From the Resigned Mind to the Witnessing Mind: Restoring Meaning to Arab Education

Abstract

This paper explores the crisis of meaning in contemporary Arab education, where the abundance of accessible information is accompanied by a noticeable decline in deep understanding. It argues that current educational practices produce a “resigned mind,” characterized by passive reception of knowledge rather than critical engagement. This condition is rooted in pedagogical coercion, rote memorization, and what Paulo Freire terms “banking education,” where learners are treated as repositories of information rather than active participants in knowledge construction. Drawing on both classical and modern thought—from Ibn Khaldun and Muhammad Abduh to Dewey and Gert Biesta—the paper situates this crisis within a broader intellectual and cultural context. It further examines how the rise of artificial intelligence intensifies the problem by promoting a model of “learnification,” which reduces education to measurable outcomes and neglects the formation of autonomous, critical, and ethically responsible individuals. To address this challenge, the paper proposes an integrative framework that combines Activity Theory, the Community of Inquiry model, and Transformative Learning. This framework aims to reconstruct the educational process by restoring human presence, fostering critical inquiry, and enabling deep shifts in learners’ perspectives. Ultimately, the paper calls for a transition from the “resigned mind” to the “witnessing mind,” capable of producing meaning and engaging responsibly with knowledge.