In order to develop quality and excellence in e-Learning environment, manyinitiatives have been carried out in developing countries. In Bangladesh Informationand communication technologies (ICTS) are considered valuable tools for educationbut there is no proper framework for the country to develop a quality e-Learningsystem. Though it is somewhat used in higher level of studies but it is still new inprimary education system. If primary education system can be developed through elearning,then it will be more beneficial for higher level of studies.Our goal is to introduce a possible framework to adopt a quality e-Learning system inprimary educational institutes. So that the primary level education system can bedeveloped and take the advantages of e-Learning system.The result of this study would create an impact for the community who are stillindifferent about the development of primary education system and prompt thedecision makers of the primary educational institute to introduce e-Learning system intheir institutes through quality framework for e-learning. / Program: Magisterutbildning i informatik

This thesis seeks to challenge deficit approaches to 'different' childhoods. It does this through documenting the everyday life experiences of Sylheti-heritage Muslim children in urban Scotland, and reading these childhoods through the lives of children and their kin in rural Sylhet, Bangladesh. The research is based on 3 years' ethnographic fieldwork (January 2008-February 2011), in Scotland and in Bangladesh, and incorporates various child-friendly creative research methods used to elicit data on children's realities and perspectives on their lives. These data are supplemented by data from the children's mothers (and occasionally wider family) in both locations. Transnational migration between the Indian subcontinent and the UK is not new, but little research has focused on childhoods, in particular the lived experiences of young Muslim children of marriage-migrant mothers in Scotland, where this minority ethnic 'community' is quite small, later-formed and largely invisible. Little early childhood research has been conducted on children's everyday lives either in rural Sylhet or in Scotland. The history and context of migration and the realities of children's lives in Scotland, as migrant-heritage Muslim children, are largely unexplored and their particular needs are little understood. Some media and public imaginaries and discourses portray Muslim families and their communities as 'problematic', increasingly so since September 11th, 2001, with recent events in the UK, mainland Europe and the Middle East adding fuel to such sentiments. Many Sylheti-heritage families experience harassment and abuse, or live in fear of such eventualities, and the women and young children in my Scottish cohort have largely withdrawn for safety from the visible public domain. This research aims to contribute to a body of knowledge on early childhood(s). Early childhood interventions are high on Scotland's, and the UK's, policy agendas. These policies aim to create better futures and greater inclusiveness for all residents, but they are problematic for families that do not match the very Euro-American middle-class conceptions of childhood and family norms that inform policy. Despite the introduction of strengths-based models in family and childhood policy and practice, such 'different' children and families may still be viewed from a deficits perspective. Such deficit discourses may be rooted in a language of cultural deprivation and special needs, focusing on perceived deficiencies, resulting in the pathologising of certain groups, which become normalised over time. The global Early Years' agenda is also reflected in interventions in rural Bangladesh, with imported global ideals and norms of which most village families have no knowledge and which bear little relevance to their everyday lives. For example, many interventions exist for early childhood in the form of pre-school and nursery provision, but many are based on very Eurocentric models of childhood, which although pertinent in the Global North may not 'fit' with the realities of life for most rural children and their families. There is an over-emphasis on children's futures and children as 'becomings', the future citizens they will become, rather than on their quality of life here and now as 'beings'. This thesis frames children's everyday lives in terms of 'domains': places of childhood (locations of children's day-to-day activities), 'networks': spaces of childhood (social networks and relationships with kin and friends); and 'preoccupations': pursuits of childhood (how they spend their lives and what meaning, if any, they attach to these different aspects of life). The gendered character of these experiences is highlighted throughout. Children's lives, particularly when young, are influenced and shaped by their kin, yet opportunities for agency also exist. When women migrate after marriage from Sylhet to Scotland, some aspects of childhood and family lives remain fairly constant while others change quite radically. For instance, whilst children's lives continue to be centred on close family, family may be much smaller and less accessible than in Sylhet. Concepts of house and neighbourhood continue to be important, but Sylheti village childhoods are largely spent outdoors, whilst children are largely restricted to the family home in Scotland; children's physical domains of activity diminish and women and children have few opportunities to connect socially beyond their existing family networks, particularly in the early years. Social life, very rich and foregrounded in Sylheti villages, becomes potentially more restricted in Scotland although women work hard to create and maintain social opportunities and networks in Scotland, with wider Diasporic kin, and the Sylheti villages to which they have connections. Through their representations and narratives, both drawn and spoken, children convey rich examples of their childhood experiences, in both locales, which challenge deficit discourses on 'different childhoods'.

This thesis evaluates the policy intentions, practices and effects of two different types of School-Based Management (SBM) initiatives in Sri Lanka: the Programme for School Improvement (PSI) and the Child-Friendly Schools Initiative (CFSI). Moreover, it examines the similarities and differences between these two initiatives and, when they co-exist in the same school, the ways in which schools have integrated them. PSI is the national SBM initiative of Sri Lanka introduced to the schools during 2006-2011 following a prolonged process of designing and consensus building which started in the 1990s. Running parallel to PSI, the CFSI - a rights-based approach to education which also has SBM features - is being implemented in selected primary schools. The policy discourse of SBM/PSI focused on the proposition that schools should be empowered to meet the expectations of their communities and that the administrative decentralisation which had shifted power from national to provincial levels was not addressing adequately disparities between schools. At the same time, there was scepticism as to whether SBM would be able to address the issues of a heterogeneous school system. CFSI was introduced by UNICEF in response to the government's request to strengthen disadvantaged schools. The policy intentions of these two initiatives were investigated through interviews with key policy officials and with the representatives of development partner agencies who assisted PSI and CFSI. The influences of the policy-intents of PSI and CFSI on organisational practices, their effects, similarities, differences and complementarities were explored through six school case studies and experiences of the principals, teachers and parents. The thesis reveals that PSI is expected to empower schools with autonomy for making collaborative decisions, create a sense of ownership among the school community and permit improvement of schools. CFSI is intended to promote inclusiveness, child-centredness and democratic participation. They are both, in principle, guided by the concerns for ensuring equitable opportunities for all to learn, improving the quality of education which is judged by student learning outcomes and improving efficiency in resource allocation and use. At the school level, each case-study school has forged collaboration between school-parent-community and ensured democracy in decision-making. School-based decision-making is promoted by PSI through a set of Ministry guidelines and by CFSI through a participatory approach recommended by UNICEF and the Ministry, but having less official ‘force' than PSI. Both initiatives have influenced to increase parents' contribution in the school physical infrastructure development and in the educational projects. School-based planning has been promoted by both initiatives, and in some cases has resulted in the production of two separate plans. Some schools have combined these plans in accordance with the thematic structure of national Education Sector Development Framework. These initiatives have involved principals and teachers in decision-making, planning and implementation of programmes in collaboration with the community. The emphasis given to school-based teacher development is, however inadequate. Nonetheless, the increases in attendance and retention was influenced by CFSI rather than PSI, while both initiatives have had a positive influence by improving student learning and performance through various interventions at school and learning at home. The several ways in which these initiatives are integrated by schools, ensuring that each contributes towards filling the gaps left by the other are described. Considering their complementarities, the positive features of management in PSI and rights-based approach to education in CFSI in a rational manner, the author recommends an integrated ‘Learner-Friendly School-Based Management Model' which will effectively address learners' needs. It also recommends a methodology to pilot this model in Sri Lanka, thus putting the new knowledge produced by this research into practice.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how education in one girls' government school teaches understandings of citizenship and to identify potential links to the reproduction of identity-based violence in Pakistan. This in-depth qualitative case study was conducted in a girls' government model school. This study focuses on curriculum and school practices of the secondary school section. Data was collected through interviews with staff, a participatory workshop with teachers, focus groups with students, classroom observation, and informal discussions. I also analyzed the Pakistan Studies textbook used in the secondary section of the school. Using theories of critical education, intersectionality, and Galtung's violence triangle, I argue that despite recent political and curricular reform attempts, education in Pakistan reproduces a homogeneous concept of a legitimate citizen (male Sunni Muslim). While this evolved to unite an ethnically diverse Pakistan, it has contributed to identity-based violence (direct, structural, and cultural) against those that do not fit within this conception. In this school, the Pakistan Studies textbooks create an official discourse that promotes this gendered and exclusionary citizenship. I show how the Pakistan studies textbook uses history and constitutional lessons to promote citizenship that is based in a masculine Islam meant to oppose the Hindu ‘other' as well as to promote the exclusion of women and minorities from full citizenship. I also found that teachers own understandings of citizenship, which closely reflect the text, are deeply rooted in their understanding of their notions of the ideal Muslim woman. I find that the school rewards gendered behavior in both students and teachers. I then explore the extent to which the school reproduces other social divisions including religious, ethnicity, and class. I find that the school simultaneously reproduces, mitigates, and exacerbates these tensions. I then argue that the teachers' and students' understandings of the role of women to counter violence is rooted in the notions of middle class women's roles as mothers and supporters of men that are reproduced through school practice. This study furthers the knowledge on the links between education and violence by showing that promoting a homogeneous ideal of a citizen through education, while intended as a nation building project, can contribute to structural, cultural and direct violence against women and minorities, limiting their agency to engage in social transformation.

The continuing disadvantage that poor and marginalized communities face in low-income countries is well recognized but international initiatives and government policies still fall short of providing sustainable quality education. The recently published Global Monitoring Report 2013 – 2014 “Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All” recommends strategies for solving the quality crisis through attracting the best teachers, getting them where they are most needed and providing incentives to retain them. Few would dispute these strategies but their achievement is problematic, given the vastness of the challenge in a financially constrained global environment. This study is predicated on the acknowledgement that the strategies proposed provide too narrow a focus and that poor quality education is also due to contextual factors that have been relatively ignored. These contextual factors are investigated through this research. This research study explores community perceptions of school benefits as a lens through which to engage with marginalized rural communities' conceptualization of “quality” education. It utilizes Tikly and Barrett's (2011) framework for analysing quality education with its three key dimensions of inclusion, relevance and democracy. It investigates the factors and processes that are shaping perceptions of benefits within the three environments of policy-making, school and community. The research study uses a qualitative methodology, employing a critical stance, but engaging also with the insights of Bourdieu and Foucault viewing power as both repressive and productive. This research engages with the “regimes of truth” that have constrained social action as well as the process of discourse deconstruction and reconstruction that has shaped agency and facilitated social change. This is a multiple case study of four rural primary schools in marginalized communities in Sindh, Pakistan (two opened in 2002, two in 2007), using purposive sampling to maximize data heterogeneity. Data, mostly qualitative, was generated from semi-structured interviews with community leaders, school management committee members, parents and teachers. Focus groups were conducted with school graduates and teachers. Photographs were used as a participatory tool to facilitate interview and focus group discussions. The findings indicate that context-led policy, contextualized teacher training, pedagogy and curriculum and community leadership that facilitates agency are the key factors shaping perceptions of benefits. Emerging from these factors is both the employment of local teachers who can experience a transformational process that enables them to bring social change and a dynamic interaction between pedagogy and benefits. Positional benefits are highly valued with social skills being key to the development of social capital, which the findings indicate should be included in the discourse of “quality” education. The study provides empirical data demonstrating how the recent theoretical frameworks for quality education are being “fleshed out” in specific contexts and addresses issues raised in quality debates. It makes recommendations for the complementary role of non-government schools in the post-2015 EFA strategy and the provision of quality education in hard to reach areas characterized by poverty and marginalization in the global South.

The recent emphasis on the importance of English language teaching and learning in public universities in Pakistan has resulted in the introduction of a new English as Second Language (ESL) programme including revised teaching approaches, content and assessment. However, to date, no rigorous and independent evaluation of this new programme has been undertaken particularly with respect to students' learning and experiences. This thesis seeks to address this gap by examining the effects of the new ESL programme on students' learning experiences, as well as teachers' perspectives and the broader institutional context. The study uses a qualitative case study approach basing its findings on the responses of purposively sampled students (n=17) and teachers (n=7) from the Institution of English Literature and Linguistics (IELL), University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan (UoSJP). Semistructured interviews, observations and document review were used as the main tools to collect a wide variety of data. The analysis of the data was informed by different theories including Symbolic Interactionism, Community of Practice, and Bourdieusian notions of habitus, field and capital. These theories offered an approach which bridges the structure and agency divide in understanding students' learning experiences. The study employed the concepts of institutional influences to examine the impact of UoSJP's policies and practices on the teaching and learning of the ESL programme. The concept of community, which is understood as the community of the ESL classroom, is used to examine the interactions of students-students and students-teachers. The notion of identity was used to examine the interaction of students' gender, rurality, ethnicity and previous learning experiences with different aspects of the ESL programme. In relation to institutional influences, the study found that UoSJP's institutional policies and practices are shaped by its position in the field of higher education, and in turn, these influences shape teaching and learning in the ESL programme. Specifically, UoSJP defines its capital as higher education for all, which in practice translates as admitting students who have been rejected by other universities and/or cannot afford private universities' high fees. In order to meet the language needs of disadvantaged students from non-elite English and vernacular medium schools, UoSJP offers the ESL programme. This initiative aims to improve students' English language skills in their first two years, and to fulfil requirements set by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). However, the university's treatment of the ESL programme significantly impacts on teaching and learning in terms of its policies and practices, in relation to faculty hiring, teacher training, relationship between the administration and ESL teachers, number of students in ESL classrooms, assessment criteria, ESL quality assurance, and learning support resources like up-to-date libraries. In relation to the community of ESL classroom, the study found that participation plays an important part in defining students' roles and their relationship with teachers and peers in the classroom. Teachers' pedagogic strategies and large classes were found to be influential factors affecting students' participation in the classroom. It was found that teachers use different pedagogic strategies, which define them as facilitators or knowledge transmitters accordingly. The facilitators allow students' full participation in the classroom by listening to their opinions, respecting their arguments, appreciating their feedback, acknowledging their contributions to the class, and demonstrating empathy to their problems. When in class with these teachers, students feel encouraged, confident and motivated to participate in the classroom. By contrast, the knowledge transmitters prefer monologue lectures when teaching ESL, and strongly discourage students' participation. Students are usually not allowed to ask questions or express their concerns to these teachers. In their presence, students revealed that they lacked confidence, and felt discouraged and demotivated from participating in the classroom. Moreover, in the context of large classes only students sitting on the front-benches are given opportunities of participation, while those at the back of the classroom are considered to be educationally weak, inactive, therefore ignored in interactive activities. The treatment of these students by teachers and students at the front of the class alike limits their participation in the classroom. In relation to identities, the study found that students frequently foreground their gender identities, rural-ethnic identities and identities as medical or engineering students in interaction with different aspects of the ESL programme. Some aspects of ESL textbooks including units which depict stereotypical gender roles conflict with female students' gender identities; units which are based on exclusively Western, urban contexts conflict with students' rural-ethnic identities, and units that are based on graph-comprehension conflict with students' identities as medical students. While others aspects of ESL textbooks particularly those units that are constructed on experiences and activities which are exclusively associated with men in Pakistan such as driving complement female students' gender identities; and those units which are set in a village, and focus on the culture and life of villages complement students rural-ethnic identities. Moreover, it was found that female students struggled in maintaining their role as ESL learners in comparison with their gender roles as sister and daughter. This thesis provides new insights into students' learning experiences and ESL in higher education. It also contributes to and enhances the literature on higher education in Pakistan. Furthermore, it enables policy-makers to reflect upon their policies, as well as provides suggestions to the UoSJP and its teachers.

abstract: Climate change impacts are evident throughout the world, particularly in the low lying coastal areas. The multidimensional nature and cross-scale impacts of climate change require a concerted effort from different organizations operating at multiple levels of governance. The efficiency and effectiveness of the adaptation actions of these organizations rely on the problem framings, network structure, and power dynamics of the organizations and the challenges they encounter. Nevertheless, knowledge on how organizations within multi-level governance arrangements frame vulnerability, how the adaptation governance structure shapes their roles, how power dynamics affect the governance process, and how barriers emerge in adaptation governance as a result of multi-level interactions is limited. In this dissertation research, a multilevel governance perspective has been adopted to address these knowledge gaps through a case study of flood risk management in coastal Bangladesh. Key-informant interviews, systematic literature review, spatial multi-criteria decision analysis, social network analysis (SNA), and content analysis techniques have been used to collect and analyze data. This research finds that the organizations involved in adaptation governance generally have aligned framings of vulnerability, irrespective of the level at which they are operated, thus facilitating adaptation decision-making. However, this alignment raises concerns of a neglect of socio-economic aspects of vulnerability, potentially undermining adaptation initiatives. This study further finds that the adaptation governance process is elite-pluralistic in nature, but has a coexistence of top-down and bottom-up processes in different phases of adaptation actions. The analysis of power dynamics discloses the dominance of a few national level organizations in the adaptation governance process in Bangladesh. Lastly, four mechanisms have been found that can explain how organizational culture, practices, and preferences dictate the emergence of barriers in the adaptation governance process. This dissertation research overall advances our understanding on the significance of multilevel governance approach in climate change adaptation governance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geography 2019

During the 20th century, significant strides were made in curtailing the burden of childhood diarrhea, including advances in vaccine research, the advent of antibiotics, improved water and sanitation, and expanded access to health information across the globe. Despite this progress, today diarrhea ranks second only to pneumonia as a leading cause of mortality in children under five years, with a disproportionate burden of 90% of diarrheal deaths in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, substantial morbidity due to diarrhea persists in young children, with more than 45 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost due to diarrhea in 2015. Long-term consequences of childhood diarrhea include undernutrition, impaired gut function, altered gut microbiota, and compromised cognitive development. The 21st century presents an opportunity to eliminate the health disparity affecting millions of children suffering disproportionately from preventable diarrheal diseases. Recent advances in molecular laboratory technology have enabled detailed assessment of diarrheal burden and etiology, illuminating the highest burden pathogens for focused interventions. Among the top diarrheal pathogens, rotavirus (RV) is the leading cause of diarrhea-attributable death in the first year of life. While we have vaccines against RV, these vaccines consistently underperform in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) with efficacy of 18% to 61% compared to > 85% efficacy in high income countries. Reasons for rotavirus vaccine underperformance remain unclear, and no vaccines are available for other high burden diarrheal pathogens. This requires consideration of complementary and alternative interventions for diarrhea prevention. To assess factors related to rotavirus vaccine performance, we enrolled a 700-infant birth cohort in an urban slum of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the Performance of Rotavirus and Oral Polio Vaccines in Developing Countries (PROVIDE) study: a randomized controlled trial of a 2-dose monovalent oral rotavirus vaccine (RV1). With a primary outcome of any rotavirus diarrhea (RVD) post-vaccination to one year, we conducted biweekly home-based diarrhea surveillance with rotavirus antigen detection in diarrheal stools by ELISA. We found RV1 efficacy of 51% (95% CI 33.8–63.7) in per protocol analysis. Importantly, among 12 explanatory variables tested for association with RVD, serum zinc concentration (SZC) in infants at week 18 associated with risk of RVD up to one year (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.66–0.91), independent of vaccination status. This finding led to broader investigation of the relationship between zinc status and diarrhea in the PROVIDE cohort. Among 577 PROVIDE infants, 16.5% were zinc deficient at week 18 (SZC < 65μg/dL). By logistic regression, zinc deficient infants had increased odds of diarrhea in the first year of life compared to zinc replete infants (OR 2.76, 95% CI 1.08–7.04), and they were nearly 4 times more likely to have diarrhea of viral etiology (OR 3.94, 95% CI 1.55–10.03). Furthermore, in Kaplan Meier analysis we found a strong correlation between zinc deficiency and time to first episode of viral diarrhea (median survival 27 vs 33 weeks in zinc deficient vs non-deficient infants, p Our results indicate further consideration of zinc as a critical and modifiable co-factor in ameliorating the burden of childhood viral diarrhea. Carefully designed trials of zinc supplementation interventions could determine whether zinc may fill the gap in protection against childhood viral diarrhea, and inquiries into the zinc-diarrhea molecular pathway could elucidate mechanisms for focused development of future interventions.

This paper provides empirical study of whether there was a misalignment of the real exchange rate (RER) in the Bangladesh economy during 1976-1991. The time series of multilateral and bilateral RER indexes were computed for the period 1976-1991. The computed series of RER were indexed to a base year of when the RER attained its highest level and thereby appeared to be closer to the actual long-run equilibrium RER. In the empirical part of this thesis, five different RER indexes were computed: multilateral real exchange rate index 1 (MRER1), multilateral real exchange rate index 2 (MRER2), bilateral real exchange index 1 (BRER1), bilateral real exchange rate index 2 (BRER2), and black market bilateral exchange rate index 1 (BMRER1). Computation of the multilateral and bilateral RER indexes involved data on trade weights and wholesale and consumer price indexes of the domestic economy and its trading partners, besides their nominal official exchange rates. As a result, the study period was not large enough due to the unavailability of data on all variables involved. Misalignment of RER refers to the sustained deviation of the observed RER from its long-run equilibrium level. Three different measures of RER misalignment were constructed: purchasing power parity (RERMISPP), instability (RERMISINSTA), and black market (RERMISBLK). The MRER1, BRER2, and BMRER1 indexes were used respectively, in contrasting RERMISPP, RERMISINSTA, and RERMISBLK measures of RER misalignment. All of these measures demonstrated RER misalignment in Bangladesh during 1976-1991. In order to compute the long-run equilibrium RER, a multivariate regression was executed with respect to the RER fundamental real variables. Later, a time series of three different measures of RER misalignment index was regressed on the time series of the growth rate of real GDP (gross domestic product), exports, imports, savings, and investment for 1976-1991 to bring about the effects of RER misalignment on the macroeconomic performance of Bangladesh. It was found that RER misalignment adversely affected the macroeconomic performance of Bangladesh. An effectiveness index of nominal devaluation as a preventive policy eroded in later years. Consequently, a cross episode regression was executed to appraise the efficacy of 10 nominal devaluation episodes. It was found that when supplementary macroeconomic policies, such as the growth rate of domestic credit, growth rate of domestic credit to the public sector, and the growth rate in the ratio of public sector to total domestic credit were taken into consideration, nominal devaluation became more effective in bringing about the real devaluation.

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