Situated in the postcolonial modernizing discourse of development, many empowerment narratives tend to pre-identify, pre-construct and categorize community development workers/ mobilizers as empowered bodies, catalysts, and change agents. These bodies are expected to and are assumed will facilitate a transformation in oppressed peoples’ self image and belief’s about their rights and capabilities. Although feminist academics/activists have been critical of imperialist, neo-liberal and politico-religious co-optations of understandings of empowerment, limited attention seems to have been paid to the material effects of empowerment narratives on the lives of these community development workers. Nor does there appear to be sufficient analysis into how local community development workers/mobilizers who find themselves in precarious positions of employment, engage with these narratives. Provided with guidelines based on project objectives and lists of targets, many development workers/mobilizers in Pakistan tend to live with expectations of how best to ‘translate/transform’ empowerment from the abstract into the concrete while restricted in their space to critically reflect on theoretical notions that drive their practice. This thesis provides insight into the economy of empowerment narratives and the potential they have to mediate ‘encounters’ shaping ‘subject’ and ‘other’ by critically exploring how bodies of community development workers are put to work and are made to work. Drawing on feminists poststructuralist and postcolonial theory my work explores how these community workers/mobilizers located in the urban metropolis of Karachi, embedded in a web of multiple intersecting structures of oppression and power relations ‘encounter’, theorize, strategize and act upon understanding of empowerment and community development through an arts informed cooperative inquiry. Through the use of prose, creative writing, short stories, photo narratives, artwork and interactive discussions my participants and I begin to complicate these narratives. As a result empowerment narratives begin to appear as colliding discourses, multi-layered complex constructs, which may form unpredictable, messy and contradictory assemblages; as opposed to linear, universal, inevitable and easily understood outcomes and processes. I conclude that the insistence to complicate and situate such messy understandings in specific contexts is important for women’s movements if empowerment is to retain its strategic meaning and value in feminist theorizing.

Abstract The main purpose of this comparative study between German and Pakistani Field Hockey players at the talent development stage (12-18 years) was to reveal multidimensional performance characteristics, which may have power for predicting future talented elite Field Hockey players. In total 271 (German 127 & 144 Pakistani) participants took part in this comparative study to find out difference in psychological, physical and social profiles and their possible influences on the performance of the players on two occasions, each separated by a time interval of one year. The mean age for German players was 14.3 years and Pakistani players 16.3 years. Data were collected from players of various institutions and clubs of both countries. Later on, researcher included Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka in the study to increase the number of participants considering that South Asian culture is similar and Field Hockey is a popular game in the region. This addition will give strength to the study to find out the real differences in the performance of South Asian and European countries. In total, (227) 41 Indian, 40 Bengali and 44 Sri Lankan, 52 Pakistani and 50 German athletes took part in the study. The mean age for Indian was 14.5 years, Sri Lankan 15.3 years, Bangladeshi 15.7 years, Pakistani 16.9 years and German athletes were 15.5 years old. The Deutsch and English language standard sport questionnaires were used to measure the variables and data were analysed with the help of SPSS - 17 version. The following variables were put to test to find out the possible difference between the young players: Goal orientation in sports, General sport ability & appearance, Perceived physical self-concept, Competition related anxiety, Coping strategies, Sport commitment, Parental support, Coaches behaviour, Motivational climate and Self-efficacy in sports. The study shows that there were significant differences in psychological, physical and social profiles in the players of both countries. German players reported higher scores in motivation, perceived physical self-concept, self-confidence and commitment to the sport and found better to overcome anxiety and situation related problems. They were more social, and had full support from families, peers and coaches who can increase motivational climate to improve performance level, but contrary to expectations, Pakistani players reported a higher incidence of coping strategies. Reasons for the results are discussed with regard to differences in competitive goals and differences in environmental factors between both groups.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references. / Microfiche. / xxiii, 298 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

The government primary education system in Karachi, Pakistan, is faced with many problems and dilemmas and each dilemma justifies a reason, but perhaps no problem is as grave as the dejected professional status of the government primary school teachers in Karachi. Schools are only as good as their teachers, regardless of how high their standards, how up-to-date their technology, or how innovative their programs. With a large numbers of under-educated, under-trained, under-paid and, most importantly of all, undervalued government primary school teachers in Karachi, Pakistan (Hoodbhoy, 1998; Shaikh, 1997), only a low percentage of teachers can be effective. Whether the children in Pakistan will be the enlightened and the informed citizens of tomorrow or ignorant members of society will depend on teacher knowledge, teacher education and above all teacher professionalism. If teachers do matter the most, then a series of questions result. What is being done for this section of the society that matters so much? Are efforts being taken to find out what teachers in the government primary schools need to achieve their professional goals? Are these teachers given adequate opportunities to learn, to improve and to become effective teachers? How can these teachers meet the ever increasing demands placed upon them? How will these teachers successfully lead the students into the twenty-first century? Do the primary government school teachers believe that they can successfully lead children into the twenty-first century? Are school reforms geared towards enhancing teachers' professionalism? This research that focuses on the relationships between school reforms and teacher professionalism in government primary schools in Karachi, Pakistan, addresses such questions. In this thesis, I outline some of the measures that have been taken at the government, at the non-government and at the school sector level to restructure and reform primary government schools in Pakistan. A mixed methods research approach was undertaken to investigate the relationships between these reforms and teacher professionalism. Quantitative data were collected by means of questionnaire surveys and qualitative data were collected in the selected four case sites by means of interviews and field notes. In this research it was important to investigate teacher efficacy, teacher practice, teacher leadership and collaborative efforts as the different dimensions of professionalism and the relationships between these and the school reforms for enhanced teacher professionalism. Research was required which addressed the question of "What it actually means to be a professional teacher in government primary schools in Karachi, Pakistan, and how school reforms can actually develop teacher learning for improved teacher professionalism?" Contrary to the detached and noncommittal attitude with which the government primary school teachers are characterized in many contexts, the teachers in this study have indicated that they are confident and capable; they can articulate and communicate ideas; they can make decisions and undertake responsibilities; they understand that it is important to collaborate and learn from one another; and they are willing to undertake leadership roles if they have the opportunities. This has strong implications for policy makers to provide teachers with the opportunities to become active and reflective professionals. It is important to regard teachers as change agents capable of generating knowledge and of making change happen, rather than as passive recipients and users of knowledge. The data provided by the teachers have indicated that it is possible to enhance teacher professionalism within the existing government primary school structures. While the different teachers were at different levels or stages of professionalism, it was quite clear that they had all advanced in terms of their professionalism as a consequence of reform initiatives. These changes in the teachers' levels of professionalism defined the relationships between the school reforms and teacher professionalism. In other words, the school reforms have been able to develop teacher professionalism and take it to a higher level than where it was when the reforms were initiated in the schools. Based on the analysis of the findings, this research theorizes that teacher professionalism is developed when teachers are provided with both the professional knowledge and skills to improve their capabilities, and opportunities to translate professional knowledge and skills into classroom and school activities to make the most of their capabilities. The research proposes that the strength of these relationships between school reforms and teacher professionalism depends on the dynamism with which the reform managers take teachers through the stage of involving them in developmental process, the stage of initiating professional development programmes and the stage of developing schools into collaborative cultures and establishing networks with the help of enlightened principals and hybrid support structures. Based on this proposition a number of principles have been identified for sustaining and further developing teacher professionalism. The study acknowledges that the process of developing teacher professionalism is complex and that it will be the blend of different elements in the schools, the particular school context and political will that will decide how professionalism can best be fostered in the government primary schools. However, since the principles derived from this research are based on grounded research findings and are also supported by literature and other relevant research in the area of teacher development, they may be applicable to other primary schools where similar reforms are being implemented in Pakistan and other developing countries seeking to address similar problems. Policy makers and large private organizations may benefit from the principles of developing and fostering teacher professionalism.

This thesis is concerned with the ideas of two of the most prominent thinkers within the 'fundamentalist' religious movements that have become so prominent over the last few decades in Pakistan and India; Maulana Maududi of the Muslim Jamaat-I-Islami and M.S. Golwalkar, of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Though both are now dead, their ideas live on in the thinking and deeds of others. This thesis explores a comparison of the ideas of these men and their radical/fundamentalist ideologies with a focus on the way they viewed the relationship between religon and the state. Others have established that such a comparison between significant individuals, who lived in the same historical timeframe, and in this case the same geographical and political contexts, offers valuable insight into the situations/nations in which they were directly involved.

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2006. / Thesis Advisor(s): Lavoy, Peter R. "March 2006." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 16, 2008.. Includes bibliographical references (p.83-91). Also available in print.

Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2006

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2007.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2008. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2007