied by them is un-obtainable from any other source, local or foreign, and it may also be emphasized that that record is contemporary and some of it, at least, first-hand. These works, however do not deal directly with the acts of cruelty and oppression perpetrated on the native population specially by the Portuguese (which incidentally are sketched out by their own contemporary writers) but focus mainly on the battle expeditions and the exploits by the local fighting forces and their victories under tremendous set-backs. There is also one Hatana work that eulogises the invader and extols his exploits. The earliest of these works (numbering about 10 in all) pertains to the reign of the heroic monarch Rajasinghe I (1581-91) who has been in the field of battle from his sixteenth year. Nevertheless, this extols the prowess of his general, and no the king himself. The last of such importance refers to the defeat of the English in Kandy nearly225 years later in 1803.