This thesis studies and analyzes the dynamics behind the longevity of the Saudi Arabian Kingdom such as religious ideology, exploitation of public wealth; i.e. oil and the construction of historical identity for the al-Saud dynasty. It will draw on these dynamics and study the constructive utilization of these dynamics and factors in muzzling the prospects for democracy, change, respect for human rights and freedom of expression. The method used to obtain data and information is qualitative as they are mostly gathered through reading scholarly literature both from western and Islamic perspectives in order to present a balanced view and a high validity of the study. However, the validity of such a longitudinal study is hard to ascertain, I intend to collect and analyse the information in its different contexts such as historical developments and policy making. This is aptly manageable through qualitative research as it involves understanding of the phenomenon which doesn’t require measurement and quantification. The method principally asks why the Saudi rulers have been in power for such a long time in spite of a draconian record in terms of human rights and democracy and how they have achieved to stay on power. One such constructed factor is the Wahhabi Islam which is employed as a legitimizing factor by the al-Saud rule over the region. The paper will attempt minding its constructivist framework to unravel the ideological illusions of the Saudi rule; for example how the kingdom distorted Islamic reading and subjugated the masses to such a reading and combined such a discourse with their power. Keywords: Wahhabism, al-Saud, ideology, Islam, Democracy, Identity, Constructivism, Middle East, Oil.

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In this thesis I explore an alternative formulation of the circumstances of justice. The circumstances of justice are the circumstances that make human cooperation necessary and possible, and because human cooperation is necessary to justice, they make justice both necessary and possible. For constructivists, principles of justice respond to these circumstances. Standard accounts of the circumstances of justice can be found in Hobbes, Hume, and Rawls, and many contemporary theorists rely on these accounts. My dissertation rejects these standard accounts of the circumstances of justice—on the grounds of exclusion and trust—and defends an alternative account. A core idea of my proposed alternative is that the circumstances of justice must be understood in terms of solidarity. A proper understanding of the role of solidarity in an adequate characterization of the circumstances of justice requires a good grasp of the nature of solidarity itself. To that end I offer a novel account of solidarity which I argue improves existing theories of solidarity. In the first part of this project I explain the role and importance of the circumstances of justice. I then offer a full description of solidarity and its normative character. In the second half of the project I offer my new account of the circumstances of justice, including an explanation and examples of how broad the scope of this reformulation is. I conclude the project by applying my new account of the circumstances of justice to the problem of climate change, and ask whether we can now construe the coordination of resources between generations as a problem of justice.

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D.Litt. et Phil. / Jean Piaget (1896-1980) played a major role in laying the groundwork for many of our current beliefs about cognitive development. While specific beliefs and ideas of different cultures may vary, Piaget posited that the stages of cognitive development, namely, sensori-motor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational, unfold in the same sequence at roughly the same ages, irrespective of cultural and educational background. The new political changes in South Africa have transformed the education policies from the content-orientated, rote-learning based curriculum of the past, to a skills-based, interactive learning approach called Outcomes-Based Education (OBE). OBE aims to move away from the old ¡¥tabula rasa¡¦ education policy towards a dynamic learning system that involves learners at a critical level of intelligence. OBE presents itself as compatible with developments in cognitive psychology, particularly Piaget¡¦s theory of intellectual development. With the recent change in curriculum, this research investigated whether children in South Africa have attained concrete and formal operations as OBE purports to encourage. The research takes a closer look at children¡¦s cognitive abilities as assessed by Piaget¡¦s theory of development. With reference to South African education ¡§as part of the far-reaching political, social and economic changes, aimed at an egalitarian and healthy society, the new political dispensation has replaced the previous education policy with a constructivist, Outcomes Based Educational approach.¡¨ (Skuy et al, 1999, p. 3). This study was conducted on children from grades one through to grades five, at two primary schools. One of the schools implemented OBE „b 4 years ago (experimental group), whilst the other has not as yet implemented OBE (control group). The measuring instruments consisted of Piaget¡¦s cognitive tests for assessing the concrete and formal operational stages. Piaget¡¦s tests are designed to look for a particular type of understanding/reasoning that typifies a particular developmental stage (Bybee & Sund, 1982). The tests consisted of one-to-one interviews designed to evaluate concrete, transitional and formal operational patterns of thought. Due to the relatively small sample group (ten participants per group) and the fact that the data is ordinal, the analysis was carried out using non-parametric and descriptive statistics. Thus, the results of Piaget¡¦s tests were compared to OBE related marks and academic marks using Spearman¡¦s Correlation Coefficient for ranked data, in order to better understand the nature of the relationship between OBE and cognitive development. Since the data is categorical, i.e., categorised as concrete operational and formal operational, the results of each child in the OBE school were also compared to the results of each child in the non-OBE school using the Mann-Whitney-U test (Howell, 1995) in order to determine whether there is a difference between OBE-cognitive development and Non-OBE-cognitive development. The aim of this study was to establish whether O.B.E is indeed a better approach than other methods of teaching with reference to cognitive development. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that O.B.E is not necessarily a more superior system to that of other teaching systems, and that in fact, the more traditional methods of teaching may enhance cognitive development more than O.B.E. / Dr. Alban Burke

Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey / For decades, realism reigned as the predominant paradigm for understanding international relations. In recent years, however, competing theories of international relations have emerged. This paper engages with one of these recent theories, constructivism, and argues that it better explains Saudi foreign policy than the balance-of-power theory that has come to dominate realist scholarship. By analyzing critical foreign policy decisions by Saudi Arabia throughout its history and leveraging ideas like “omnibalancing,” this paper argues that Saudi foreign policy is consistently ideological and concerned with domestic policy.

Over the past two decades, constructivism has become an increasingly influential referent for the learning and teaching of science in schools. In the role of teacher-researcher, I conducted an intensive participant observational study in an innovative Australian middle school, where both the initial planning of the school program and the principal's vision for the school took constructivism as a key referent. The research activity involved team teaching for a total of two days per week for one school year (1996) with a group of five teachers who were attempting to implement constructivist-referenced innovations such as portfolio assessment, integrated curriculum and teacher collaborative planning in their teaching practice. I chose a narrative methodology including impressionist tales to both conduct and represent this research into my own and others' teaching practices and values - a 'novel' woven from those narratives forms Section Two of this thesis. In addition, five conjectures for further investigation emerged from the research: (1) one significant constraint to constructivist-referenced innovation is 'conceptual inertia' on the part of teachers, (2) students' epistemologies and expectations must be explicitly addressed where innovation is attempted, (3) the complexity of educational contexts extends beyond the mechanical details of schooling to the webs of expectations stakeholders bring to schools, (4) it is difficult for teachers with limited backgrounds in science to use constructivism as a referent in their science teaching, and (5) the narrative methodology chosen has value in providing a rich, complex account of schools, teachers and curricular innovations.

This thesis documents the development of the Chinese government??s response to HIV/AIDS in the context of the global AIDS regime in order to assess when, how and to what extent international AIDS norms have had an impact upon China??s governance of AIDS. Employing an applied constructivist framework, the thesis argues that the impact of global norms at the domestic level has been contingent on a) the socializing actions of norm entrepreneurs, b) the domestic political context and c) crisis. In the case of China and the impact of global AIDS norms, the central argument is that key elements of China??s domestic political context minimized the socializing affects of the global AIDS regime until the SARS crisis in 2003 led to a reappraisal of AIDS in the context of political legitimacy, at which time global AIDS norms began to have increasing salience in China. This thesis begins by identifying the evolution of a global AIDS regime before moving on to an exploration of China??s domestic political context. The thesis then documents and analyses China??s governance of AIDS from 1985 to 2007 through the use of five indicators ?? political commitment, legislation and policy, representation of AIDS in the media, the participation of civil society, and international engagement. The findings demonstrate that there has been a significant change between China??s pre-SARS and post-SARS AIDS governance with China acting increasingly in accordance with global norms following the SARS crisis of 2003. The thesis proposes that the SARS crisis was catalytic in that it exposed the vulnerability of the Chinese government??s claims to legitimacy, and in so doing, enabled the domestic political context to shift, allowing health, and by extension AIDS, to be reframed as a political issue. Importantly however, when the Chinese government scaled up its response to the epidemic it was able to be guided by the normative framework prescribed by the global AIDS regime.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2007 Aug 16