Abstract
Positioning theory offers a theoretical and analytical framework to explore how individuals position themselves or are positioned by others through discourse. Positioning theory provides ways to interpret how the positioning is achieved through the mutual effects of storylines, speech acts, and positions (Van Langenhove & Harré 2003). We examine how male and female preachers position themselves when they advise parents about Islamic values in raising children. The sermon data is from a corpus of twenty online Islamic sermons on YouTube that engage with the theme of family. The sermons were delivered in different settings, such as in Friday services in the mosque or Islamic conferences in auditoriums in various countries, namely the USA, UK, Canada, Sri Lanka, and Qatar. The findings show that the preachers put themselves in a position of authority primarily through their expertise in quoting and interpreting authoritative sacred texts. Preachers' positioning is fluid; they position themselves as a person who delivers God's words, as storytellers, or take a more authoritative position by employing direct commands. It is common in Islamic communities for mothers to have responsibility to teach and raise children. In sermons, the preachers tell stories of paragons of Islamic parenting such as Luqman, male Biblical prophets, and stories of Muhammad to inspire fathers to play their role in helping mothers raise children.
First Page
First Page
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-19 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Sermon Studies |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 5 Sept 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Sermon Studies (ISSN 2689-5625) is a peer-reviewed electronic journal. It is fully open access, charging no fees to either authors or readers. Articles are published immediately upon final acceptance, and bundled into issues twice a year.Authors retain the copyright to their articles and are therefore free to republish them elsewhere or post them in an institutional repository. They also have the option of publishing their work under a Creative Commons license, but they are not required to do so.